Opportunities:

Deputy Head of Finance (Adult and Community Services) »
Salary Range: £48,252 - £52,968
(click on job title for description)

Park Life - work for the greener borough

Dear Applicant,

I am delighted that you have expressed an interest in the role of Deputy Head of Finance within Richmond Council.

Life on the river

Richmond is a medium-sized South West London Borough with a population of 174,500. For many years now it has been a fantastic place to live and work, being the home of English rugby at Twickenham Stadium, whilst also being the only borough to span both sides of the Thames with 21.5 miles of river frontage. In fact more than a third of the Borough is open space, including Richmond Park, Bushy Park and Kew Gardens.

New Year, New Challenge

There really couldn't be a better time to be joining Adult and Community Services. A new Directorate structure was implemented in 2008, bringing together adult social care and housing services, as well as Council-wide responsibilities for commissioning, policy and performance management. Richmond is at the cutting edge of implementing personalised adult social care services and in fact is involved in shaping national developments in this area. We have been rated a 'four star' organisation when it comes to Value for Money services, a position we have worked very hard to achieve.

The Council has achieved significant success in many key services, including Adult Social Services. In particular, we have increased the number of people receiving direct payments to pay for their own care and increased the number of people supported in their own homes rather than residential or nursing homes.

The Role

The role of Deputy Head of Finance (Adult and Community Services) is a newly defined one, and offers a wide range of challenges. It involves taking the lead role in providing financial advice and management accountancy services to the Adult and Community Services Directorate. It also entails the operational management of a team of 8 finance staff dedicated to providing excellent, customer focused financial services. In addition, the Deputy Head of Finance will work closely with the Chief Accountant to ensure that the Directorate meets Council requirements for budget setting, monitoring and financial reporting. The successful candidate will act as financial advisor to the Directorate Management Team and support me in developing the Directorate's financial strategy and helping the Council deliver efficiency savings. This role will involve considerable partnership working with local health and voluntary services staff to ensure the effective management of joint financial arrangements.

In short, this role offers an exceptional opportunity to develop your career in a challenging, creative and customer focused environment. As well as excellent terms and conditions of employment and a good working environment, we offer an exciting opportunity to help shape and develop financial services to support the transformation of adult social care services. And all of this in Richmond's leafy surroundings!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,
Jeremy DeSouza
Head of Finance
Adult and Community Services