Principal Accountant Corporate Capital

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Directorate: Resources

Grade: PO6

Salary: £52,584 £55,620

Retention Bonus/ Market Supplement: N/A

Contract Type: Full-time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Weeks per year: 52

Application Deadline: 28/11/2024

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 1521

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

The Principal Accountant Capital provides support to the Group Accountant Capital in being financial team leading on capital accounting within the organisation. They will be responsible for:

• Supporting the production of the capital accounts and notes to the accounts; and
• providing financial information for management and decision-making in relation to the Capital Programme.

The post holder must be a technically capable Accountant, who can provide support to the organisation's capital decision-making and business planning. They must have sufficient technical expertise to provide financial analysis for the purposes of financial accounting, grant claims, government returns, recharges, pricing etc. They must possess the technical skills to produce accurate accounts, produce relevant notes, undertake quality checks for consistency, and make sure that the organisation is compliant with the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• Collecting, collating and analysing the information inputs required for the production and maintenance of the organisation's capital strategy, and liaising with and advising managers across the organisation to meet deadlines required for budget and reporting purposes.
• Preparing and monitoring the capital budget and ensuring that capital project budgets are in line with the approved Capital Programme and coordinating any required changes to capital budgets.
• Supporting on capital strategy including reporting to relevant boards and providing financial input to capital bids.
• Supporting on the financial evaluation of capital schemes as part of the development of relevant business cases and the preparation of the financial implications for all Cabinet approvals.
• Support in providing strategic leadership on the capital reporting process including reporting to CSAMG and Cabinet on capital including forecasts and variances to capital budgets.
• Manage and maintain the asset register and taking responsibility for asset valuations and ensuring that the process is managed effectively.
• Support on processing of year-end journals for capital.
• Lead on capital grants.
• Support the preparation of capital notes for the Statement of Accounts, including all asset related notes and IFRS16 lease notes.
• Advising on technical decisions relating to capitalisation.
• Support on implementation of technical updates to the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom and other legislative and regulatory changes.
• Ensuring integrity of financial information and compliance with audit requirements.
• Assisting with the efficient and timely completion of specific tasks within the annual closing of accounts process and ensuring that information presented in the financial statements complies with the CIPFA Code of Practice and reporting standards.
• Supporting effective liaison with external and internal auditors, including the efficient filing and retention of documentation, maintaining appropriate audit trails for subsequent retrieval as and when required.
• Assisting with the production and presentation of complex and diverse financial information to members and other senior stakeholders, that informs service and corporate decision-making.
• Undertaking specialist project work of a complex nature, preparing reports, representing accountancy services on working groups (including some external groups), and providing financial management and related expertise as and when required.
• Providing support to other areas of Finance, as directed by the Group Accountant Capital or Chief Accountant.
• Acting as deputy to the Group Accountant Capital.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Fully qualified or part qualified accountant (CIPFA, ACA, ACCA, CIMA)or equivalent experience
• Evidence of post-qualification continuing professional development

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• Satisfactory DBS check;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact mohammed.ahmed01@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.