SEND Reforms

Finance Business Partner (SEND Reforms)

Band 3: Approx. 300 umbrella

Location: Westminster City Council

Work Style: Agile and Flexible Working

About Westminster

Westminster is home to some of the most diverse, vibrant and internationally recognised communities in the UK. As a council, we are committed to delivering excellent services, driving innovation, and ensuring value for money for our residents, businesses and visitors.

Our Finance team plays a vital role in supporting services across the organisation, providing expert financial insight, challenging assumptions, and helping shape decisions that improve outcomes for residents. This role sits at the heart of one of the Council's key strategic priorities: delivering effective and sustainable SEND services.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a motivated and commercially minded Finance Business Partner to support one of our most important transformation programmes, SEND Reforms.

SEND reforms are government-led changes to England's Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system aimed at providing earlier, more consistent and more inclusive support for children and young people, whilst improving outcomes and making the system more sustainable.

This role offers a unique opportunity to work at the interface between Finance and SEND Operations, providing financial insight, improving data quality and supporting better decision-making across services. Reporting to a Finance Manager, you will play a key role in supporting operational colleagues, strengthening financial governance and helping deliver the objectives of the SEND reform agenda.

You will work closely with operational managers and finance colleagues to improve reporting processes, resolve historical data issues, and ensure financial and operational systems provide a single source of truth for decision-makers.

Key Responsibilities

Work successfully across multiple projects and priorities, ensuring high-quality outputs are delivered accurately and on time.

Deliver timely and accurate financial information to support monthly closedown processes, balance sheet reconciliations and statutory reporting requirements.

Partner with SEND service managers and budget holders to provide financial and commercial advice on service plans, initiatives and projects.

Support the SEND Operations Team by improving financial understanding, reporting and governance arrangements.

Cleanse, reconcile and validate data across Eclipse, Power BI and financial systems to ensure consistency and accuracy of reporting.

Help clear existing reporting backlogs and implement sustainable improvements to financial and operational reporting processes.

Develop, review and maintain procedures and guidance documents that support consistent service delivery and compliance.

Support benchmarking, cross-authority collaboration and continuous improvement initiatives.

Assist in financial modelling, analysis and business case development.

Build effective working relationships across Finance, Children's Services and wider Council teams.

What We Expect This Role to Achieve

Strategy Implementation

Support delivery of the Council's strategic priorities by implementing continuous service improvement initiatives and providing financial insight that helps the organisation respond to future challenges.

Corporate Working

Work collaboratively across services to strengthen financial and commercial management practices, support sustainable service improvements and deliver value for money.

Support for SEND Reforms

Act as a key link between Finance and SEND Operations, ensuring robust financial oversight and reporting arrangements are in place to support the delivery of SEND reforms.

Improve the quality, consistency and reliability of operational and financial data, enabling better strategic planning, commissioning and decision-making.

Service Improvement

Deliver specialist financial advice and support, maintaining and improving systems, processes and procedures to maximise efficiency, effectiveness and value.

Resources and Financial Management

Support strong budgetary control and financial planning processes, helping services prioritise resources effectively and achieve value for money.

Identify opportunities to improve commercial performance and contribute to outcome-based commissioning approaches where appropriate.

Partners and Stakeholders

Build productive relationships with colleagues, partners and stakeholders, influencing and supporting improvements in service delivery and financial management.

Business Change

Support the development and implementation of transformation and change programmes by providing high-quality financial information, analysis and challenge.

Compliance

Ensure financial activities comply with relevant legislation, Council policies, financial regulations and governance requirements.

Equality and Diversity

Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of work and contribute to the Council's commitment to building inclusive services and workplaces.

About You

You will be a proactive finance professional with strong analytical skills and a genuine interest in improving services for children and young people with SEND.

You will enjoy working collaboratively across teams, translating financial information into meaningful insights and driving improvements through better processes and data.

You will have:

Experience supporting a significant organisational function within a large and complex organisation.

Experience contributing to budget setting, monitoring and forecasting.

Experience undertaking financial analysis, modelling and reporting.

Strong relationship-building skills and the ability to work effectively with operational and financial stakeholders.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage competing priorities.

A commitment to continuous improvement and delivering value for money.

A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.

Essential Requirements

Understanding of financial planning, budget setting, forecasting and year-end processes.

Knowledge of financial and commercial management principles and performance measures.

Understanding of data analysis and reporting, with the ability to identify and resolve inconsistencies.

Awareness of the challenges facing local government and public services.

Effective stakeholder management and communication skills.

Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.

Ability to work collaboratively across multiple teams and disciplines.

Qualifications

You will hold:

AAT qualification (essential) or equivalent relevant finance knowledge and experience.

Degree qualification or equivalent relevant experience.

Part-qualified CCAB/CIMA (or overseas equivalent), or be actively studying towards a recognised professional accountancy qualification.