Principal Accountant

Job Introduction

About Us

Bradford Children and Families Trust was established in April 2023 to enhance the quality and delivery of Children’s Services across our district. Our purpose is clear, to ensure that our promise to improve the lives of children and young people in Bradford becomes a reality. It’s a tough ask. It requires dedication, determination, and resilience – but under a new Chief Executive, Senior Leadership team and an unswerving drive to deliver the best outcomes, we are confident that we’ll achieve our ambition – and you, yours.  We have already made significant strides towards becoming more financially viable and driving continuous improvement in service delivery, but there is more work to be done.

So, if you’re up for the challenge we’d love to hear from you!

About The Role

We are looking for a confident and skilled Principal Accountant to join our Finance Team. 

Our objective is to deliver a first-class financial service to Directors and their Managers, with a view to ensuring the delivery of a balanced budget, and excellence in terms of service delivery and financial decision making.

Reporting to the Finance Business Partner, your role will consist of working with Managers and budget holders to manage and monitor budgets, produce and maintain forecasts and support and manage the activities of the Finance Business Partnering Team.

If you are a qualified Accountant with experience of working in Local Government and a proactive mindset, we would love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Finance Business Partner to provide a comprehensive, professional financial support service to managers and budget holders.
• To prepare revenue monitoring and other financial reports for Directors and their management teams. 
• To ensure the provision of accurate, timely and relevant information, linking it to performance information to support business needs.
• Use of professional judgement and expertise to identify business solutions whilst ensuring principles of best value, value for money and risk management are embedded in service delivery.
• To develop and promote more effective ways of delivering the financial service to meet the needs of business users. 
• To promote the finance function by making an effective contribution to the Finance Business Partnering Team.

About You 

• Qualified Accountant with experience of business partnering and stakeholder engagement.
• Relevant experience in a financial management environment.
• Knowledge of the current and emerging Government legislation & statutory regulations and other key operational initiatives and directives affecting the public sector. 
• Departmental or service based experience (not restricted to local government)
• Understanding of how financial services contribute to effective service delivery.
• Uses, interprets, analyses, communicates complex numerical information.
• Understanding of local government finance.
• Report writing and analytical skills.
• Awareness of public sector procurement rules
• Experience of spreadsheet models or manipulating data extracts.
• Evidence of analysis of public sector accounts or preparation of year end accounts.
• Working collaboratively with service and project officers  who may have limited financial skills
• Experience of people management.
• Strong interpersonal skills are also a requirement for this role.
• Relevant accountancy qualification either ACCA / CIMA / ACA / CIPFA.

Benefits

• Generous employer contributions in a Local Government Pension Scheme
• Competitive salary and pay progression structure
• Supportive carer and parental policies
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• Access to Occupational Health and confidential counselling services
• Supportive staff networks
• Access to Blue Light Card discounts
• Professional development/support
• Career progression
• Enhanced annual leave entitlement
• Hybrid working – 2-3 days working from home each week. 

Next Steps

Closing Date: 28 April 2025
Interviews: w/c 06 May 2025

For an informal discussion, please contact Raj Singh (Mob: 07582 102780) or Carol Harris (Mob: 07484 951502).

Interview Location: Sir Henry Mitchell House, Manchester Road, BD5 0QL

Bradford Children and Families Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all employees to share this commitment. 

If shortlisted, you will be required to disclose relevant information regarding criminal history prior to interview. 

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check including a check against the Children’s barred list, will be carried out on preferred candidates.