Developing an understanding of the business, its stakeholders and deliverables
Finance Business Partnering SEOs are responsible for building strong relationships with their directorate, understanding the business and explaining financial information for budget holders in an understandable manner.
SEO FBPs are developing expertise and responsible for building strong relationships and understanding the business within a directorate or possibly supporting a lower risk Director led unit. They aim to communicate financial data and other information clearly and provide valuable financial advice, challenge and support, strategic insight and business solutions.
Suitable for staff with the required skills and / or experience from within or outside Finance
Recommended
Developing an understanding of the business, its stakeholders and deliverables
Building and maintaining relationships with customer budget holders
Providing advice on compliance with policy, standards, accountabilities and controls
Translating, owning and adding insight to financial data to provide clear information and evidence to support business activities and requirements
Providing guidance at appropriate level budget holder meetings and boards
Reviewing and providing input to business cases/ strategic documentation
Identifying and applying relevant costs, benefits and investment appraisal techniques
Providing relevant coaching and training to the business
Providing ad-hoc analysis and presentations to drive and support business decisions, such as efficiency and cost reduction options, using all available data and analytics tools
For details of Behaviours read the Success Profiles guidance on GOV.UK
Leadership
Communicating and Influencing
Seeing the Big Picture
Making Effective Decisions
Working Together
Managing a Quality Service
Developing Self and Others
Possesses emotional intelligence and has the ability to think empathetically, considering the strategic goals of others
Fosters a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration between the business, finance and other corporate services
Can tailor their communication style to a range of audiences, including internal and external stakeholders
Uses facts and evidence to aid negotiation and influencing
Helps others to understand the interdependencies between business and finance
Proactive and passionate, inspiring others to continuously improve
Ability to "speak the language" of finance to business, and vice versa, acting as the critical translator between the two
Key for Levels of Professional Skills
A = Awareness
W = Working
P = Practitioner
E = Expert
| Subheadings | Professional Skills | Level | Learning Resources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | Budgeting, forecasting and costing | P | |
| The Budgeting Framework | W | ||
| Commercial acumen | W | ||
| Investment appraisal and evaluation | W | ||
| Strategic analysis and insight | A | ||
| Oral and written presentation skills | E | ||
| Performance and risks | W | ||
| Data and analytics interpretation | P | ||
| Useful | Taxation | A | |
| Interpretation of accounts | A | ||
| Government financial reporting | A | ||
| Supporting the PAC agenda | A | ||
| Understanding the role of the NAO | A | ||
| Risk management and fraud | A |
Recommended:
Working towards qualification
Details of how to gain a finance qualification through an apprenticeship can be found here:
This role may be suitable for Finance individuals at HEO or SEO with the required influencing and interpersonal skills, Financial Operations SEOs for example.
This role may be suitable for HEOs on promotion and SEOs with the required data analysis, influencing, stakeholder management and numeracy skills and who are interested in joining the Finance function.
Staff in this role typically transfer to Management Reporting SEO, Financial Accounting and Reporting SEO or Business Support SEO roles, or progress to Financial Business Partnering G7, Management Reporting G7 or Financial Accounting and Reporting G7 roles.