Leadership (SCS2) | Finance Business Partnering

Summary

Director of Finance Business Partnering is a key strategic role and provides strong leadership for financial management and partnering services for their Department, with a focus on maximising the efficiency of delivery.

Typical Role Responsibilities

Directors of Finance Business Partnering develop and maintain strong, collaborative and influential relationships with budget holders, both across the business and with wider senior stakeholders.

They set the correct financial tone at the top of the operation and ensure finance is at the heart of all key decision making through oversight, support and challenge focussing on protecting, driving and adding value. They will be present and active in key decision-making boards.

They are responsible for delivering a high-quality business partnering service throughout the organisation at all levels, combining robust information and analysis to provide insight and constructive challenge, to effectively support strategic innovation and sound business decisions across their Department.

Entry Route

From Inside Finance

This role may be suitable for individuals at SCS1 or SCS2 with strong relationship building, numeracy and analytical skills and strategic thinking

From Outside Finance

This role is not suitable for non-finance professionals

Typical Qualifications

Essential:

Qualified with CCAB,CIMA or equivalent with a substantial track record of success in a senior finance leadership role in a fast-moving finance area in a highly complex, customer focused organisation. This should include a highly effective track record of interpreting financial information to help shape and influence organisational strategy.

Responsibilities

Tasks

In addition to the tasks that all Finance Directors are expected to perform, Finance Business Partnering Directors also have the following responsibilities.

Subheadings	Tasks
Financial Partnering	Challenging and supporting decision makers on affordability and value for money issues.
	Negotiating trade-offs, identifying synergies and managing stakeholder expectations across a public delivery system.
	Delivering a business and user-focussed, expert and responsive business partnering service that balances wider perspectives with an understanding of local delivery priorities and pressures.
	Shaping Departmental strategies, ensuring finance is positioned at the heart of decision making.
	Prioritising and promoting the use of robust financial data in decision making, using that data effectively to provide insight.
	Ensuring resources are aligned to delivery plans, and that long- and short-term implications of changes to plans are anticipated and addressed in good time.
	Ensuring robust investment appraisals and return on investment reports are developed for all significant project / programmes to maximise impact of change portfolio.

Expectations

Behaviours

For details of Behaviours read the Success Profiles guidance on GOV.UK.

Leadership
Seeing the Big Picture
Communicating and Influencing
Making Effective Decisions
Working Together
Managing a Quality Service
Delivering at Pace
Developing Self and Others
Changing and Improving

Person Specification

Substantial experience of leading, motivating and developing a diverse team of finance professionals and of developing a spirit of teamwork across functional and organisational boundaries to deliver an effective and efficient service, with specific experience of driving and improving performance.
A successful track record of working as part of a senior management team of a large organisation, with direct and considerable experience of effective business planning, analysis and budget management.
Also see person specification required of all finance director roles.

Skills

Key for Levels of Professional Skills

A = Awareness

W = Working

P = Practitioner

E = Expert

The skills below are required in addition to the skills required of all Finance Directors

Subheadings	Skills	Level	Learning Resources
Core	Budgeting, Forecasting and Costing	E	"Forecasting"
	Strategic analysis and insight	E	"Finance skills for all 6: strategic business planning"
	Accounting officer responsibilities: Skill to be developed as part of your role and with others in your network.	E	"Accounting officer assessments"
	Negotiating with pragmatism: Skill to be developed as part of your role and with others in your network.	E	"Introduction to communicating effectively (online)"
	Supporting the PAC agenda	P	"Public Accounts Committee"
	Understanding the role of NAO: Skill to be developed as part of your role and with others in your network.	E	"The Spending Journey"
	Understanding of Supply Estimates: Skill to be developed as part of your role and with others in your network.	E	"Finance skills for all 10 - Market Economics"
	Government financial reporting	E	"Government Financial Reporting Manual: 2025-26"
Useful	Performance and Risk management	E	"Managing risk, issues and dependencies" "Orange Book" "Risk management for non-risk professionals"
	Commercial acumen	E	"The commercial journey" "The Green Book"
	Investment appraisal and evaluation	E	"Finance skills for all 7: Investment Appraisal" "Office for Value for Money (OVfM) investment appraisal criteria" "The Green Book and accompanying guidance"
Links to learning platforms	GFF Government Finance Academy	Variety of learning available	"GFA hosted on OneFinance"
	Civil Service Learning	Variety of learning available	"Civil Service Learning"
	Government Skills Campus	Variety of learning available	"Prospectus Online"

Qualifications

Subheadings	Qualifications
Essential	Qualified with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent
A substantial track record of success in a senior finance leadership role in a fast-moving finance area in a highly complex, customer focused organisation. This should include a highly effective track record of interpreting financial information to help shape and influence organisational strategy

Essential

Qualified with CCAB, CIMA or equivalent

A substantial track record of success in a senior finance leadership role in a fast-moving finance area in a highly complex, customer focused organisation.

This should include a highly effective track record of interpreting financial information to help shape and influence organisational strategy

Entry and Progression Routes

Entry Routes

Within Finance

This role may be suitable for individuals at SCS1 or SCS2 with strong relationship building, numeracy and analytical skills and strategic thinking

From Outside Finance

This role is not suitable for non-finance professionals

Progression Routes

Staff in this role typically move into other SCS2 senior finance roles, Director General Finance roles or COO roles in smaller organisations.