Head of Financial Planning & Analysis

As an executive agency sponsored by The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) we have the ability to play a leading role in the right against corrupt business practices by providing the transparency and clarity necessary for the UK to continue to be regarded as a world-leading place to do business.

Companies House is undergoing an historic change - to our systems, culture, services, and ways of working. Our people are at the heart of these changes.

Earlier this year the UK Government passed the Economic Crime Act which has given Companies House the power to create the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE).

The second Economic Crime Bill has been accelerated, and will give us new powers in 2023, which will see us play an active role in the fight against economic crime, as well as fulfilling our ambition to be the most innovative, open and trusted registry in the world.

These changes represent the biggest opportunity for Companies House in almost 170 years. This move will help us achieve the kind of culture we want - one which drives high performance and where our brilliant people can flourish.
We are looking for an experienced financial planning professional to become the Head of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) at Companies House. Reporting to the Director of Finance, this role is pivotal in continuing the growth of the multi-award-winning FP&A team to support the organisation in complex financial planning.
The role provides an opportunity to support and influence decision-making across the entire organisation, delivering real impact through analysis. FP&A is a relatively new function within Companies House (established two years ago). The postholder will have a critical leadership role in continuing to establish key financial planning processes across the organisation and advocate for the profession.
The FP&A team sits within the Finance and Commercial directorate at Companies House, reflecting our strong focus on ensuring expenditure continues to meet Managing Public Money principles.

As Head of FP&A, you will lead the analytical activities and strategic direction of the FP&A team within the Finance and Commercial Directorate.
You will develop a financial planning strategy and workplan to cover the next Spending Review period. The postholder will be expected to engage with senior stakeholders across Companies House, including Executive Board members, to identify the business areas, projects and investment decisions that would most benefit from financial planning support and build this into high-level organisational planning.

Using your strong financial modelling experience, you will provide full affordability analysis, including scenario and should cost modelling for organisation wide business cases, ensuring compliance with Green Book best practice and compliance with Managing Public Money. This will be achieved through the development of a deep and substantial understanding of the wider financial implications of policy and strategic decisions. You will also be responsible for reviewing organisational business cases to ensure consistency with wider business knowledge and ensure modelling approach and assumptions have been clearly articulated.

You will play a key role in upskilling colleagues across Companies House on business cases, including designing and delivering training to a diverse range of colleagues and providing business partnering support to project Senior Responsible Officers to ensure thought leadership and assumptions provide an appropriate basis for cost estimation of options.
You will lead a FP&A team of c. 5 analysts to develop dynamic integrated financial models that highlight the costs of our services, provide variance analysis and identify hidden cost drivers and opportunities for efficiency gains.

You will take a lead role in the approach for financial model development that underpins our long-term financial planning across the whole organisation. This includes the development and pricing of our fees and spending review bids through our funding model, which is built within the data & analytics software, Alteryx, using activity-based costing methodology.
You will work closely with and support the Head of Finance Business Partnering, ensuring the long-term financial planning integrates seamlessly with in-year budgeting and forecasting processes.
You will represent Companies House within the Government Finance Function profession, and with relevant academics as appropriate. The postholder will also be responsible for the continuous professional development of financial analysts within Companies House, which will include developing and making available career and learning pathways.
As a Head of Financial Planning & Analysis - (Inside IR35) your main responsibilities will be:
Lead on maintaining and continuously improving the organisational-wide financial model development that underpins our long-term financial planning.
Work alongside the Head of Finance Business Partnering to identify long-term affordability of the organisation's business plans and provide overall impacts on the spending review and fee setting strategy.
Work collaboratively with cross-government partners to undertake and support affordability analysis and fees development for Companies House's products and services.
Identify cost options for organisational complex and material projects, to support appraisal and recommendation of the preferred option.
Maintain a clear focus on financial benefits costing, to track pipeline benefits for inclusion within budget setting, forecasting and realisation.
Develop a strong relationship with the Companies House data teams to continuously improve the availability and quality of data modelling inputs.
Lead on the identification and documentation of risks and mitigation to support the undertaking of formal Optimism Bias and Quantified Risk Assessments.
Provide suitable scrutiny and challenge of cost information provided to ensure the robustness of the resulting financial estimates.
Work alongside the relevant Finance Business Partner to support the development of business case justifications which follows the principles of HM Treasury's five case model and ensure timely approval within the organisation's governance structure and plan timetables.
Provide relevant in-year and medium-term forecasting data and information to the reporting function in the Strategic Finance Team
This post involves line management responsibilities and must ensure the standards and culture within the team meet the expectations of Companies House.
Provide financial oversight, financial modelling, technical accounting advice and support for projects.
Provide verbal and written advice and communications to internal and external governance bodies as required, including investment boards, National Audit Office, Ministerial submissions, publications, business case authoring, HM Treasury, Cabinet Office.
Providing analytical thought leadership to ensure the delivery of high quality, influential analysis alongside economists, acting as a lead liaison point with the economics team.
Building capability within the team to deliver its objectives and enhancing its reputation as a centre of expertise on financial analysis - as well as building capability and understanding of analysis within the wider directorate and beyond

We are looking for an engaging leader, who has experience of financial planning and cost estimating in a fast-paced and changing environment. They will also possess:
Excellent drafting and data interpretation skills.
Excellent internal and external stakeholder management skills, at all levels of seniority.
Excellent communication skills, in particular, the ability to explain complex concepts and empirical methodologies/findings to non-technical stakeholders

The successful candidate will be a key member of the organisation's Corporate Leadership Group (CLG) and feel comfortable being the senior subject matter expert for financial planning for the organisation. They will provide pragmatic and balanced, strategically focussed input to investment decisions making as well as corporate strategy.
Essential
Public Sector experience
Qualified Chartered Accountant
Experience of spending review submissions
Track record of successful bids
Fee settings experience
Activity based Costing experience
Experience of Stakeholder management at senior level
Desirable
Experience of upskilling a team
Green Book experience
Excel experience
If this role sounds like something that you would be interested in, please click the link to apply or get in touch with us
Disability confident
As a member of the disability confident scheme, Companies House guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.
Armed Forces Commitment
Companies House guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.
If you qualify for the above, please notify us on .
We will be in touch to discuss your suitability and arrange your Guaranteed Interview.
Should you require reasonable adjustments at any point during the recruitment process or if there is a more accessible way for us to communicate, please do let me know.
In applying for this role you acknowledge the following, this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.
Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

TPBN1_UKTJ