The finance teams at Bristol are currently aligned between the divisional financial management teams, who support the four Directorates, catering to the wide variety of activities undertaken by the council, and the corporate and technical finance teams, who provide crucial fundamental financial roles to the council around capital management, technical accounting including statement of accounts, and risk and insurance.
You can find out more about the finance teams supporting these directorates below with an organisational structure provided at the end.
Adult and Communities
Adults and Communities Directorate provides support and assistance to residents in Bristol that have various care needs. Adult social care covers a wide range of activities to help people who may have either a disability or a long-term illness; a learning difficulty; mental health needs; age related health issues; any other social care needs that impact on their independence.
Social Care includes support in people's own homes; support in day centres; care provided by care homes and nursing homes; ‘reablement' services to help people regain independence; providing aids and adaptations for people's homes; providing information and advice; and providing support for carers.
Public Health Services focuses on the general health and wellbeing for residents with specific programmes to help address a wide range of issues that include staying active and physically well, to smokefree services, sexual health and diabetes, substance misuse and other programmes to promote better health and wellbeing outcomes.
The finance team supports the division with range of responsibilities and includes:
- Providing finance support, budget monitoring and financial reporting, advice and training
- Preparing statutory returns and government claims that cover a wide range of services from Public Health, Adult Social Care, Refugees and Resettlement Schemes, Better Care Fund with NHS partners.
- Working with services and stakeholders to support aims of the council.
- Assessing financial impact of business decisions working with colleagues to secure best value.
Children's and Education
The Children and Education Directorate supports all children's services in Bristol, from children in care, asylum seekers and fostering in Social Care, to schools, special education needs, adult education, admissions and transport within Education Services. The work within the directorate is focussed on supporting children and families wherever they are in the city.
The finance team that supports this division has equally wide-ranging responsibilities, and includes:
- All school funding matters, the monitoring and compliance of as well as support, advice and training.
- Preparing statutory returns and government claims, such as the Section 251 and Dedication Schools Grant Assurance statements.
- Providing finance support to large scale projects such as the Safety Valve Programme, Our Families Transformation and assessing financial implications of new HR and policy initiatives.
- Monitoring over £620m of revenue funding and an associated capital programme.
- Working with services and stakeholders to support the aims of the council.
There is never a dull day, and no two days are every quite the same. It is a busy but rewarding service area to be in where your work really does make a difference to the young people of our city.
Growth and Regeneration
The Growth and Regeneration team support teams across the Council in developing the city, tackling climate change, providing homes, revolutionising city transport and ensuring critical services are maintained. Our work is exceptionally varied but to provide a few examples of what we do in an average week:
- Leading efforts to set up new accounts that will capture all income and expenditure within the harbour and ensure there is a sustainable plan to maintain and improve the heart of the city.
- Working with the team delivering 1,500 new homes in Hengrove Park to ensure funding is in place.
- Working with teams across the Council to reduce homelessness through the development of new and innovative solutions.
- Providing financial advice on the Temple Quarter programme which will create 10,000 new homes, 22,000 new jobs and £1.6bn annual income to the city.
Resources and Shareholding
The Resources Directorate contains the Council's key resident facing services (such as Citizens Services, registrars, mortuaries, administering council tax, business rates and housing benefits) as well as professional support services which support the strategic direction of the Council and provide essential support to members and managers to improve outcomes and deliver change.
The finance team have a wide range of responsibilities, but some examples include:
- Preparing statutory returns and government claims, such as the DWP benefits subsidy claim.
- Working with the team who provide Coroner and Mortuary services across the ‘ex-Avon' area, resulting in engagement with finance colleagues in Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire & North Somerset.
- Providing finance support to large scale projects such as the Digital Transformation Programme and assessing financial implications of new HR and policy initiatives.
The Shareholding element of the team has oversight of the council's long term investments and shareholdings, including the council's wholly owned companies. Bristol Holding Group currently includes the following subsidiaries:
- Bristol Waste Company Ltd
- Goram Homes Ltd
These are complex businesses and the financial performance of these companies and their assets and liabilities are regularly reviewed to ensure that there is no financial implication for the council in future years. This includes assessing the effectiveness of the governance, monitoring and quality performance parameters, regularly reporting to the Shareholder Group and members for informed decision making.
Accounting and Technical
The team provides technical financial advice, largely around revenue accounting issues, and its role includes:
- Providing technical financial advice.
- Closing the annual accounts.
- Managing the external audit.
- Providing a financial vetting service.
- Monitoring suspense/holding/control accounts,
- Handling internal recharging, journals, reconciliations and purchase orders.
Much of what the team does is ‘pure accountancy', applying accounting principles to accounts and reporting. Solving problems on interpretation and the fundamentals of reporting to the public how the council spends its money.
Financial Planning and Reporting Team
The financial planning and reporting team leads the annual updating of the Medium-Term Financial Plan for Council approval, undertaking all necessary forecasting. The team collates the longer range forecasts and determine any financial gap that needs to be closed to achieve a balanced budget over the period.
The team uses financial models and analysis to ensure the Council plans accurately reflects the Council's financial position over the medium term. As part of this the team reviews, assess impact, provide briefings and responses to key government announcements.
The team includes a ‘hub' of accountants who process a wide range of different council transactions, including requisitions and invoices. They are central to keeping us all up to date.
Capital Tax and Treasury Team
The team leads on strategic advice to support the effective delivery and financing of the capital programme while having regard to codes of practice and legislation. The team co-ordinates the Capital Programme budget and monitoring cycles including preparing reports for decision purposes. The team also co-ordinates the statutory accounts for the Capital and Treasury functions including the valuation of the Corporate Estate and commercial investments.
The team prepares regulatory reports, including Treasury Management Strategy and Capital Strategy, including prudential indicators. It is involved in providing strategic and operational support for the Treasury Management function including the banking function and managing the external contracts and relationships that support the delivery of these functions. The team also provides strategic and operational support to effectively manage the tax liability of the authority.
Risk and Insurance Team
The risk and insurance team insures the Council and processes insurance claims. The team operates the claims handling process and cost alignment to ensure appropriate and correct insurance exposures are covered at the right prices through procurement of insurance contracts.
In addition, the risk and insurance team offers risk management advice to the Council and its stakeholders on how to effectively identify, assess and treat risk and make informed and intelligent risk decisions around the council's people, processes, technology, and programmes. The team helps to maintain good financial governance through clarity on key risks and implementation of mitigations, to inform robustness of estimates and effective decision making