£42,839 - £50,269 (pro rata) 2026/27 pay award pending.
Full time, Part time or Term-time only will be considered unless otherwise stated.
We're currently recruiting roles in the Divisional Financial Management teams.
Current vacancies
Children and education
The children and education team are looking for a part time Group Accountant supporting schools in the city.
You'll be fully or part-qualified CCAB accountant who is looking to become fully qualified. You'll be working with schools across the city and helping to manage a budget of over £500 million. Ideally you'll have experience of working in schools or with them and an interest in seeing the process from the side of the council.
This is an interesting time to work in education with the most significant changes in a generation being delivered through the government's education white paper. Working with budget holders within the council and in schools you'll lead on forecasting and reporting budgets in-year as well as setting budgets for future years.
You'll need to be able to work well with non-financial people while presenting constructive challenge to ensure savings and other commitments are delivered. This will be a job share arrangement working with someone who has returned from maternity leave and will be working c. 20 hours a week.
Growth and regeneration
An exciting opportunity has emerged for a new Group Accountant role in the Growth and Regeneration Finance Team, supporting the divisions Economy of Place and Property, Assets and Infrastructure.
This is an interesting and rewarding area to join and an excellent opportunity for a fully qualified CCAB accountant, or a part-qualified candidate who is looking to work towards full qualification.
The Economy of Place covers a wide range of council services, from the city’s museums, to regeneration, planning, economic development and climate change. This part of the role will be working closely with managers delivering services to the public, for whom as well as supporting budget monitoring and forecasting, you will be digging deeply into the numbers, analysing trends and drawing conclusions to make recommendations, along with inputting into business cases with a tangible impact on the city. You will need to be able to both get into the detail and see the bigger picture.
Property, Assets and Infrastructure includes the service areas of Corporate Landlord, Waste and Energy. These are service areas in the midst of growth or transformation which provide key functions supporting the rest of the council and the wider city. The initial focus of the role is expected to be supporting the Waste service, which includes the client function for the council’s waste collection and disposal services; upcoming transformation projects include improvements to recycling, procurement of a new fleet, depot re-organisation and re-contracting for core service provision. This is an excellent opportunity for the postholder to support the council in securing value for money for these services.
About the role
In all areas you will be carrying out analysis of costs, cost drivers and supporting the accounting function, with the possibility of deputising for the Finance Manager carrying out supervisory responsibilities too.
You'll be the trusted advisor to senior members of the Council on financial matters. That includes setting annual budgets and ensuring short, medium, and long-term forecasts are robust. You'll identify, analyse and report on the financial implications of new initiatives in your area of responsibility. At year end you will support the preparation of annual statements.
To be successful in this role you will need to build strong relationships with key stakeholders in your area and across the council.
That will allow you to challenge and advise. A commitment to continual improvement is key and you will need to consistently offer ideas to improve current practice and find efficiencies. There will be opportunities to work on cross-cutting projects that address issues across the council.
Finally, you will need to manage and motivate your team to deliver.
Objectives
- Be personally responsible for taking all necessary steps to fully understand the business needs of the client service areas allocated to you and a general awareness for the whole Directorate, such that you can provide expert assistance to management in achieving value for money and service improvement.
- Provision of monthly reporting, analysis and insight on the performance of each budget. Reporting to include insight on what is driving performance, what actions can be taken to remediate any performance gaps and what actions can be taken to improve performance.
- Research and maintain awareness of alternative models of service delivery and, in conjunction with budget managers, consider how innovative solutions to service delivery can be implemented within the council and/or with partners.
- Identify and participate in improvement and efficiency projects. To facilitate the preparation and delivery of efficiency and savings plans for clients which support corporate long term financial planning including the modelling of costs for various options.
- Support the ring-fenced accounts as required for your remit, including annual update of the 30-year HRA Business Plan and associated model and involvement and update of the financial information for the DSG.
For the upper limit of the salary range you'll need to have a CCAB qualification and demonstrate that you can:
- build excellent professional relationships with key senior stakeholders across the council, external partners and government departments as appropriate. Representing the council at appropriate external forums and maintain relationships to ensure that proposed initiatives are financially viable and delivered as effectively as possible
- interpret of financial performance for council wide services or activities and provide options to managers to assist them achieve required efficiencies and spend to budget position on an on-going basis
- provide independent analysis and interpretation of complex and technical financial data, to facilitate support and challenge to both internal and external stakeholders and allow decisions to be made following consideration of financial resource and risks implications
- draft and present reports on the analysis and interpretation of financial performance and actual or implied changes to legislation for budget holders and senior officers and the public in relation to financial issues and collaborate with external partners and agencies as required
- undertake appropriate development work as required in response to changing financial regimes, new government legislation and initiatives
- lead on financial support to projects related to the respective area of the directorate, develop business cases and options appraisals in support of business objectives, investigate and support mechanisms for greater efficiencies or additional income generation and invest to save
- acquire and maintain comprehensive service specific knowledge to support policy development as appropriate, working with service leads reinforcing the need for corporate governance and financial management best practice
- in accordance with council procedures and delegated level of financial authority, support the development and timely preparation of the key internal and external financial documents for your respective area of the portfolio; quantifying associated costs, benefits, risks and funding solutions and associated sensitivities
How to apply
To apply, send us your:
- CV, no more than 2 sides
- a supporting statement, with a maximum of 1,000 words, which demonstrates by practical example how you meet the following:
- part or full CCAB (or equivalent qualification). If part qualified you'll need to commit to completing the qualification in the role
- experience of analysing, interpreting and presenting financial management to people who manage budgets
- ability to establish excellent working relationships with colleagues and customers
Email your CV and supporting statement to finance_recruitment@bristol.gov.uk.
These roles will be considered on a full time, part time or term time only basis unless specified. Include your preference in the application.
Please indicate which of the Group Accountant roles you wish to be considered for in particular.
These roles are subject to a Standard DBS Check.
No agencies please.
Application date
There is no specific end date, we are regularly reviewing CVs and holding interviews, and will close vacancies once they are filled, so please submit your application at your earliest convenience to be considered.
At Bristol City Council, we value having a workforce as diverse as the city we serve. We therefore welcome, develop and promote people from all sections of the community. We particularly welcome applications from Black and racially minoritised candidates, Disabled candidates, young people and LGBTQ+ candidates, who are currently under-represented within this service area of Bristol City Council.
Appointments will be made on merit.