Service Director

Cornwall Council is seeking a highly motivated and experienced leader to join our dynamic leadership team as Director Resources and Performance.

Reporting directly to the Council’s Section 151 Officer, you will have the overall strategic leadership responsibility for the Council’s resources, including Treasury management, Accounts, Assessments, Billing and Collection, Business Planning and Performance Management framework and reporting.

This role has a broad strategic remit spanning across the Council. To be successful, you will be committed to supporting the organisation in discharging its responsibilities towards proper financial management. By taking a long-term strategic view over the Council’s capital investments and financial sustainability you will ensure that residents can have confidence in Cornwall Council now and into the future.

You will be responsible for the Council’s council tax and benefits services and have oversight across all other resource streams, funding Council operations connecting financial planning into organisational business planning and leading work on the Council’s upcoming comprehensive spending review and annual budget setting process. You will have outstanding leadership skills, able to inspire confidence from colleagues, residents, the political administration and investors ensuring that Cornwall is financially set up to attract good growth and long-term financial security for Cornwall. This is a challenging and exciting role and would suit someone who is motivated by working in an ambitious Council dedicated to making Cornwall a wonderful place to live and do business.

To find out more about this role please see below and refer to the Success Profile attached:
**ABOUT TEAM CORNWALL**

As one of the largest unitary Council’s in the Country, Cornwall Council is an exciting, thriving Council. We have the widest set of responsibilities across all local authorities, and with this brings ambition, complexity, scale and impact. We have c. 5,800 employees and serve a population of c. 570,000 as well as being responsible for a wholly owned group of companies providing a wide range of services to the communities of Cornwall.

Across the Council, we have an ambitious growth agenda, with a significant capital investment portfolio (c.£2.1bn) and large revenue budget of £770m and increasing. We proudly have good and outstanding children’s services and rapidly improving adult social care services and fire and rescue service. Our employee engagement scores continue to increase and currently at c. 76% we have an engaged, motivated and highly capable workforce.

As the Service Director for Resources and Performance, you would lead a team of around 320 and manage a budget of around £10m. You will lead a team of qualified accountants, pension experts and experienced revenues and benefits officers as well as a small business planning, corporate performance and data and insights team.

Diversity of thought is central to how we operate, and we welcome new thinking and new ideas so that we can stay ahead of the curve. We recently welcomed the LGA to peer challenge our approach to Equality, diversity and inclusion and were shortlisted for a national award.

We are an ambitious Council, which is enshrined in our values: Fair, Ambition, Inclusion and Respect (FAIR). Our work to secure more devolution continues, and we support recent calls for a Minister for Cornwall to maximise investment and opportunity into Cornwall.

Whilst we might be geographically remote, our Council ambition is reflected in how we are investing in our infrastructure and Cornwall has never been more connected, with recent announcement of a mid-Cornwall metro, a great airport, and recent improvement work to the A30. We are also connected digitally and seriously innovative in this space - Cornwall played a pivotal role in the development of transatlantic communication - and we continue to innovate in terms of digital and green energy.

**TO APPLY**
- Proven experience in a senior leadership role within a complex political organisation. Able to navigate and thrive within a complex and ambiguous environment being adept at finding consensus and forward momentum.
- Strong strategic thinking and the ability to link service, directorate, and corporate priorities, able to work confidently in a matrixed environment to connect the organisation’s overall strategic priorities.
- Strong expertise in financial management. Either fully qualified accountant or with significant equivalent professional experience, able to demonstrate ownership and accountability over complex revenue and capital budgets and financial planning.
- Demonstrable ability to lead a strong performance culture. Able to translate business strategy into organisational performance objectives and being able to inspire public and political confidence in performance reporting.
- Outstanding and proven leadership skills with the ability to directly and indirectly lead and i