Essex County Fire & Rescue Service
Job Title: Finance Manager – Insurance & Compliance
Contract: Permanent
Working Hours: 37*
Salary: £55,201.00 – £62,288.00
Location: Service Headquarters at Kelvedon Park
Closing Date: Friday 25th April 2025
*We are open to discuss working arrangements including flexibility over hours and location
The Role
We are seeking to employ a friendly, reliable, and efficient person to join our office team as a Finance Manager for Insurance and Compliance with responsibility for managing all insurance related matters and policy renewals within the Service.
What You Will Be Working On
- To provide professional support and guidance to the Service regarding insurance matters and financial reporting standards and ensuring compliance with current legislation and Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) policy.
- To identify any changes in business risk or operational activities that could impact insurance and work with the Service to ensure that coverage remains adequate.
- To support the Service with insurance renewals, ensuring that insurance policies are renewed in a timely manner, preparing decision documents, raising purchase orders, liaising with finance and insurers and documenting the renewal process
- To support the Service with the handling of all claims made by and against the Service including liaising with the relevant stakeholders and third parties where required to ensure that claims are progressed in a timely manner and all relevant costs are documented and recovered
- To provide regular reporting to the Service on insurance ensuring the Service is fully informed on all insurance matters including, but not limited to, performance against KPIs, costs, mitigation measures, trends, claims status etc.
- To provide training and education to areas of the Service on insurance matters where required
- To support the Financial Accounting and Compliance Manager with both the external and internal audits programme.
- To provide support with the yearend closure process, including production of the annual statement of accounts and accompanying notes and working papers which will be subject to audit.
- To ensure that all balance sheet accounts are fully reconciled on a regular basis, with all key control accounts being reconciled each month.
- To develop the reconciliation methodology for all balance sheet control accounts, including the Lead Schedules template. Performing periodic reviews to ensure still relevant and up to date with current practices and standards.
- To develop the reconciliation methodology between the ERP and other feeder systems, currently CIVICA, Tranman, and Concerto. Performing periodic reviews to ensure still relevant and up to date with current practices and standards.
What Are We Looking For?
You will have experience of
- Dealing with Insurance matters within an organisation, including renewals, claims and reporting.
- Production of statutory accounts and supporting working papers that are subject to audit
- Preferable experience working within a local authority
Eligibility
- Must be a qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA/CIPFA)
How to apply
You will be required to submit a CV detailing a minimum of five years employment and / or education history, along with a supporting statement of no more than 750 words that demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria detailed in the Person Specification.
You may submit this either as a word document, pdf, or an mp3 (voice note) or mp4 (video), however the word count of your supporting statement should not exceed 750 words no matter which format you choose to present your application.
You may attach separate documents (such as qualifications) should you wish. Your CV and additional documents will be referred to in shortlisting to confirm eligibility (e.g., your current role and any existing qualifications).
Assessment and selection:
Stage 1
Application & shortlisting (assessment of your supporting statement will be made against the essential criteria) in the w/c 28th April 2025
Stage 2
Role specific panel interview and presentation (details of this will be supplied after shortlisting) in the w/c 5th May
Should you wish to have an informal discussion with regards to the role, please contact recruitment@essex-fire.gov.uk
Our Culture and Benefits
Here at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service we are committed to prioritising and promoting the wellbeing of our employees.
You can find out more about our benefits at https://www.essex-fire.gov.uk/recruitment/benefits
Safeguarding
Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Fire and Rescue Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
It is our policy to require all applicants for employment to disclose if you are currently being investigated by any regulatory body or have any decisions or sanctions pending or in progress in respect of your suitability to work for the Service.
You agree to inform the Service within 24 hours if you are subsequently investigated by any agency or organisation in relation to concerns about your behaviour towards children, young people or vulnerable adults.
The information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will be considered only in relation to the appointment for which you are applying.
This role will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Disability Confident
We are an equal opportunity, Disability Confident, employer who welcomes applications from everyone and values diversity in our workplace. A commitment to promoting diversity and developing a work environment where all staff are treated with dignity and respect is central to our recruitment process and all applications will be considered solely on merit.
As part of our offer to support all our candidates to perform to the best of their abilities during our recruitment and selection processes and we would like to let you know about a couple of support options you can access, should you wish to, including our employee forums, who are keen and willing to support all our potential colleagues.
Our employee forums and partners include:
Asian Fire Services Association (AFSA), BEING (our LGBTQ+ employee support network), Christian Fellowship, Ethnic Minority Forum, Men’s Forum, and our Women’s Forum. In addition, we also have a female firefighters operational group.
Further to the above, the Service has a Digital Accessibility Inclusion Group (DAIG) that supports all colleagues to improve their digital skills and provides additional support and guidance to colleagues with neurodivergent strengths and struggles as a result of dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, dyspraxia etc. We want everyone to thrive at work, and so we encourage and enable people to access digital tools to help them perform at your best. The DAIG is a group of colleagues from across the Service that unite to support others as a result of their lived experience and desire to make a difference. They support people with a range of visible and invisible disabilities to identify and access digital workplace adjustments and solutions and may be able to assist with your application too.
Should you wish to discuss support, or access further information, from one of these groups, please contact Equality.Diversity@essex-fire.gov.uk
You are also able to raise any queries or requests for support, including any adjustments you may require, at any stage of the process by email to recruitment@essex-fire.gov.uk
You can find out more about Essex County Fire & Rescue Service via www.essex-fire.gov.uk and about our vacancies and application processes via www.essex-fire.gov.uk/join-essex-fire
To apply for this job please visit essex-fire.csod.com.