The Opportunity
Salary: £19,038 to £19,976 per annum (pro rata for part time and calculated to term time only)
Working Pattern: Part time, 30 hours per week, term time only
Contract: Fixed term contract until 31/12/2027
Location: County Hall, Chichester and working from home
Interview date: 13th July 2026
What is term time only working? A term time only contract is for our staff who are employed to work only during periods when schools are open. Your pay is calculated on an annual basis and then you are paid over twelve equal monthly instalments.
Our Schools Finance Team have a fantastic opportunity, currently seeking a part time, Senior Finance Assistant to join the team.
As a Senior Finance Assistant, you provide a vital service to schools in providing advice and support on the school’s finance reporting system and schools’ finance generally. You will work with schools via face-to-face visits, email and phone calls.
This role will assist the Senior Finance Officer and Peripatetic Bursars in
providing advice and support to schools. This will usually relate specifically to
issues within the finance system, financial assessments or payments including
processing invoices, monitoring accounts and working on technical data, as well
as broader tasks relating to supporting the management of the team and its
function.
What are we looking for?
- You will have strong attention to detail to ensure all advice and support provided to schools is accurate.
- You enjoy analysing complex financial data and can sustain concentration over extended periods.
- You will be able to work independently to respond to queries, solve unexpected problems using your initiative, organise your workload, and plan over several months to meet objectives.
- You will be happy to travel across the County (up to 1.5 hours each way) and work at a computer for prolonged periods.
- You will be able to build effective relationships with customers and colleagues, exercising tact and sensitivity when addressing queries and handling difficult situations.
- You will have sound and accurate technical skills in Microsoft Office and experience working with major computerised financial systems relevant to financial services.
For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.
Working for us
As well as adding real value to our service users and our communities, as an employer we recognise our employees are central in being able to achieve this. To recognise this, we want to help support your development and provide a great place to work ensuring you can fulfil your full potential, have access to a range of benefits including:
- an excellent local government pension scheme
- generous holiday entitlement of 25 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave)
- a range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
- maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
- volunteering opportunities
- training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
- a range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see ourStaff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
- health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and Voluntary Health Cash Plans
For a full list this can be found at our Rewards and Benefits page.
The reference number for this role is CRS01094.
For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Rachel Ayuba at [email protected].
For other queries, please contact [email protected].
Internal candidates wishing to apply for this role will be considered for a secondment position. Please can you therefore discuss and agree this with your manager before applying for this position.
To apply, please follow the links below to upload your CV and Cover Letter. In your cover letter please outline your motivations for applying and explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role (please refer to the key skills) ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check and DBS.
Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.
We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.
