About the role
Interested in a finance role that underpins services supporting children and young people across Cornwall? We are looking for a full-time permanent Finance Support Assistant to join the Finance Team supporting the Together for Families directorate. The team plays a vital role in supporting children’s social care services by ensuring financial processes run accurately, efficiently, and on time.
This is a hands-on finance support role, focused on processing payments, monitoring financial information, and supporting colleagues across the service. Your work will directly enable services that support children, young people, and families across Cornwall.
This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies.
This position will be subject to a basic criminal record disclosure check.
What you’ll be doing
As part of the Together for Families Finance Team, you will:
Process and validate a range of financial transactions, including payment runs and invoices.
Raise and manage purchase orders using corporate and service finance systems.
Reconcile financial information, investigate discrepancies, and resolve queries promptly.
Support managers and operational colleagues with financial processes and guidance.
Produce reports, spreadsheets, and monitoring information as required.
Maintain accurate electronic records in line with data and information governance requirements.
Support audit activity and contribute to improving financial processes and controls.
Working arrangements
This is a full-time, permanent role (37 hours per week) with a hybrid working model.
Office base: New County Hall, Truro.
Office attendance: Expected at least once per week, and more frequently when business need requires.
Working pattern is Monday to Thursday: 08:45 – 17:15 with Friday: 08:45 – 16:45.
What you’ll need to succeed
GCSEs (Grades A–C) or equivalent, including English and Maths.
Excellent keyboard skills and a moderate to high level of Microsoft Excel capability.
We’re looking for someone who is organised, reliable, and comfortable working with financial information in a busy environment. You don’t need experience in children’s services specifically – full training will be provided – but you should bring good core finance skills and a willingness to learn.
You’ll need to demonstrate:
Experience in a finance or business support role
Strong attention to detail and ability to work accurately to deadlines
Confidence using IT systems, including spreadsheets and financial software
Good communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively and respond to queries professionally
Experience maintaining accurate records and handling confidential information appropriately
Role profile is attached here
Why join us?
Cornwall Council’s ambition is to be an employer of choice; a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, compensate and retain our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff; this helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance whilst still ensuring that service needs are met. You’ll be joining a supportive, experienced team where your contribution is valued and your role is clearly defined making a large impact on the lives of children, young people and families in Cornwall with opportunities for development and growth.
Cornwall Council offers a comprehensive benefits package, including:
Salary:
Local Government Pension Scheme based on your career average earnings, including the option for extra voluntary contributions.
26 days annual leave per year (pro-rata), rising to 29 days after five years continuous service, with the potential to purchase additional leave.
Flexible and hybrid working options including a flexi-time scheme.
A National award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme.
Access to a wide range of employee discounts and benefits, including a cycle to work scheme.
Cornwall Council deliver services to more than half a million local people and over five million visitors a year. Find out more about working and volunteering for us.
We are happy to talk about flexible working options such as part-time or compressed hours. More examples of our flexible working opportunities can be found here - flexible working options .
Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g., race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits.
Application process
You can upload your CV or manually add Education & Qualification details using the application form timeline. Applications MUST submit a supporting statement, clearly demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the Role Profile. Applications without a supporting statement are unlikely to be shortlisted. We recommend using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your examples. Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points marked as ‘Application’ on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work or personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had.
Please note the interview process may include a short competency-based task related to the job role profile; this role is focused on supporting Together For Families (TFF) only.
Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, please contact [email protected] if you have any queries or require assistance with your application.
Existing employees must apply using their Cornwall Council email address through the Opportunity Marketplace on Oracle.
