Financial Assessment Team Leader

Job Description

PURPOSE OF ROLE To provide operational leadership and oversight of the Financial Assessment Team, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality, legally compliant financial assessment service for Adult Social Care in line with the Care Act 2014. Responsible for: The role is responsible for maximising income, managing risk, ensuring performance delivery, and driving service improvement, while maintaining a strong focus on safeguarding and customer outcomes. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES Corporate Responsibilities 1. Lead the Financial Assessment Team to meet corporate and statutory objectives. 2. Deliver a customer-focused, sensitive, and professional service to residents with care and support needs. 3. Embed safeguarding, equality, diversity, health & safety, and data protection across the team. 4. Deputise for the Customer Financial Services Manager as required. 5. Support strategic planning, service redesign, and transformation initiatives. 6. Develop and maintain policies, procedures, and guidance to support service delivery. 7. Foster effective cross-council and partnership working. Operational & Functional Responsibilities · Manage daily delivery of financial assessments for residential and non-residential care. · Complete accurate, timely assessments in line with Care Act legislation and Council policy, optimising budgets and benefits. · Oversee reassessments, appeals, complaints, and complex casework. · Provide expert advice on DRE, property and deferred payments, CHC, Section 117, and Ordinary Residence. · Assure quality of all financial assessments and decisions. · Respond to complaints, Cllr/MP enquiries, and FOIs within agreed timescales; capture and implement lessons learned. · Maintain accurate data across systems (e.g. LAS, Controcc, Agresso). · Lead complex, high-risk cases, including safeguarding, financial abuse, and disputed assessments. Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement · Build strong relationships with Social Work teams, DWP, Finance and Income teams, Legal services, and external partners. · Represent the service at Complex case meetings, multi-agency forums and Internal governance boards · Provide expert advice to senior stakeholders and elected members. Safeguarding · Ensure compliance with safeguarding responsibilities for vulnerable adults and children. · Act on and escalate safeguarding concerns, including financial abuse. · Promote a safeguarding culture across the team. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS · Timely completion of financial assessments · Accuracy and compliance rates · Income collection and maximisation · Case management · Customer satisfaction and complaint resolution · Team performance and staff development Requirements The top 5 things about you that are most important: 1. Knowledge & Experience Extensive experience in customer-facing means-tested assessment services, with strong knowledge of the Care Act 2014, local government and social care charging regulations, and DWP benefits, alongside proven ability to manage staff and handle complex financial casework. 2. Performance & Quality Management Strong performance and quality management, with the ability to deliver KPIs on timeliness, accuracy, and income maximisation, monitor and report on team performance, analyse management information and forecasts, handle complaints effectively, and identify risks to drive continuous improvement. 3. Leadership & Management Effective team leadership and management, including line management, coaching, and supervision of Financial Assessment Officers, with responsibility for performance management, recruitment, training, and risk oversight, alongside the ability to allocate workloads, manage resources, and foster a positive, high-performing team culture 4. Partnership & Stakeholder Engagement Strong stakeholder engagement and partnership working, with the ability to build relationships across internal teams and external organisations, represent services in multi-agency and governance forums, and provide expert advice to senior stakeholders and elected members. 5. Skills & Abilities Strong leadership and people management skills, with the ability to interpret complex financial information and legislation, communicate effectively with stakeholders, analyse and solve problems, manage competing priorities to meet deadlines, and utilise IT and data analysis tools to a high level. Qualifications:
• Experience in means tested assessment service / finance environment
• Experience managing and supervising a team
• Strong knowledge of benefits and income assessments
• Ability to undertake home visits (if required) Benefits We believe employee benefits should go beyond just a free drink or fruit bowl. What’s more, we believe you should get to choose perks that suit your lifestyle. That’s why we’ve partnered up with the global benefits and rewards provider Perkbox, to offer something for all of our people. Here’s what you can look forward to: Perks Hub Hundreds of global and local perks, available online 24/7 Free monthly lifestyle perks; such as free coffees, breakfasts, cinema tickets, etc Shopping discounts from the biggest brands, all year round Save money on everything from the supermarket shop to summer holidays Wellness Hub Easy to follow videos for everything from yoga exercises, to strength training and HIIT workouts Mindfulness, meditation and sleep resources, available on all your devices Guides to help with everything from anxiety to stopping smoking Confidential mental health helpline, 24/7 access to a qualified counsellor Celebration Hub Working with us means you're always part of Team BSS - celebrate and recognise fellow contractors, whether they're across the desk or across the world Company polls where everybody can vote for the winners Culture Hub A single place to find company updates, photos, benefits information and lots more! Stay in the loop with what’s happening by accessing Culture hub anywhere, at any time Pre-Compliance Checks for Successful Applicants: At BSS, we uphold the highest standards of screening and trust for every role. Successful applicants will undergo a comprehensive pre-compliance process in line with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). This includes: Identity Verification: Confirming the authenticity of your identity documents. Employment History Checks: Reviewing your occupation history for the past 3-5 years (depending on client requirement). Right to Work Verification: Ensuring you have the legal right to work in the UK. Unspent Conviction Check: Conducting a Basic DBS Check to reveal any unspent convictions. These checks are crucial in ensuring a secure and trustworthy work collaboration, aligning with best practices used in government and public sectors. While primarily standard in these sectors, our adoption of pre-compliance checks across all roles reflects our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and trust in our recruitment process. Equal Opportunities Business Smart Solutions are a Recruitment Agency - We hire talented and passionate people from a variety of backgrounds because we want our global worker base to represent the wide diversity of our clients. If you’re excited about a role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every bullet point listed in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. If you're passionate about working for a role in local government and share our company values, we encourage you to apply. BSS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. BSS considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable UK law. If you need assistance or an accommodation made due to a disability, please let your recruiter know. Armed Forces Covenant We endeavour in our business dealings to uphold the key principles of the Armed Forces Covenant, which are: No member of the Armed Forces Community should face disadvantage in the provision of public and commercial services compared to any other citizen In some circumstances special treatment may be appropriate especially for the injured or bereaved.