Business Support & Finance Officer Apprenticeship

The Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC) is an independent Public Body that was set up by Government under the Enterprise Act 2016. The purpose of the office is to tackle late payment and poor payment practices in the private sector. We deal with complaints and provide general information and support to small businesses, as well as signposting them to other appropriate services. We aim to encourage a culture change in payment practices and in how businesses deal with each other, and we are looking for talented people to help us achieve this.
We are a diverse team drawing expertise from across the country. We offer great training and development opportunities and support from the team. You will find flexible working, an inclusive culture, and a place where your opinion is valued.
As Business Support & Finance Officer, you will have responsibility for supporting the Business Manager, G7 Head of Operations and the wider OSBC team.
You will be responsible for supporting the OSBC Business Manager with the day-to-day running of the OSBC including delivering ongoing service improvements and projecting financial budgets forecast and spend.
You may be responsible for providing administrative support to the OSBC Business Manager with financial audits and receipting, recording and tracking supplier invoices over the course of the financial year.
Occasional UK travel and overnight stays may be required in order to attend essential training, meetings and business events. Flexible hybrid working is available, however regular travel to the Birmingham office will be required each month for training, development, and collaborative working., To provide administrative support to the OSBC Business Manager and G7 Head of Operations and to the wider management team through the supply of relevant briefing materials and organisational backup to ensure that they are fully prepared to carry out their allocated duties. Duties required of this role can be seen below, + Build and maintain excellent working relationships across the OSBC, its Sponsorship team and wider directorate, working collaboratively and flexibly to achieve organisational priorities.
+ Undertake a broad range of business support activities under the guidance of a Business Support Manager, ensuring these are delivered within defined timescales and to agreed quality standards, including but not limited to: diary management, travel management, corporate planning, MI data evidence gathering.
+ Assist with the organisation of key directorate, and governance meetings, which add value, including preparing and circulating agendas, undertaking a secretariat or other facilitator role where necessary, writing minutes and records of actions from the meeting / workshop, obtaining updates on previous action points and chasing outstanding papers.
+ Manage the team inbox(es) effectively, ensuring that emails are dealt with appropriately in a timely manner, drafting responses to queries as required, seeking advice and guidance from the Business Support Manager as necessary.
+ Where appropriate, carry out delivery tasks and/or support the delivery of small projects under the direction of the Business Support Manager, or other senior managers.
+ Other ad-hoc administrative tasks as required, which may include covering for Business Manager absence.
+ To act as the main liaison on behalf of OSBC (and the team as the occasion demands), with other teams, government departments, agencies, external organisations, and stakeholders and the wider public.
+ To collate monthly, quarterly and annual performance monitoring information and ensure that officers provide updates in a timely manner.
+ To support the OSBC Business Manager with Knowledge and Information (KIM) tasks related to the business.
+ Demonstrate an understanding of the external context within which OSBC operates including, where appropriate, building relationships with external organisations to improve outcomes for service users.
Finance Role:
+ Confident working with financial management software, tools and stakeholders (such as Oracle / UKSBS).
+ Familiar with key budgeting, forecasting and spend monitoring principles.
+ Able to analyse, interpret and summarise data for performance reporting.
+ Act, when required, to raise irregularities, highlight errors and ensure the integrity of data input to the finance system.
+ Support the Business Manager with audit and General Ledger / Bank reconciliation when required.
+ Support the Business Manager to develop and maintain finance procedures, systems and guidance to ensure they remain accurate, effective, support successful delivery of all financial activities and are understood, e.g. payment and desktop guides and the Finance Manual.
+ Support the Business Manager (where applicable) to respond to audit and financial commissions; raising requisitions and receipting purchase orders as necessary; review financial transaction issues (e.g. gaps between values receipted and invoices), liaising with senior managers as required to resolve.

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Working Together
+ Managing a Quality Service
+ Communicating and Influencing
+ Delivering at Pace, Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually. We will, however, consider in-person interviews by exception.
Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.
To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:
+ A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
+ A Personal Statement of 500 words explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role in reference to the essential criteria.
It is likely that the sift will take place 1-2 weeks after the closing date and interviews 3-5 weeks after the closing date though this is subject to change.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead behaviour statement (Working together). Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will consist of behaviour questions.
Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.
Reasonable Adjustments
We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. In order to request an adjustment:
Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process.
Alternatively contact the Government Recruitment Service at DBTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Candidate Support
You may want to join a virtual Candidate Support Session. These sessions include helpful tips and advice on the recruitment process, from application to interview.
Please see attached Candidate Pack for further information on: Diversity and Inclusion; Benefits; Learning and Development; Working Patterns and what we deliver as a department.
Further Information:
+ A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve Lists will be for each location and appointments made in merit order based on location preferences.
+ Any move to the Department for Business and Trade from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.
+ The Department will not consider sponsoring a visa or issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship. We are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases.
+ New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
+ Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty. Any applicant who has details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
+ A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
+ Terms and Conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
+ This role may be considered as a secondment opportunity. Please reach out to the hiring manager listed at the bottom of this advert to discuss.
+ Candidates that do not quite meet the standard for this role may be offered a position at a lower grade., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

+ Well organised and flexible with experience of handling business information, particularly numerical data, with an ability of focus on service delivery.
+ Good written and verbal communication skills.
+ Able to work under pressure across functional teams and understand the importance of timescales/deadlines and prioritising workload to meet business requirements.
+ A problem solver who takes setbacks in their stride and manages change positively and effectively.
+ Competent IT user with experience using MS Office and SharePoint., + Good interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, with an ability to interact well with people across the organisation, including those more senior to you.
+ Ability to work under pressure and deliver to tight timescales, with a good attention to detail, responding effectively to changing priorities in a business support and finance related environment.
+ Ability to proactively work well as part of a team, taking responsibility for delivering agreed business objectives.
+ Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, across a range of tasks, seeking advice and guidance from managers as appropriate.
Desirable Criteria:
+ Experience of budgeting, forecasting and tracking spend.
+ Experience of Microsoft applications, including MS Teams and SharePoint.

Alongside your salary of £28,695, Department for Business and Trade contributes £8,312 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
+ Learning and development tailored to your role
+ An environment with flexible working options
+ A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
+ A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.
Please refer to the attached candidate pack for further information on our benefits.