Senior Audit Manager - Value For Money

We are independent of government and the civil service and scrutinise public spending for Parliament and on behalf of citizens and taxpayers. This means we work for, and for the good of, everyone in the country. We want our work to have greater impact and make a bigger difference to the outcomes and value for money that government achieves on the issues of greatest importance to the UK, both now and in the longer term. We help society work better - supporting improvements in the way services are delivered right across the public sector. The recommendations from our work can result in financial savings and positive changes in government to improve services and ensure value for money for taxpayers. You will tackle complex projects that inform debates and influence some of the biggest decisions that government makes. You will work with dedicated and talented people toward shared and important goals. And, by taking on new opportunities and challenges, you'll build a rewarding and fascinating career. We are now looking to recruit Senior Audit Managers. We are looking for people with strong analytical and communication skills as well as experience of project and people management, which can be drawn from a range of backgrounds including experienced analysts, value for money (performance audit) auditors, the civil service and internal auditors. If you like what you see and can meet our requirements, then we want to hear from you. More about the NAO, including some of our recent value for money reports, is available on our website www.nao.org.uk The role Each year we publish around 60 major value for money (VFM) reports looking at various government programmes and projects. VFM reports are multi-method reports often delivered at pace to achieve real impact. We write long form reports and other types of written communication on complex subjects in ways that nonspecialist or technical audiences can understand. Our work can cover any area where government spends public money, ranging from how government is responding to the challenges facing adult social care in England to how government is maintaining schools and hospital buildings. Our lessons learned reports bring together what we know on important recurring issues to make it easier for others to understand and apply the lessons from our work, such as government interventions to support companies in distress and key issues for government to consider when attempting to increase its efficiency., Our audit managers play a key role in making sure we achieve our objectives and secure impact from our work.

• You will lead our teams to deliver high-quality work that supports improvements in the delivery of public services. This involves planning, researching and drafting our value for money reports, working alongside sector or topic specialists, analysts and qualified accountants as well as applying strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills.
• You will role model behaviours and ways of working to support us as an exemplar organisation.
• You will engage with external clients and stakeholders to deliver greater engagement with our work.
• You will get involved in other work too, including investigations, correspondence (from the public and MPs) and other work that supports Parliamentary select committees.
All Senior Audit Managers are expected to spend part of their time developing their expertise in one or more specialist areas through our networks (Hubs) across the office. This includes providing analytical insight and support to others outside of your team on your areas of expertise such as analytical techniques and methods, commercial and regulatory issues, digital transformation and data use in the public sector, financial risk and management, major project delivery, and people and operational management. Relationships and Accountability You will manage a team to deliver value for money work to time and budget. You will work with other people of all grades. You will work with Senior Auditors and / or Senior Analysts who lead a team of Analysts and accounting trainees to deliver high-quality reports. The Director is accountable for the overall quality and impact of the audit. You will commonly meet and interact with senior people in the NAO and in government bodies. The impact you will make Our work responds to government's plans and particularly those with long-term implications for public spending. You'll contribute to work that examines the cost, effectiveness and efficiency of government programmes and projects. Whatever you work on it all serves to help hold government to account for the way it uses public money and helps to promote improvements in public service delivery. The scope of our impact is huge - from health to education to justice to overseas development to the BBC and Bank of England and much more. Our recommendations and reports on good practice help government improve public services, and our work in the last year led to:
• Positive financial impacts of £1.59 billion in 2023.
• For every £1 spent we delivered an impact of £17 through either reduced costs, improved service delivery or other benefits to people.
• 95% of our recommendations to government were accepted or partially accepted.
You can find out more about us and our work from our website. Some examples from our recent work are set out below. We examine the performance and costs of core public services across all areas of government, including:
• plans to improve urgent and emergency care services such as general practice and ambulance services;
• work to improve outcomes for women in the criminal justice system; and
• how the supported housing system in England works for people with care needs such as older people, people with a learning or physical disability, people at risk of or who have experienced homelessness, or people recovering from drug or alcohol dependence.
We are focusing on assessing efficiency and productivity within government, and the resilience of public services, operations and infrastructure. We have examined key issues across government including:
• how well-prepared government is for extreme weather events;
• government's counter-fraud capabilities; and
• government's approach to monitoring and responding to companies in distress.
The government has set out its long-term environmental and climate change ambitions, including a legal requirement to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. Our work has considered the value for money risks in this area, and we have:
• examined the robustness of government's plans to fulfil Net Zero emissions targets with a report on the management and performance of the Green Homes Grant scheme; and
• reported on how effectively central government and local authorities in England are collaborating on Net Zero and on the government commitment to increase tree-planting rates across the UK.
We provided timely reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic to help Parliament understand government's response and hold it to account. We continue to provide expert insight to help ensure that appropriate lessons are learned for the future. Highlights include:
• examining government's plans for recovery with reports on the employment support grant scheme and backlogs in the NHS and criminal justice system;
• developing and updating our COVID-19 cost tracker, setting out government's spending commitments on its response to the pandemic;
• focusing on government's procurement activity and the vaccine programme roll-out;
• drawing out wider learning for government from the pandemic with reports on initial learning and risk management.
The Government Major Projects Portfolio, which brings together government's largest, most innovative and riskiest projects and programmes, contains around 180 projects with a total whole-life cost of around £540 billion. We regularly report on the value for money with which government departments and agencies carry out their projects and programmes, building insights and lessons for government along the way including:
• reporting on long-term infrastructure programmes, such as High Speed Two and the Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage programme; and
• generating lessons from our audit work in recent years to deliver a framework to review portfolios and lessons learned on delivering programmes at speed.
Skills required Essential Abilities It will be essential that you can demonstrate the ability to:
• Lead, develop and motivate diverse teams and support all colleagues to deliver great work and achieve their potential.
• Support and manage teams ensure the delivery of high-quality assurance work which supports our strategic aims and enables longer term value for money.
• Oversee the production of a range of well-produced written outputs which support our findings and recommendations and are designed to engage a wide audience.
• Work collaboratively and flexibly to ensure the office achieves its objectives and to support the wellbeing and development of colleagues.
• Show creativity and innovation in how we do our work and build insights and support teams to do so.
• Work closely with colleagues in Hubs (specialist knowledge teams) and other client teams to ensure we get the most value from our work and expand our knowledge and expertise.
• Create recognition and impact (improvements in public service delivery) from our work by developing strong and influential relationships with external clients and stakeholders.
  
  Show a strong commitment to your own self development, to delivering the NAO's strategic objectives, and keeping yourself up to date on office initiatives and information relevant to your work and specialism.
• Compliance with corporate responsibilities and interest in supporting others to do so.
• Working in accordance with the NAO's values and champion our diversity and inclusion strategy.
• Intellectual curiosity, especially about using data and evidence to answer questions.
• Flexibility to make a significant contribution across a range of topics and outputs.
• Drive and determination to overcome obstacles, resistance or challenges to achieve goals.
• Passion for improving government and the ability to defend and promote your point of view in the face of challenge.
Educational requirements The people we are looking for: We welcome applications from candidates who work part-time and are keen to support colleagues to work flexibly. The role can be delivered from either our London or Newcastle offices. Education/work experience A strong academic background and experience in managing audit projects and producing high quality, accessible written outputs. For individuals with an audit background this means:
• An ACA or other professional qualification (e.g. ACCA, CIPFA, CIA, MIIA, CIMA) with relevant experience.
For individuals with other backgrounds this means either:
• A minimum of a 2:1 degree or a relevant post-graduate qualification and relevant experience.
  
  UK Nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)