Senior Financial Protection Officer – Financial

Temporary Senior Financial Protection Officer - Financial   

Reference no: Bradford 5228655 

Pay rate £17.06 per hour PAYE  

This opening assignment is for 1-2 months 

To manage a team of 6.5 Financial Protection Officers to ensure the provision of a high quality, professional Financial Protection Service is provided for the clients either by Appointee-ship or Deputy-ship. To manage the day to day requirements of the clients with the resources of the Financial Protection Team, offering advice and guidance on all financial matters, to clients, their relatives and other professionals including Service Management, re Deputy-ship and  Appointee-ship, liaising with outside agencies i.e. COP, OPG, Police, Adult Protection, Solicitors and other professionals, dealing with all aspects of income/expenditure and property including  Banking (authorising payments and withdrawing cash) property sales, Courts/Solicitors, social worker/carers, DWP benefits, private pensions, utility companies, care fees, rent & house insurance etc 

Key responsibilities: 

• To organise, co-ordinate and control the workload of the Financial Protection Officers, organising visiting of clients and/or relatives either in their homes or in a residential setting giving relevant information re the Deputy/Appointee processes, members of the team would on occasion be working alone as a sole representative of the council. 
• To develop appropriate processes and practices to ensure the most effective and efficient use of resources of the Financial Protection Team, evaluate, monitor and create improvements in relation to new technology, procedures, practices and new processes. 
• Directly responsible to the Local Authority’s Deputy, discussing only the more complex problems with the Deputy which affect court orders, policy and procedures and will be expected to show a high degree of personal initiative, creativity and discretion. 
• Monitor the team’s Performance to ensure that work is performed efficiently and effectively. Consult with staff on changes to working practices to ensure that the highest and most efficient standards of service delivery are maintained, including undertaking appraisals for all staff and provide day to day supervision and guidance, dealing with sickness, holidays and staffing issues etc. 
• Develop individual and team training plans arising from appraisals, changed working practices, new policies, procedures or legislation change that impact on the roles within the team, renegotiating work deadlines with clients, carers/support workers and both internal and external agencies where necessary. 
• Implement and co-ordinate new technology and processes to ensure new and improved methods of delivery, for example ContrOCC, Cvica, internet banking and prepaid cards to support the efficiency and the effectiveness of the service. 
• To carry out  financial searches to limit the cost of Local Authority funerals, collecting any bank/post office or building society information plus collecting any actual cash or valuables from the property this includes taking photographic evidence of the conditions found, due to the condition of the property and in many cases the death has taken place in the home (PPE) protective workware clothing must be worn and vaccination is required for health/safety. (In some cases the searches can be on behalf of the hospitals or other Local Authorities and valuables may need to be collected from the police station) All valuables are securely stored in either the safe or in our designated secure storage area, these may need to be sold to cover costs incurred. 
• To visit clients, serving court papers and recording evidence on how the client is cared for. As part of these visits provide evidence for O.P.G. safeguarding reports as we have a duty to protect people who don’t have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves. (MHCA 1983/2005) 
• To deal with OPG investigations, solicitors and executors also making sure the correct charges are applied to the relevant clients account, authorising payments from the internet bank accounts and cheque payments also that each account is balanced each month and that payments are made before accounts are closed. This includes organising/dealing with funeral plans, wills, court of protection funds, savings, debts including debt to the council/deferred payments, shares and investments etc. 
• To be able to deal with interruptions and have the ability to asses conflicting demands in order to provide various client services and guidance to social workers/mental health officers on clients and panel applications. Keeping up to date with any legislative changes by attending A.P.A.D. conferences etc 

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria: 

• Educated to NVQ Level 4 and / or demonstrable experience to operate at this level in an admin/finance related environment, where advising and decision making on complex matters was a main feature 
• Knows the OPG charges for Deputy services provided and Appointee charges within own area of responsibility 
• Knows and understands how to analyse, interpret and present complex information from a variety of sources 
• Experience of working on projects in a constantly changing environment. 
• 3 years’ experience in a supervisory/managerial position involving staff management, finance and administration 
• Experience of acting on own initiative.           
• Practical experience in a financial setting. 
• Experience of supervising/managing people in the public sector 
• Good inter-personal skills in relating sensitively to colleagues, outside agencies and the public both over the telephone and in person. 
• Ability to analyse complex problems and information and arrive at solutions 

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD. 

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application. 

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF. 

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.