Education Funding Team Leader

What will you be doing?

• Operational Leadership and Accountability
  Assume overall responsibility for ensuring efficient, accurate, and timely end-to-end payment processes are established, maintained, and consistently applied to guarantee the effective and compliant delivery of supplier payments.

• Team and Service Support
  Deliver high-quality operational support within the Education Funding Team, working closely with the Team Manager to provide updates on staff performance, process efficiency, and system functionality. Take ownership of identifying, resolving, or escalating issues and recommending solutions to enhance service delivery.

• Performance and Resource Management
  Lead the delivery of operational priorities and ensure key performance indicators (KPIs) are achieved through effective resource planning and workflow management. Ensure compliance with customer service and audit requirements across all activities.

• People Management and Development
  Provide day-to-day line management, supervision, and guidance to team members in accordance with the Council’s performance management framework. Foster a culture of accountability, professional growth, and continuous improvement.

• Service Improvement and Advisory Role
  Advise the Payments Team Manager on opportunities for service enhancement, efficiency gains, and process innovation. Lead or contribute to implementing agreed improvements within operational practices.

• Complex Issue Resolution
  Respond to and resolve complex service requests and queries within agreed service standards. Monitor outputs, identify areas for improvement, and implement corrective actions where required to maintain service excellence.

• Customer Service Excellence
  Champion a culture of customer service excellence by designing and embedding customer-focused processes and demonstrating exemplary behaviours that reflect the Council’s values and the VIP (Values, Integrity, People) principles.

• Collaborative Project Work
  Work collaboratively on cross-service projects to support strategic developments and continuous improvement within the Commissioning and Finance Service. Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to enable successful implementation of new initiatives.

• Information and Systems Management
  Optimise productivity and reduce operational risk through the effective use of Office 365 and internal IT systems. Ensure data accuracy, minimise duplication, and uphold information security standards at all times.

• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  Actively promote and uphold equality, diversity, and inclusion by challenging discriminatory practices or behaviours and fostering a respectful and inclusive workplace culture.

• Health, Safety and Wellbeing
  Demonstrate a proactive commitment to health, safety, and wellbeing by maintaining awareness of others’ needs and ensuring all duties are performed with due regard for personal and collective welfare.

About you

You’re an experienced team leader with a strong grasp of education funding and payment processes. You bring a sharp eye for detail, a customer-focused mindset, and the ability to manage people, priorities, and performance with confidence.

You’re comfortable interpreting national guidance, resolving complex queries, and using data to drive improvements. With strong communication skills and a collaborative approach, you work well across teams and with external partners.

You’re organised, proactive, and tech-savvy, with a commitment to service excellence and continuous improvement.

Our benefits

You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.

About us

At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.

Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services. 

We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential.  We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner

The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us. 

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email careers@westnorthants.gov.uk for support.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.