POST: Finance Director

Reporting to:TBAP CEO

Direct reports:Finance Manager, Administration Manager

Contract Type:AYR

Key Purpose:

To lead the Trust Finance team ensuring that the Trust has a sustainable financial strategy and business plan, building a culture of transparency and openness around finance across the Trust, complies with the obligations and responsibilities set out by the EFA’s academies financial handbook, supporting all academies within the Trust nationally and ensuring that the Trust operates good governance practices in compliance with its statutory obligations.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

  • Be an active member of the Trust’s Executive Leadership team reporting directly to the CEO ensuring that financial data informs strategic and operational decisions
  • Lead the Finance team, taking responsibility for the strategic development of all teams within individual academies, systems, training and reporting across the Trust, delivering high quality services and ensuring that best practice is observed at all times
  • Provide sound financial knowledge to the Executive Heads, Heads of Schools and Regional Business Support Professionals on all aspects of finance, ensuring that their CPD and mentoring in financials are being supported across all levels
  • Joint responsibility for managing the Payroll and Pension schemes’ contributions alongside HR
  • Ensure that the requirements of the Trust’s financial procedures manual are complied with in all respects and at all times, especially with regard to purchasing and obtaining quotations and tenders where required
  • Safeguarding the financial records of all academies and having these available to support transactions in the accounts
  • Ensure that the financial due diligence is completed for academy acquisitions in a timely manner, including a business and financial report for presentation to the Trust Board with recommendations
  • Responsibility for the financial management system (PS Financials), ensuring that future system developments are considered and ensuring that meaningful reports can be generated at each month-end, at academy, regional, Finance/Audit Committees and Trust Board perspectives
  • Ensure that all roles involved in supporting finances within the Trust are supported to meet the demands of their roles including month-end close down, journal adjustment, control account reconciliation and outturn preparation
  • Ensure that VAT returns are completed and that VAT due is received from HMRC
  • Maintain individual account for the academies, ensuring that the agreed Trust Allocation is accounted for in each academy correctly
  • Manage the Trust cash position at all times ensuring that BACS runs are undertaken on a weekly basis and that an agreed level of cash is maintained at all times
  • Work with individual academies, ensuring that budgets are produced on an annual basis in line with the EFA timetable, producing the overall budget with a monthly reconciliation identifying any variances
  • Ensure that monthly management accounts are produced for each academy/region reporting on actual vs budget and enquire into unexpected variances and high spend areas
  • Ensure that Sales and Purchase ledger transactions are timely to ensure optimum cash flow
  • Ensure that the audit process is managed in a timely manner and by the required deadline and issues highlighted in management letters are addressed
  • Lead on the business planning process ensuring that financial plans are disseminated from Trust strategic objectives and operational plans
  • Ensure that regulatory and statutory returns are made in a timely manner
  • Act as the Trust’ Company Secretary ensuring that good governance is adhered to at academy and Trust levels
  • Maintain effective relationships with suppliers
  • Ensure that Equality and Diversity is applied across all Finance channels
  • To carry out any other duties pertinent to the scope of the post

PERSON SPECIFICATION

TBAP Trust is an equal opportunities employer, committed to providing equal opportunities regardless of race, marital status, gender, sexuality, disablement or age. This Person Specification is designed to help members of the interviewing panel judge the qualities of interviewees in a systematic and consistent way, and in accordance with TBAP equal opportunity policy.

Job title:FINANCE DIRECTOR

Criteria /

Essential

/

Desirable

Education

/ Degree level
Qualifications / FCCA
Experience / - Significant previous experience at a senior level within education or other relevant public or business sector working both at a strategic and operational level
- Substantial financial management experience of a large annual budget
- Proven leader of teams
- Proven experience of governance with a company framework
Knowledge / - Knowledge and full understanding of the financial procedures and regulations that apply to Academy Trusts / - Knowledge of PS Financials finance system
- Payroll and Pensions
Skills and Abilities / - balanced decision-making skills
- excellent communication skills
- excellent organisational skills
- good negotiation skills
- good analytical and problem solving skills
- the ability to work within a high pressure
 environment
- proven record of building excellent
working relationship with all staff teams
- excellent internal customer service skills
- a team player
- possess integrity
- confident and professional
- positive attitude to continuous
Improvement and streamlining processes

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