Job purpose
The Finance Director will be responsible for the delivery and coordination of the financial activities of the Trust. They will define the financial strategy to support the next phase of growth of the Trust and will be responsible for bringing the finance department and key stakeholders along as we plan for the future of our organization.
They will be expected to take on leadership functions, growing and developing their department and will provide operational line management for the finance team. They will be responsible for preparing and submitting all statutory returns, reporting to the ESFA, DfE, Companies House, HMRC and Teachers Pensions, ensuring compliance and adherence to policy.
The Finance Director will report to the COO, Executive Team and Trust Board, providing clear financial direction for the Trust. They will keep ahead of all funding and legislative changes that apply to the education sector and advise the Board of strategic financial information to enable informed financial decision making.
Key deliverables
- Define ongoing financial strategy that delivers the highest quality and value provision for the Trust and it’s schools.
- Develop and maintain a three-year business plan and associated budgets to meet Trust strategic objectives for development and sustainability in operational and educational areas.
- Working with the external auditor, prepare and submit audited statutory consolidated accounts to the ESFA and Companies House in accordance with required deadlines.
- Develop policies and objectives for the financial management and control of the Trust and ensure compliance to finance and procurement policies of the Trust.
- Deliver fit for purpose systems and controls that will enable the central Xavier finance team and School Finance Leads to maintain financial records in a consistent form, make financial returns as required and achieve best value for money through collective procurement and other cost saving measures.
- Prepare monthly management accounts, quarterly outturns, interrogation of variances to budget to provide effective management reporting to the Trust Board and Executive Team.
- To monitor the budgets and management accounts of the academies regularly and systematically and report the outcomes to the Executive Team and Finance and Audit & Risk Committee of the Trust Board.
- To oversee external and internal audits of the academies, including Teachers pension audit, produce required schedules for inclusion in the financial statements and take appropriate action in mitigation of any defaults.
- To implement and develop the use of appropriate accounting and planning software to support improvements in financial processes.
- To conduct and report financial benchmarking analyses, examining key financial metrics and performance indicators of each of our schools and the trust as whole and identify potential efficiencies within our organisation.
- To ensure that financial policies, procedures and operations are compliant with statutory and other regulations.
- To establish and manage a Trust Treasury function to ensure that cash flow is adequate to meet academy requirements while utilising cash balances to maximise income generation.
- To ensure that each academy maintains a register of its fixed assets and that the assets are properly valued and appropriately insured.
- To ensure that the requirements for Public Sector procurement are met and that academies work within the Trust Scheme of Financial Delegation.
- Carry out Company secretarial duties, plan and deliver strategies to successfully support new schools joining the Trust.
Key Accountabilities
- To take and be accountable for all decisions made within the parameters of the job description.