Finance Support Officer

Responsible to the Finance Business Partners, REAch2 Academy Trust is seeking to recruit an exceptional Finance Support Officer to join our growing organisation. The post holder will cover a defined cluster of schools in our North and South regions, providing support to the Finance Business Partners in their oversight of school's finances, the application of processes within schools and their financial sustainability and helping to manage risks and opportunities. Supporting the Finance Business Partners, you will be assisting in their oversight of the performance of school-based staff and their adherence to financial processes and best practice.

Providing timely and accurate reporting, you will also support on Trust initiatives with the wider finance team and assist in delivering a seamless Finance service to the Trust, including support to schools without school-based finance staff.

You will be able to demonstrate excellent communication and interpersonal skills, be inspiring through your disciplined financial approach, your people skills and be a role model for the REAch2 Touchstones. You will also be able to develop strong working relationships with our senior leaders in the education teams; Directors of Education, Deputy Directors of Education, Headteachers and school office staff.

Travel to school sites will be required therefore you will need to be flexible with working hours and in your willingness to travel., The Trust has academies based across England and includes schools at various stages of development, from those requiring significant improvement through to existing outstanding schools. As a Trust we are clear about the importance of achieving long term sustainability for our schools. Our vision is to enable individual academies to flourish with real autonomy, whilst also ensuring a strong ethos of support and collaboration across our schools.

We are presented with a rare opportunity to make a real difference to the lives and life chances of so many primary school children - many of whom haven't previously received the educational opportunities they deserve.

In order to deliver our vision, we need exceptional staff across the organisation, and we believe that the quality of our staff sets us apart.

The role will provide effective support to our Finance Business Partners in proving oversight of, guidance to, and reporting on our academies within their clusters, ensuring the effective management of budgets, risks and opportunities.

The role is also expected to assist with wider work programmes and projects across the Trust and support the wider finance team during key and busy work periods.

Being able to act with discretion and absolute confidentiality is a pre-requisite along with being highly organised and with meticulous attention to detail, whilst also working within tight deadlines is essential.

Those we recruit must be able to demonstrate that they share our values, are highly motivated to work with colleagues within and beyond their role to continuously develop their skills and pursue professional excellence and are committed to providing the highest standards of teaching and support for all children. If that is you, then we would be delighted to receive your application.

• Bring experience of working in a similar or related finance role, including preparation of budgets and management accounting information, gained ideally within a successful educational establishment, or primary school, federation or Multi-Academy Trust


• Be capable of working collaboratively with colleagues and key staff within schools, and have an ability to positively affect performance improvement


• Demonstrate a high level of organisational skills, and be able to successfully manage conflicting priorities and deadlines


• Demonstrate excellent communication skills, both written and spoken


• Be able to travel around your region as required.
  
  SCP 29 (£37,841) - SCP 35(£44,008) 37.5 hours FTE - dependent on experience and professional qualifications, We offer a competitive salary and LGPS pension, with 29 days holiday (rising to 32 days after 5 years), plus bank holidays