Job title: Director of Finance and Governance

Location: The Foundry, 17-19 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR

Hours: Part time 3 days per week

Salary: £32,400 - £36,000 (£54,000 - £60,000 FTE)

Reports to: Chief Executive

Closing date: 29th September 2023, interviews to take place in October. 

 

Overall purpose of role

As Director of Finance and Governance, you will lead, continually improve and be held accountable for the Trusts financial performance. You will be a pivotal member of the Leadership Team, providing strategic leadership in developing and managing Finance, HR and Governance.

You will contribute to the implementation of the Trust’s strategy to secure long-term financial health and growth, enabling us to achieve our vision and mission.

 

Key responsibilities

• To lead and develop the finance, HR and administration team
• To play a key role in managing financial and legal risk to the organization, including the design, implementation and monitoring of HR processes
• To be a key part of the Trust’s leadership team, deputising for the CEO as required and working alongside other members of the Executive.
• Have oversight of all aspects of finance, HR and administration that enable the effective day to day running of the Trust
• Conduct strategic financial planning to support the decision making of the leadership team and Board and report to the Board on all aspects of financial performance
• To ensure the robust financial management of, and reporting on any externally funded projects, including overseeing the process of preparing and submitting financial claims

 

Job description

Strategic Leadership and Management

• To lead the finance and admin team with two direct reports (the Head of Finance and HR Administrator)
• As directed by the CEO, work collaboratively with others on the Leadership Team, the Board and Finance Committee to contribute to the strategic leadership at the Trust, including shaping and ensuring delivery of our 3 year strategy and innovation initiatives
• Represent the finance, administration and governance function on the leadership team
• Deputise for the chief executive, internally and externally, as required
• Strategically lead on the Trust’s policies, processes and systems development and internal control, and ensuring compliance
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with practitioners and stakeholders in your particular area of business
• Act as an ambassador for the Trust at all times

 

Planning and strategy

• Work closely with the chief executive and the leadership team to plan and implement a robust financial strategy for Suzy Lamplugh Trust
• Lead on the development and implementation of finance policy for the Trust, ensuring that financial information is held securely and in compliance with legal requirements
• Ensure that trustees are fully informed on all matters of finance through regular attendance at the finance sub-committee and attendance at board meetings
• Plan, scrutinise and report on cashflow to the leadership team and finance sub-committee on a regular basis
• Lead on development of multi-year budgets and funding requirements
• Establish cross-departmental processes to monitor KPIs (key performance indicators) for the Trust and work closely with colleagues in other departments to ensure compliance with these
• Working closely with leadership team colleagues, ensure the delivery of regular forecasts and projections
• Lead business planning by working with teams to model potential future work - e.g. costs of expansion of an existing programme; modelling potential new programmes and projects
• Provide additional financial assurance on major funding bids

 

Management accounting and reporting

• Oversight of year end statutory accounts for Suzy Lamplugh Trust
• Prepare information and reports for the leadership team and chief executive as required
• Ensure the delivery of management accounts on a monthly basis, including cashflow forecast and projections
• Lead the coordination and development of the Annual Report and Accounts 
• Oversight of annual audit process and accounts sign off, including timeline
• Lead on audit process, with external auditors and oversee statutory reporting to external stakeholders
• Provide oversight of management of cashflow, ensuring available liquidity of the Trust for day-to-day working capital requirements
• Take responsibility for budgets and provide support and challenge to budget managers, ensuring that funds are deployed efficiently and effectively so that we are able to secure maximum positive impact, and that any significant variance is identified quickly to enable timely action

 

Risk management

• Lead on maintaining and monitoring the organisational risk register in conjunction with the Chief Executive and Leadership Team
• Provide advice and guidance on project or departmental risk management
• Oversee all financial elements of all agreements entered into by Suzy Lamplugh Trust
• Manage relationship with Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s auditors, ensuring that accounts and any other information required by the annual audit are produced to schedule
• Oversee cross-departmental use of any existing and new systems for the management of financial data, ensuring compliance with reporting and accounting requirements

Human resources and administration

• Ensure the development, implementation and control of systems for the fulfilment of payroll requirements
• Working closely with the Chief Executive, HR administrator and outsourced HR support, hold responsibility for maintenance of the Trust’s HR policies and procedures to ensure compliance with employment law
• Ensure oversight of the efficient management of Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s work locations
• Ensure oversight of relationship with key suppliers including outsourced IT support
• Ensure oversight of communication with Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s landlord, ensuring representation of Suzy Lamplugh Trust at tenants’ meetings as required
• Lead on ensuring UK GDPR compliance across the organisation
• Ensuring any complaints or information requests, relevant to the department (GDPR SARs) are tracked and responded to in a timely manner

 

Governance

• Work with the CEO to ensure that governance arrangements are fit-for-purpose, compliant with best practice, including charity commission guidance
• Work with the CEO to develop governance policy and practice
• Record minutes of Board meetings and ensure these are approved in a timely manner

 

Other duties

• Oversight of office Health & Safety, including ownership of policies, compliance and incident reporting
• Oversight of IT and Cyber Security, supported by outsourced service provider
• Ensuring oversight of appropriate insurance coverage in place
• Ad hoc operational finance support as required e.g., back-up payment approver

 

Person specification

(‘s’ indicates shortlisting criteria)

Skills and abilities

• Demonstrable financial leadership and a thorough understanding of best practice
• Demonstrable knowledge of UK GAAP, Charity SORP and FRS 102 (s)
• Strategic planning: ability to build a robust financial plan for the organisation and to foresee and mitigate risk/s (s)
• High levels of numerical and financial literacy: ability to analyse and respond to financial performance, including forecasting income and expenditure, comparing projected and actual performance (s)
• Demonstrable commercial acumen
• Proven ability to coach and support others while delivering testing personal objectives, interpreting corporate targets into clearly communicated work plans (s)
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills
• Collaboration and teamwork: proven ability to work collegiately with other senior leaders, deputise for the chief executive as required and connect with peers in the sector, including other small charities (s)
• IT proficiency
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written
• An influential leader with the ability to work at both strategic and operational levels.

 

Experience

• Demonstrable experience in settling financial strategies for the organisation (s)
• Substantial experience and success in a senior strategic financial management role (s)
• Substantial experience of supporting CEO and executive in successfully implementing organisational strategic objectives (s)
• Experience of using Sage Line50 or a similar package
• Experience of working a commercial/social enterprise setting
• Experience of working to or on a board, preparing papers and representing relevant departments on a board (s)
• Experience of working in a complex organisational structure with multiple funding streams, business functions, partners and geographical areas (s)
• Demonstrable experience as a motivational leader with skills that empower and inspire teams, setting achievable aspirational priorities and goals (s)
• Successful track record of developing, managing and being part of high performing teams and working in a cross-team capacity (both across the departments and executive) in a collegiate and collaborative manner (s)
• Experience of leading a central resource function (IT, Administration, HR) (s)

 

Essential qualifications

• Degree
• CCAB qualified

 

Personal attributes

• Creative and resourceful: as a small charity, we need to find new ways of stretching our resources further
• Reliable: as well as this being a critical post in its own right, the post-holder will also be expected to deputise for the chief executive as required

Committed to the aims and values of Suzy Lamplugh Trust: we expect all staff to uphold and reflect the ethos of Suzy Lamplugh Trust in all their work

Ambitious: with responsibility for growing the organisation’s work in a number of key areas, you will be motivated to enable the Trust to compete as a significant voice within the sector

Authoritative: you will be expected to deputise externally for the Chief Executive as required

Results-driven: the Finance director will lead a high performing team and work with executive to ensure successful organisational strategic outcomes  

Approachable: as a senior representative of the organisation, you will need to be able to communicate effectively with a range of key stakeholders to get them on board

Adaptable: you will need to be willing to take on tasks beyond the immediate scope of their job description from time to time

Visionary: as part of the leadership team, your ideas will help to shape the organisation’s strategic plan  

Resilient: able to operate within tight deadlines, in a changing environment

 

How to apply

The information you provide to us in your CV and Cover Letter will determine if you are invited for an interview.

The job description indicates the main duties and responsibilities.

The person specification outlines the skills, knowledge, experience, and qualifications (where required) for the job. 

Please send your CV and Cover Letter to [email protected]

If you do not receive a response within 3 weeks of the closing date, please assume that on this occasion your application has not been successful.