Education Finance Manager

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Job Description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall Glenfield LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £53,724- £59,220 per annum-(pro-rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 17th March 2025

Interview Date(s): W/C 31th March 2025

Leicestershire County Council is looking to appoint a motivated Education Finance Manager to provide strategic financial advice, support and guidance in order to fulfil its statutory duties in relation to schools and education. The post is located within the Children's Finance Business Partner Team who support the Children's Services Directorate, whose role is to safeguard and support vulnerable Children and Young People, including working with their families, and to provide Education Services and support to Schools. This post is focused developing local policy and practice to ensure financial sustainability of schools, maintaining an effective financial framework for maintained schools and ensuring that all Department of Education and other statutory financial requirements in respect of school and education finance are fulfilled .

About the Role

Reporting to the Strategic Finance Manager this role will provide primarily targeted strategic financial support across Education and Corporate services. This is a new role that is pivotal to the development of school financial strategy and will lead on all aspects of finance in so much as it relates to schools. The post holder will be responsible for interpreting national school funding policy and its implementation to achieve the best outcomes for Leicestershire's maintained school and academies as well as ensuring that an effective financial framework is in place for maintained schools and their compliance to it as well as being the financial advisor leading the operation of the Leicestershire Schools Forum. The postholder will be expected to take the lead on all aspects of school finance including implementation of national policy changes co-ordinating and consulting with schools, Schools Forum and other stakeholders as required.

To be successful in this role you will have proven experience of finance in a complex organisation, an understanding of schools and education finance and share a commitment to continuous improvement. The ideal candidate will have a background in all aspects of school and education finance and the challenges this brings. However, we are committed to the professional development of our staff in the finance team, and will actively support as appropriate, any successful candidates with any knowledge gaps in regards to this role.

About You

Essential Qualifications, skills and Experience

• Level 4 Diploma in School Business Management or Level 4 Association of Accounting Technician and evidence of participation in CPD
• Experience of working within an education finance environment and the national financial framework as it applies to maintained schools and academies, whilst ensuring integrity of school and local authority financial information
• Resolving financial problems, particularly efficiency, with sound workable solutions.
• Developing effective working relationships with headteachers & governors, senior and operational managers within service departments and other finance professionals to ensure business and financial objectives are met for the Council and partners
• Experience of working in cross functional teams and communicating technical financial information to non-finance specialists in an easily understandable way, both in written form and face to face.
• Identifying and supporting the implementation of improvements in a Finance function

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Nerinder Samaria, Strategic Finance Manager

Email: nerinder.samaria@leics.gov.uk

Tel: 0116 3057616

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 (select option 2) or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About Us

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it's like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us