Financial Accountant

Salary: Support Staff Pay Scale L/M (Scale dependent on qualifications and experience): £46,731 - £57,678

Working Weeks: 52

This Financial Accountant vacancy is an exciting opportunity for an ambitious applicant to gain valuable experience in the public education sector. We are seeking a confident, highly organised and motivated Financial Accountant to welcome into our dynamic, high achieving finance team. You will be a pivotable, and supportive member of the team.

Before applying, please read the attached Recruitment Pack and Job Description, for more details about the role. We ask that you read this pack carefully, especially the “Planning your application” section from page 11. This will support your application ensuring you have the opportunity to tell us about your relevant skills, experience and qualifications that relate to the job description and person specification in addition to details of your references covering the last 5 years.

You will lead our team of Management Accountants and support in the delivery of our accurate monthly and annual accounts, preparing and monitoring budgets, and ensuring that we meet all regulatory and statutory requirements and best practice. You will have excellent presentation and organisation skills and the ability to build strong collaborative relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring that we are offering the highest standard of education to our pupils at all times.

Experience of working within the education finance sector would be a significant advantage but demonstration of the ability to transfer skills from other sectors would be equally advantageous, along with experience of managing a professional team.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A relevant finance qualification (see role specification)
• Excellent IT and excel skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, be that written or oral
• Ability to line manage and oversee team performance
• A motivational and striving attitude
• Ability to lead others to a high standard
• Accurate and diligent work
• Works well in a fast-paced and high-volume role
• Passion for education, learning and development
• A passion for Finance and supporting the provision of excellent education

Inspiration Trust has twice been ranked as the country’s top family of comprehensive schools for pupil progress, and strongly believes in the importance of giving the widest educational opportunities to all young people, regardless of their background. The Trust provides strong networks with opportunities to work with a diverse range of schools and partners. The Trust is committed to offering excellent professional and learning opportunities to all our staff, with a busy programme of continuing professional development courses delivered by some of the country’s best educational thinkers and practitioners.

Inspiration Trust feels it is important to support every school by centralising certain support services. In turn this reduces workload on senior leaders, helping to establish further value for money on a variety of integrated services. This also ensures the Trust’s Academies have a local support structure and share best practice. As a Trust we will continue to review the services we offer and are committed to making them responsive to individual Academy’s needs.

The Trust’s dedicated Central Services Team is based at the Hewett Academy in Norwich. This team provides a strong range of school support services including:

• Finance
• Governance
• Human Resources and Payroll
• Operations, including Estate management, Health and Safety, ICT and Marketing

For information on what it is like to live and work in Norwich, click here.

When you join Inspiration Trust's thriving network of talented teachers, leaders and support staff, you join an organisation that supports you to be the best you can be. The Trust offers a varied professional development programme for employees.

We are committed to offering excellent professional opportunities for our staff, through careful support and personalised CPD. We offer a structured and specific induction programme.

The Trust also offers:

• Generous holiday entitlement
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) with generous employer contributions
• Health Plan and Employee Assistance Programme giving access to a range of services including claim back costs for Eye Care and prescriptions and access and access to 24/7 virtual GP Service and mental health support (Terms and conditions and restrictions apply).
• Cycle-to-work scheme
• Retail Benefits offering discounts with many shops and suppliers
• Corporate membership of the Norwich Theatre Royal
• Salary sacrifice schemes, including home technology, smartphones and healthcare plans, including Dental insurance and Gym membership discounts (Terms and conditions and restrictions apply).
• Free Parking (on most sites)

*Some benefits are only available following successfully passing probation

If you would like to know more about this exciting opportunity, then please email recruitment@inspirationtrust.org

To apply for this role please click the Apply button to complete the online application form.

Closing date for applications: 12pm on Sunday 12th January 2025

Interview date: Thursday 23rd January 2025

Inspiration Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

All staff appointments are subject to satisfactory references and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks. We are an equal opportunities employer.