Finance DirectorOutwood Grange Academies Trust

Application Pack

Contents

Welcome Letter

Outwood Grange Academies Trust Vision and Values

OGAT Performance

The role

Job Description

Person Specification

How to Apply

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Welcome Letter

Dear applicant

Thank you for taking an interest in the position of Finance Director working within Outwood Grange Academies Trust.

Outwood Grange Academies Trust is an education charity with a track record and national reputation of revolutionary school improvement. We are an organisation which puts students first: we care deeply about children and our aim is to raise standards across not only our own academies but across the wider educational system and ultimately transform children’s life-chances. This is a unique opportunity for someone to work with a multi-academy trust which is held in highest esteem and recognised as a ‘system trust’ which works directly to the National Schools Commissioner. To that end, the successful candidate would be expected to not only play a substantial role in maintaining and improving upon our high standards but also have the opportunity to help shape policy nationally.

As you will no doubt be aware, many public sector bodies are facing a tough financial period, and no school is immune from this. However, at Outwood we have strong systems which are held in the highest regard by the Department for Education/Education Funding Agency which enable the finance department to work hand-in-hand with executives to best deploy our resources and ensure the effective and efficient use of our funding. You will gain a tremendous amount of knowledge about our highly regarded systems and help shape them as we continuously look to improve.

To that end, we are seeking a Finance Director to join our trust, who will work closely with me and our Chief Operating Officer, contributing to the corporate, strategic and operational leadership and management of the trust (you will sit on the executive board and also attend the non-executive board), beyond the functional responsibilities of the portfolio, and leading on financial strategies to support our objectives.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record of senior financial management in a large and complex organisation and be able to demonstrate an innovative and commercial approach to financial management, providing a catalyst for innovation. Whilst it would be helpful if you had knowledge of this sector it would not be a barrier to any applicant as we will offer significant support and training to ensure you are as successful as possible in this role. Above all though, you must be

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able to communicate well, motivate and inspire high performance, have strong negotiation and advocacy skills but most essentially join me in putting children first in everything you do.

I look forward to hearing from you and welcome you calling us in advance of your application should you wish further information.

Yours faithfully

Martyn OliverChief Executive Officer

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Vision and Values

Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) – vision and values

Vision

The driving ambition of all of our staff is that

“the whole point of schools is that children come first and everything we do must reflect this single goal” Sir Michael Wilkins, Founding CEO

Hence, OGAT’s vision is:

Students First

As a high-performing multi-academy trust we embrace the opportunity to ensure that all children, irrespective of their starting point, receive an excellent education. We relish the opportunity to be part of the much needed regeneration of the areas we work in. To achieve this aim staff within OGAT have three values in common. They:

put ‘students first’ - they care deeply about children;strive to be experts in their respective fields; and are obsessive about attaining the highest standards.

As a multi-academy trust we want to be known for placing…

“Students first: raising standards and transforming lives”

Martyn Oliver, CEO

Who we are:

Outwood Grange Academies Trust (OGAT) is a not for profit sponsor of primary and secondary academies and is recognised nationally as one of the highest performing chains of schools and is the highest performing family of schools in the North of England. We have developed our educational blueprint from the original school at Outwood Grange Academy and used this to sponsor schools, having a transformational effect on children’s life chances within very quick timescales.

All academies within our trust work closely with each other as a ‘family of schools’. Indeed, each academy individually and collectively forms the trust: the trust as a whole is not a separate body or group of people but rather one single organisation made up of all our academies with one single vision and shared set of values. Together we all work to ensure that all children, irrespective of their

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starting point, receive an excellent education. We relish the opportunity to be part of the much needed regeneration of all areas we work in.

We pride ourselves in meeting the needs of all children in our care, including those who are most vulnerable or challenging. These groups of students are a major priority and we work closely with parents/carers in helping to raise their children’s self-esteem, resilience and subsequent achievement and attainment.

We have always had excellent working relationships with unions and these partnerships have reinforced our way of working. We would never do anything that would be detrimental to any child, staff or school in a neighbouring community. More importantly, we care as much about the results and outcomes of children in other schools as we do our first academy. In order to effect a sustainable transformation for the community we would wish to work with other local education providers and in particular the primary schools which feed in to our secondary schools as these are critical to the long term future of an area. We are serious about the part we have to play in regenerating the area by placing an outstanding school at the heart of the community.

The values of our Trust:

We feel strongly that academies should enhance the educational provision of an area, drive up standards, particularly for the most vulnerable, and play a central role in the regeneration of communities. We believe that improving young people’s life chances is essential to developing a strong local economy. Our philosophy and values are reflected in the ten underlying principles of our trust:

1. We always put ‘Students First’. We care deeply about children;2. We want to be known for our track record in raising standards: we are obsessive about

results;3. Our staff are experts in their field and through the Outwood Institute of Education (OIE) we

will always aim to recruit, retain and continuously develop both our own staff and help to develop the whole education system; in particular supporting the development of multi-academy trusts, to the best of our ability;

4. We want to transform the life-chances of our children by focussing on raising standards, particularly the basic skills of literacy and numeracy as well as employability skills so that our students have the best possible start in life;

5. We believe that local children should attend local schools and we are not, and never will be, selective in our admissions: we are fully inclusive and welcome children from vulnerable groups, eg SEND, LAC, etc;

6. We play our full role in behaviour partnerships/hard to place protocols;7. We follow the guiding principles of School Teachers Pay & Conditions and National Joint

Council conditions of service and want to work positively with trade unions and actively involve them in our decision making;

8. We always put collaboration before competition and will never do anything detrimental to a young person, member of staff, school or college in a neighbouring community;

9. We believe in the implementation of a systematic model, our 7 strand transformation model, across our multi-academy trust which enables every individual academy and all our academies collectively, our ‘family of schools’, to significantly raise standards and transform

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children’s life-chances. Individual academies are encouraged to retain and develop their own unique local community links and character alongside our transformation model; and

10. The trust will ensure that it creates ‘capacity in advance of need’ at every level of the organisation. Decisions to support new schools will be led by the capacity available and in our confidence that our existing academies continue to perform. Parents/carers and students would quite rightly never forgive us if standards in our existing academies declined.

Systematic approach to school improvement – the 7 Strand Transformation Model:

Our trust understands that there are five things which you need to be a successful multi-academy trust:

1. A vision and set of values which holds us all to account;2. A model for school improvement which is both systematic and consistent across our trust; 3. A curriculum which is both fit for purpose academically and financially;4. A recognition that we all work within accountability frameworks: AFH, NSC/RSC, Ofsted, DfE

performance tables etc; and5. A scheme of delegation which enables responsibility to sit with accountability.

The 7 strand transformation model:All of the strands of transformation are delivered concurrently: it is not sequential as each relies upon the other to enable school improvement at pace.

1. Leadership with vision and efficacy2. Quality in the classroom3. Curriculum design4. Monitoring and intervention5. Systems and policies6. Targeted professional development7. Praise culture for staff and students

Systematic school improvement within OGAT is achieved through the implementation of our transformation model. We have conscientiously developed a model that has ‘tight’ systems which run ‘deeply’ through our trust with our scheme of delegation as the enabling mechanism. Subject specialist directors, who bring permanent supernumerary capacity to all of our academies, are integral to our model and ensure that our academies develop at pace. This methodology provides comfort to our academies and their principals as we all have a shared understanding of our model and corporate responsibility to continuously develop the entire trust: we are a ‘family of schools’.

In order to maintain a balance between the systematic approach to the model and allow academies to maintain their own unique identity, we develop and train our staff to recognise the systems which are part of the model and describe this balance by use of the ratio 80:20 -where 80% is the trust transformation model and 20% is the unique character of the academy. As academies continuously develop our model and also create new innovative ways of working their evidence-based best practice will be shared across the family of schools so that all of our children benefit.

We best describe the key concepts of this transformation process as:

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Confident uncertainty – we recognise that new schools/new staff will need time to absorb our transformation model and that there will inevitably be some uncertainty in the beginning. However, we are confident that collectively we will be able to continuously develop staff and that our track record will also provide confidence in our systems and practices;

Earned autonomy – we want staff/schools to be creative, especially with the 20% which is their own unique identity. As they develop within our model they will begin to play a full and active role in further developing our systems moving beyond mimicry of the model to assimilation and, therefore, earned autonomy based upon a deep understanding of our vision and values and the rationale underpinning our approach: living the vision; and lastly

Corporate responsibility – we all have a responsibility to share our evidence based best practice amongst the rest of our trust and across the wider school system to create a truly self-improving school led system. We all take collective responsibility for the decisions we make and understand that if we constantly put students first we will do our very best for the communities which we serve.

The transformation model is also used to undertake our Due Diligence: the lines of enquiry which afford us the opportunity to both understand the context of a school which may join our trust and, importantly, allow us to produce a development plan detailing how the transformation model will be best implemented.

Leadership with vision and efficacy – a model of effective governance:

Governance and leadership of OGAT is distributed through the following bodies:

Board of Directors (Board):OGAT is governed by non-executive directors constituted under a Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association. This Board of Directors (Board) is responsible for ensuring that high standards of corporate governance are maintained. The Board exercises its powers and functions with a view to fulfilling a largely strategic leadership role in the running of the academies. This affords greater opportunities for collaboration not only with regards to teaching and learning but also in terms of the management of each Academy, including the procurement of goods and services.

The Board is also governed by the terms of any Funding Agreements that are in place and the Academies Financial Handbook (AFH).

Executive Board:The Executive Board is a sub-committee of the Board and shall be appointed by the Board of Directors. Its purpose is to manage generally the business of the Trust within agreed financial limits set by the Board from time to time. Subject to these financial limits, the Executive Board has primary authority for the day to day management of the Trust’s operations save for those matters which are reserved to the Board or its committees.

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The Executive Board is the overall decision-making body for performance and delivery, under delegated authority from the Board.

Executive Team:The main purpose of the Executive Team is to monitor, challenge and improve academy performance. This includes, but is not limited to:Academic performance of all students at every key stage;The implementation and consistency of the 7-strand transformation model;Curriculum and staffing management; andFinancial and resource allocation.The Executive Team is responsible for the day to day monitoring of the performance of the academies and for the educational outcomes of students, under delegated authority from the Board.

Academy Councils:Each academy, or a group of academies across a close geographical area, has local governance arrangements in the form of a Local Academy Council (LAC). The LAC is a sub-committee of the Board. The role of the LAC is to carry the Trust’s vision, values, policies and priorities forward, provide internal assurance and, in addition, to develop the local community and employer links.

The AC are made up of governors who are expected to question, challenge and support the academy’s leadership.

Each of the above bodies have detailed Terms of Reference which set out their roles and responsibilities and function. The authority of each group is controlled by the Board via the Scheme of Delegation.

Growth of our Trust:

Whilst we would always look to support the work of the Schools Commissioner by sponsoring additional academies, our growth as a trust will be defined by the following principles:

We are only as good as our last set of results: parents and children would quite rightly not forgive us if the standards in our existing academies declined as a consequence of supporting more schools;

Building capacity in advance of need is critical to both our current and future performance; and

The formation of geographical clusters of academies affords many opportunities for school improvement, therefore we will always prioritise the creation of local clusters of academies (primary and secondary).

Martyn Oliver, NLECEOOutwood Grange Academies Trust

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Overall purpose of the post:

Responsible for the all aspects of Finance within the Outwood Grange Academies Trust Family of schools.

The Finance Director will work in close co-operation with the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer to ensure that an appropriate financial policy framework is in place to guide the Trust’s financial decision making.

Main duties and responsibilities:

The overall performance of the finance function, including line management as identified.

The strategic leadership and direction of the finance service across the Family of Schools, ensuring a customer led approach, support for academy based teams and the training of new academies joining the Family of Schools.

Strategic financial planning to support the key decision making of the Trust Board and Executive Board.

Special Features

The postholder will be required to travel to any academies/schools within the Outwood Grange Family of Schools

Personal Contacts

External: Contractors, suppliers, parents, external agency professionals, other government and local authority staff, other staff from academies and schools and any other visitors to the Academy.

Internal: Students, staff, Board and Academy Council members.

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Job Title: Finance Director

Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer

Grade: £80-£100k (negotiable for an outstanding candidate)

Accountable for: Group and Project Accountants, Payroll Manager, Finance Function

Job Description

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:1. Provide leadership to the Board on finance and accounting strategy

to optimise the Trust’s financial performance and strategic position;2. Contribute fully to the developments to the Trust’s strategy across all

areas of the business, assumptions and decision making as appropriate and providing financial analysis and guidance on all activities, plans and targets;

3. Develop and oversee the quality of management information, budgeting and forecasting processes;

4. Ensuring that the OGAT Board and Executive Team have regular and accurate information to manage delegated budgets. Provide professional advice and assistance as required;

5. Lead on the development and submission of bids for grants and other income streams;

6. Strengthen financial competence across the organisation to improve financial decision making and operational effectiveness;

7. Ensuring the continued evolution of sound information systems to enable the Board to make measured strategic and operational decisions;

8. Establish a high level of credibility and manage strong working relationships with external parties including the EFA, HMRC, the DfE and external auditors;

9. Reviewing and improving existing Trust financial systems and policies ensuring they are robust, compliant and support current activities and future growth;

10. Ensuring the development of sound capital strategy for the Trust, working with the Estates team to create medium and long term capital plans;

11. Lead on the Trust’s approach to risk management and co-ordinate the strategic risk registers and Board Assurance Framework;

12. Delivery of monthly (internal) and annual (external) consolidated accounts;

13. Cash/Treasury management – both day to day and strategic deposits – including daily movement/deposit of funds to ensure maximum returns for the Trust;

14. Managing development of financial reporting systems (including KPI dashboard) to ensure appropriate level/standard to support OGAT growth objectives/plans;

15. Ensuring appropriate controls to safeguard Trust assets;16. Management of the budget process from planning through

consolidation to final approval by the OGAT Board;17. Management of production of OGAT Medium Term Financial Plan;

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18. Delivery of consolidated management accounts pack (income statement/balance sheet/cash flow/variance reports to budget and revised full year forecasts);

19. Management of preparation of statutory accounts for OGAT and related entities;

20. Management of submission of returns to tax authorities (VAT, Corporation Tax, PAYE/NI) including relationship with relevant external advisors;

21. Leadership, mentoring and provision of managed/continuous development of Finance staff across group;

22. Change management – developing/leading development of Finance organisation – adapting shape/structure/team abilities to meet evolving organisational requirements;

23. Management of establishment and maintenance of Group Procurement policies and procedures;

24. Management of a payroll team, to ensure the accurate and timely payment of salaries to all Trust employees;

25. Keep abreast of all developments and legislation surrounding payroll, pensions and benefits. Ensuring all legislation is implemented and adhered to by the Trust.

26. Management of project cost tracking including provision of monthly update to Finance and Audit Committee and Board;

27. Ensure the provision of ‘on-boarding’ support (in OGAT policies and procedures/provision of transitional Finance support) to new academies

Supplementary Supporta) Be aware of, and comply with, policies and procedures relating to child

protection, health and safety, confidentiality and data protection, reporting all concerns to an appropriate person.

b) Be aware of and support difference and ensure all students and staff have equal access to opportunities to learn and develop.

c) Contribute to the overall ethos/work/vision and values of Outwood Grange Academies Trust.

d) Attend and participate in meetings.e) Participate in training and other learning activities as required.f) Recognise own strengths and areas of expertise and use these to

advise and support others.g) Other duties agreed from time to time by the post holder with the Line

Manager or Executive Principal/Chief Executive.h) Play an appropriate part in child protection procedures, such as

relating relevant factual information and recording/reporting disclosures to the designated teacher/relevant professional.

NOTESThis job description is not necessarily a comprehensive definition of the post. It will be reviewed at intervals and it may be subject to modification or amendment at any time after consultation with the holder of the post.

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Knowledge & Experience Essential

Desirable

Relevant managerial and professional experience in a related area at a senior level

A successful record of working within a change environment and a commitment to the delivery of Best Value services

A sound knowledge or experience of relevant legislation An innovative leader with a vision for strategic financial leadership in a multi academy trust

Knowledge of principles of, or direct experience of, “lean thinking” methodologies e.g. systems thinking

Knowledge of experience of the charity sector would be advantageous

Qualifications

A degree and/or professional qualification relevant to the post and/or equivalent learning through professional experience

Membership of a relevant professional body A recognised management qualification Skills

Ability to demonstrate a business focus and commercially minded approach to managing a public sector finance function

Ability to win support for new ideas and concepts through effective advocacy skills

A strong understanding of ICT and its potential for the effectiveness of the organisation

A proven ability to successfully manage resources effectively

The ability to translate a visionary/innovative concept into a practical implementation plan

Personal Qualities

The requirement is for a commercially astute, articulate,

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Person Specification

Job Title: Finance Director

technically strong, dynamic, insightful and influential leader with the ability to operate at a strategic levelA team player with excellent communication skills and robust and focused approach to the delivery of key strategic imperatives

Highly motivated, with an inquiring mind and a passion for excellence and innovation in pursuit of success

High integrity and openness combined with commitment to good governance

A mature and balanced approach to the assessment and management of risk

An ability to use the full range of leadership skills and qualities, including emotional intelligence, as appropriate to the situation

Someone who is resilient and determined but can also provide support, demonstrate empathy and deal with staff and situations in a sensitive and considerate manner

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How to ApplyTo apply please complete the Outwood Grange Academies Trust application form available at www.outwood.com/vacancies. Your supporting statement should address and evidence the selection criteria detailed in the Person Specification.

Closing Date:

Friday, 4 November 2016 at 12 noon

Interviews:

Interviews will be held over 2 days towards the end of November 2016. Dates TBC.

Applying:

The online application form should be completed at www.outwood.com/vacancies.

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