Finance Manager

Birkenhead School, founded in 1860, is an HMC independent day school providing education for boys and girls drawn from the whole of the Wirral, Liverpool and as far afield as Chester and North Wales. Situated in the leafy suburb of Oxton, the School enjoys excellent facilities. The main campus has a ‘village green’ atmosphere, with classrooms and laboratories looking out over the cricket square. There are ongoing and substantial investments in facilities. 

The School comprises Nursery and Pre-Prep (Early Years), Prep and Seniors and integrates their objectives and activities within a ‘One School’ concept. Birkenhead School prides itself on being a family school and this has been greatly strengthened by the opening of the Nursery in 2006. It is attractive to parents to have all their children in one school and it is a great advantage for the school to be able to establish strong, long-lasting relationships with families.

A key feature of the School is its strength of community, which runs through the student, staff and parental bodies. The School is embedded within the wider Wirral community, has strong links with local business and charities, and offers an extensive bursary programme. 

A dedicated, talented and collegiate staff body is required to achieve these aims. The School’s informal motto is Respect, Responsibility and Resilience, to which we have recently added inclusivity, compassion, integrity, humility and courage as defined School values. Birkenhead School recruits on attitude as much as the quality of an individual’s qualifications on paper.

The Role

We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic, dynamic and motivated Finance Manager who will work closely with, and support the Bursar to consider the future finances of the School, as well as reporting on the current position.

The Finance Manager will ensure that all professional accounting standards are complied with and best practice in company and charity finance management underpins all procedures. As a result, the person will be responsible for all financial matters and is expected to prepare and deliver financial briefings to the school, administer the payroll and prepare financial reports for Governors and auditors, as well as being responsible for the Finance Team and their performance.

Finance is a busy team within the School and consists of the Finance Manager, Assistant Finance Manager, Purchase Ledger Administrator and Finance Assistants. The team play a fundamental role in the success of the School’s operations including analysing, identifying and implementing strategies to reduce the time and money spent on day-to-day operations. These tasks include processing purchase orders, payroll management, bill payments and the collection of School fees. The team also compile all management accounts and other financial reports throughout the year.

Key Responsibilities:

• Providing ongoing leadership of the Finance Team, providing appropriate guidance, supervision and assistance to ensure effective delivery of tasks and outcomes.
• The production of termly accounts
• Ensuring all key finance and credit control processes and reports are up to date.
• Monitoring cash flow and producing related information on a regular basis
• Authorising BACS payments
• Directly administering the payroll and associated tasks (e.g. pensions) (this aspect is under review)
• Maintaining the accounting system ensuring the mapping is correctly set up and all problems are resolved.
• Assisting with the monitoring of costs by producing monthly variance reports against budgets
• Responsible for virements and recharges between cost centres
• To understand the basis of the Schools’ income and report on investment activity and fee income
• Assisting the Bursar as required in aspects of School management, including projects and managing change
• Assisting the Bursar to prepare budgets, forecasts and financial reports to the Governors, identifying areas for efficiencies / savings.

The full list of roles and responsibilities can be found on the School website - www.birkenheadschool.co.uk under Employment Opportunities

The Person

We are ideally looking for a candidate that holds a relevant accounting qualification (ACMA, ACA, ACCA) or is qualified for the responsibilities of the role by experience in a similar field. The individual must possess excellent communication skills, with the ability to prioritise and work to tight deadlines. Proven experience in leading, motivating and developing a successful team is essential.

In return, we will value and support your contribution to School life, providing you with excellent rewards:

• Working with fantastic children and staff
• Free membership of the Employee Assistance Programme
• Membership of a defined contribution Pension Scheme
• Fee discount for own children attending the School
• Free use of the fully equipped on-site gym
• Support for your continuous professional development
• Lunch provided during term-time.

This is a full time post (40 hours per week) working year round. Standard hours are variable, usually between the hours of 8.00am and 6.00pm. Flexibility is required to meet the demands of the role, including very occasional evening work.

You will be entitled to 40 days’ annual leave per year including Bank Holidays and Christmas shutdown. 

To meet our safeguarding obligations, an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check is undertaken as part of the recruitment process for all new staff. As Birkenhead School is an educational provider, it is permitted to ask whether an applicant has any convictions, cautions, reprimands or final warnings which would not be filtered in line with current guidance, as defined by The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013 and 2020). It is a criminal offence for an individual who is barred from working with children to apply for a role which is classed as regulated activity (i.e. involves working with children). 

A letter of application indicating relevant skills and experience for the role, together with a completed application form, including the names and email addresses of at least two referees, should be sent for the attention of the Bursar via Cheryl Wallace (Personnel and Compliance Manager).

The closing date for applications: 9.00am.