Chief Financial Officer - The Cranmer Education Trust

Based At The Blue Coat School, Oldham

Greater Manchester

Permanent, full-time

Start: Negotiable, as soon as possible.

Salary: Up to £85,000*

(*Salary between £80,000 and £85,000, depending upon the applicant’s skills and experience.)

Relocation: A generous relocation allowance may be available where the employee’s new home is reasonably close to the workplace and the former home is not.

We are excited to announce an opportunity for an exceptional finance professional with the right blend of skills, talents, experience, and values to become the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of The Cranmer Education Trust, based at The Blue Coat School, Oldham, Greater Manchester.

The Cranmer Education Trust is a strong and growing multi-academy trust based in Oldham and Rochdale, with partnerships that extend into Tameside, Manchester, Stockport and beyond in the East Greater Manchester/Pennine/Lancashire region. We are completely committed to our local and regional area and the diverse communities served by our schools.

We are at an exciting point in our development. From 1st April 2025 the Trust will include five large secondary schools, one with a Sixth-Form of 440 recruiting from across the borough, five primaries (two of which are two-form entry), the Manchester Nexus SCITT (which trains 50-60 new teachers every year - both secondary and primary), the East Manchester Teaching School Hub (which runs the Early Career Framework and National Professional Qualifications provision for (predominantly) Oldham and Tameside) and the Kinder Modern Languages Hub, one of only 14 Languages Hubs in England. This means that we will be educating more than 8,000 young people, employing more than 900 staff, and we will have a revenue exceeding £80M, plus the capital investment in our schools. By 2029, we plan to increase our family to 11,000 pupils.

We are proudly and fiercely independent and the size, cohesiveness and strength of our organisation will ensure that we remain so. What unites us is our shared commitment to ambition, excellence and community which is reinforced by clear systems, policies and procedures.

The CFO will lead our financial strategy and management, with the responsibility to report directly to the Board of Trustees in line with the Academies Handbook. They will lead a small central team of qualified and experienced accountants/finance managers. They will work closely with the Director of Estates. Our estate is very mixed; including brand new schools, a PFI, 2 C19 foundations and everything in between. The financial oversight of estates strategy and capital spending is a key part of this role and is important in terms of risk-management.

Education finance always presents both revenue and capital challenges. Our trust has a healthy resource of (currently) £2M+ and our budgets are balanced. However, there are financial pressures across the public sector. Our Chief Financial Officer will need to anticipate, strategize, plan and communicate in a way that is agile and resourceful. Communication at executive team level, with the strategic committee of Headteachers, and with the Trustees on the Audit, Risk and Finance Committees is essential. Ultimately, all the work of the CFO will be rooted in supporting our schools and ensuring the best outcomes for each and every pupil. 

We are looking for someone who shares our purpose and values; we exist to create exceptional schools that will give all our young people a future and in doing so, will build strong communities which have hope. Secondly, we need someone who has accountancy qualifications and experience at the right level (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA) and can lead the technical aspects of the role to ensure accountability for public money. Crucially, we need someone who will lead, communicate and take people with them, from the central team, through the schools, when engaging with the DfE, when reporting to the Trust Board. We need someone who understands the MAT sector and ideally has experience of financial leadership in schools/trusts. We are looking for someone with ambition for our trust, our young people, our staff and themself. There is, of course, no requirement that you be a teacher.

The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 18th November 2024.

Shortlisting and contacting candidates will be during the following week.

Interviews will be during week beginning 25th November 2024.

Start date: We would like the successful candidate to start as soon as possible, but we realise that notice periods can be variable, and we are prepared to discuss the best start date for the right candidate.

We offer:

• A competitive salary.
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
• 28 – 35 days leave per year.
• An element of flexible working, including WFH, subject to business need.
• A professional working environment based on the site of The Blue Coat School in Oldham, which is very accessible in the centre of Oldham. The trust offices are in the former vicarage, which has been renovated to house the central executive staff, our school improvement leadership and the Teaching School Hub and SCITT operational centre.
• Free parking on site.

Potential candidates are welcome to contact our advisers ASDTi on 07736 775776 to discuss the opportunity and to arrange a visit to the Trust if required.

The appointment is, of course, subject to satisfactory references and a successful enhanced DBS Disclosure.

Further details and a full application pack are available from our advisers ASDTi by visiting and downloading from www.cranmercfo.info,  by e-mailing gm@asdti.com, or by calling 07736 775776.

Please note, however, that (in common with most UK Schools and Colleges) we cannot accept CVs, nor will we accept approaches from agencies. 

ASDTi are available, on our behalf, during evenings and weekends as well as in the working day, and would be pleased to discuss your application, career or relocation expectations.