Grants and compliance assistant jobs

Due to the rapid expansion of Day One Trauma Support and the recent launch of our three-year strategy, the charity’s infrastructure has needed to respond quickly to meet its changing demands. There is a requirement to ensure that the Finance Department has the right skill set and capacity to provide the support needed by the charity in an efficient and proactive way. 

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic Finance Assistant to join our small and dynamic team to work alongside our Director of Finance and Resources and Finance and Operations Manager, along with providing general administrative support to the Finance and Operations Manager and wider team as required to help ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the charity. 

Reporting to the Finance and Operations Manager, this role will work as part of the Finance Team to ensure the accurate and timely processing of financial transactions, month end reconciliations, preparations for payroll and providing support in the production of management and statutory accounts, and in ensuring the charity’s compliance with financial regulations.You will be comfortable managing competing priorities and working collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation.

This role is ideal for someone with strong administrative skills who enjoys working in a collaborative, values-driven environment. 

As part of an expanding and ambitious organisation, there are considerable development opportunities for the successful candidate and the ability to help shape the infrastructure of the charity. 

The post holder’s primary duties and responsibilities are as follows: 

Finance Assistant 

• Process purchase orders, purchase invoices, staff expenses, and payment runs. 

• Raising invoices and maintaining credit control processes. 

• Record and reconcile income received from grants, donations, fundraising activities, and other sources. 

General Office Administration and Operational Support 

• Provide general administrative support to the Finance and Operations Manager and wider team as required. 

• Help coordinate office supplies, equipment, and routine operational requirements. 

• Assist with arranging meetings, preparing documentation, and taking notes where required. 

• Respond to telephone, email, and visitor enquiries, directing queries appropriately when required. 

• Assist with practical operational matters to help ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the charity. 

• Undertake other reasonable administrative and operational duties commensurate with the role.

General 

• Build awareness of the charity’s purpose through building strong and effective relationships with external stakeholders. 

• Be prepared to travel across the region and, on occasion, to other sites and national meetings as required. 

• Willingness to undertake continuous development and training for the role, including mandatory Day One and role specific training. 

• Additional ad hoc duties as and when required. 

• Maintain accurate financial records on our accounting software (Xero). 

• Reconcile bank accounts, credit cards and control accounts on a regular basis. 

• Assist with month-end and year-end finance processes. 

• Provide payroll information to the external payroll provider on a timely basis. 

• Support the preparation of monthly management accounts, year-end accounts and financial reports. 

• Assist with budget development, monitoring and reporting where required. 

• Support the annual audit process where required. 

• Respond to finance-related queries from staff, suppliers, funders, and stakeholders. 

• Ensure compliance with charity finance procedures, policies, and relevant regulations and promote these within the charity. 

• Monitor the Finance inbox on a daily basis, responding promptly and professionally to queries, and escalating matters to the Finance and Operations Manager when required. 

• Undertake other finance and administrative duties as required. 

• Ensure all restricted funds income and expenditure is coded correctly. 

• Undertake any required training and development. 

For the full details, please see the attached recruitment pack.

How to apply 

Please send your CV and supporting cover letter to Charity Jobs outlining why you’re interested in the role. Please take your time to explain how your experience is relevant to this post.

Closing date: Sunday 28th June 2026 

Interviews:  

First stage virtual: w/c 6th July 2026 

Second stage in-person, Leeds: w/c 13th July 2026 

This is an exciting opportunity to lead our approach to monitoring and evaluation at a key moment, ensuring that high-quality evidence underpins our programmes and future growth.

Villiers Park is a national social mobility charity with a strong track record of delivering impactful programmes that support young people from under-represented backgrounds to fulfil their potential. The ability to demonstrate impact clearly and credibly, both to inform our own learning and to evidence our effectiveness externally, will be critical to achieving our strategic ambitions.

As a core part of our 2025-30 strategy, the Data and Insights Manager will work to embed consistent and robust evaluation across the organisation. This will be achieved by approaches such as Stories of Change, which combines quantitative data with rich qualitative insight to build a compelling and nuanced understanding of the difference our programmes make.

Our work is possible because of a brilliant team of staff, trustees and volunteers and committed funders and partners who believe in what we do and want to make the greatest possible difference. The Data and Insights Manager will work closely with colleagues across programmes, communications, fundraising and leadership, you will ensure that data and evidence are actively used to inform decision-making, improve delivery and demonstrate impact to funders, partners and the wider sector.

This is a highly collaborative role with organisation-wide impact, offering the opportunity to shape how Villiers Park learns delivers on its long-term strategic ambitions.

Alex Grant

Assistant Director

Job purpose

The Data and Insights Manager will play a key role in supporting Villiers Park through the collection, analysis and reporting of robust evaluation and monitoring. Working across teams and hubs, the postholder will support consistent data collection, lead analysis and synthesis, and help ensure evidence informs learning, decision-making and external communication. The role will focus on coordinating mixed-methods evaluation, with qualitative approaches, including Stories of Change, as a key way of understanding young people’s experiences of change, or clarity, and the impact of our programmes.

Key responsibilities:

• Working closely with the Assistant Director, develop, implement and review monitoring and evaluation approaches for all programmes, ensuring that the data outputs can be used in a range of ways.
• Collaborate with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and wider staff team to develop, implement and review Theories of Change.
• Work with the Programmes team to design and deploy monitoring and evaluation methods to capture and store relevant quantitative and qualitative data from a range of sources, including individuals and via schools/colleges and partner organisations.
• Undertake data analysis and write reports for internal and external audiences on process and impact evaluations for all programmes, including annual school impact reports.
• Support the Communications and Fundraising Teams by providing regularly updated data and evaluation, regional contextual demographic data and comparative national datasets.
• Manage programmes and impact data storage to ensure relevant access is delivered for SLT, Programmes, Fundraising and Communications teams and compliance with GDPR.
• Keep up to date with changes in regulation and best practice in data management and data protection/consent, especially when data subjects are under 18.
• Ensure that all data management and evaluation practices are compliant with statutory safeguarding and GDPR regulations and Villiers Park’s safeguarding, data protection and privacy policies.
• Deliver evaluation training and evaluation review meetings to inform and engage the wider organisation with evaluation practices and the implementation of data and insights.
• Undertake other duties as required to support the mission and work of Villiers Park.

Knowledge, experience and abilities (essential)

• Experience of, and strong interest in, high quality evaluation methodologies, including programme theory, process evaluation, mixed-methods approaches.
• Strong experience of critically appraising data and evidence, and staying abreast of developments within evaluation of youth-based charities and university widening participation, using this to support proportionate, well-evidenced conclusions.
• A strong track record in planning, coordinating and delivering successful evaluation activity across programmes, sites or stakeholder groups, including managing complex workloads, setting priorities and working to agreed timelines and standards.
• Experience of effectively communicating evaluation findings, both written and verbal, to different audiences.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and decision-making ability, including using evidence, judgement and stakeholder input to resolve challenges in evaluation delivery.

Skills and competencies (essential)

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships and influence stakeholders, articulating evaluation concepts and findings clearly and concisely.
• Skilled in planning, prioritising and managing multiple strands of work to deliver high quality evaluation outputs.
• Analytical and methodical, with the ability to interpret evidence carefully and proportionately.
• An effective manager of evaluation activity across teams, hubs and programme cycles.
• Strong qualitative and mixed-methods analysis skills, including interpretation and reporting.
• Ability to anticipate and identify challenges in evaluation delivery, and work with colleagues to resolve these productively.
• Demonstrate a curiosity about other evaluation methodologies and research from the wider evaluation sector.
• Strong IT and digital skills including Microsoft suite and data management systems.
• A collaborative team member who can also take initiative, work proactively and operate independently where needed, and who has excellent interpersonal skills to facilitate learning conversations and support and advise colleagues to use evidence confidently in practice.

Desirable

• Familiarity with longitudinal or progression tracking and/or data-sharing partnerships.
• Experience of contributing to fundraising proposals with ready evidence and an understanding of fundraising audiences.
• Proficiency in qualitative analysis software, such as NVivo, to support coding, thematic analysis and synthesis.
• Confidence using data management tools such as Dataverse, MS Forms and PowerAutomate, and Power BI for reporting or visualisation.
• Understanding of value-for-money or ROI-related analysis in a social context.

Additional Information:

• The postholder will have some travel to schools, events and partner organisations.
• An enhanced DBS check will be required.
• On occasion, evening work and overnight stays may be required. 
• Hybrid – location local to our Cambridge office or near to one of our Regional Hubs

Employee Benefits

• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays (pro rated) and additional leave over Christmas.
• A dedicated wellbeing day for you to take at any time and three days (pro-rated) paid leave for volunteering or study each year.
• Training and professional development, including termly staff development days.
• Support from our wellbeing working group and access to an employee assistance programme.
• Opportunity to join working groups with other colleagues from across the organisation as well as wider networks such as the Fair Education Alliance.
• Flexibility in working hours.
• Additional sick pay and compassionate leave policies. 

Safeguarding

Villiers Park Educational Trust is committed to safeguarding and to providing a safe and supportive environment, which secures the well-being and best outcomes for the young people with whom we work.

Safeguarding is embedded in all aspects of Villiers Park's work and integral to the commitment we make to our schools, partners and the young people and communities we serve and work with. All employees and volunteers are expected to share this commitment by adhering to our organisational safeguarding procedures, attending regular in-house training and keeping up to date with developments in policies and legislation.

All employees and volunteers will also agree to undergo an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services check and successfully complete our mandatory online training courses including NSPCC Safeguarding in Schools and PREVENT training.