Independent living officer jobs in Birmingham

Help us protect the legal rights of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and strengthen SEND Support in law

Job title: Head of Finance and Resources

Location: Home-based or Hybrid (with occasional travel to our office in Takeley, Essex, and other locations in England for events and meetings)

Reports to: Chief Executive

Contract type: Permanent

Hours: Part-time (up to 28 hours per week considered)

Salary: £48,000 – £55,000 per annum (FTE, pro-rata for part-time)

Who we are

IPSEA is a national charity working to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the educational support they are legally entitled to. Since we were formed in 1983, we have helped to improve the education experience of thousands of children and young people across England. We do this by providing free and independent legal advice and casework support for families, undertaking policy work and delivering training on the SEND legal framework.

What you’ll do

We are seeking a Head of Finance and Resources to provide strategic leadership and operational management across IPSEA’s finance, HR and Fundraising functions, ensuring the charity has robust financial management, effective systems, and sustainable infrastructure to deliver its mission. This role focuses on organisational management, financial integrity and coordination across functions, rather than providing specialist Fundraising or HR expertise.

This is a hands-on role. While the postholder leads on financial strategy, planning and control, they are also responsible for delivering key financial processes and day to day operations. The role oversees key organisational functions including HR and fundraising.

They line manage the Finance Administrator, HR Manager and Fundraising Manager, ensuring alignment, coordination and effective use of organisational resources across the organisation.

Professional expertise and delivery within HR and fundraising remain the responsibility of the relevant managers. The role does not carry responsibility for income generation targets but ensures robust financial and operational support for fundraising activity.

As Head of Finance and Resources, you will be responsible for:

• Financial systems, control and operations
• Financial reporting and Management Accounts
• Budgeting, forecasting and financial strategy
• Restricted funds, compliance and governance
• Fundraising and income support
• Leadership, resources and organisational operations

This role offers the opportunity to make a real difference as part of a small, friendly, and dedicated team. If you are passionate about helping children and young people with SEND and have the skills and experience needed, we would love to hear from you.

Who are we looking for?

You’ll need to be a fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA or equivalent) with a strong understanding and experience of charity finance, SORP, compliance, risk management and governance.

Significantly experienced in charity finance and financial management or organisational resources, you will be able to prepare management accounts, budgets, forecasts and financial reports and support budgeting and longer-term financial planning.

You will have experience of managing and motivating staff while working with senior leadership teams and/or trustees.

You have strong organisational and analytical skills and can analyse financial information and translate it for non-financial stakeholders. Experience improving systems, processes or digital infrastructure would be preferred but is not essential.

It would be desirable if you had experience overseeing HR, fundraising or wider operational functions, or managing multi-disciplinary teams.

IPSEA should also reflect the communities we support. We would particularly like to hear from candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ people, under-served communities and disabled people, as well as those with lived experience of the SEND system, either as a child or as a parent/carer.

What we can offer you

• 5% employer pension contributions
• Healthcare cash plan
• Flexible working arrangements
• 5 weeks annual leave plus bank holidays and an additional day off for your birthday

To apply

Please visit our website to download a recruitment pack and application form. 

Deadline for applications: 9am on 15 June 2026

First-round interviews: week commencing 22 June 2026 in either London or our offices in Takeley (to be confirmed)

Supporter Engagement & Fundraising Communications Manager — Go Beyond £35,000–£37,000 | Fully Remote | Permanent | Full-time

Go Beyond has given over 21,000 vulnerable children life-changing residential breaks since 1994. Young carers who spend their days looking after parents. Children living in poverty for whom a school holiday means hunger, not adventure. Children who've been bullied or bereaved and need a week away from their ordinary life.

The charity is entirely self-funded. £1.8 million a year, every penny raised by supporters. No government money. Which means the work this fundraising team does is directly and specifically what makes those breaks possible.

This is the role that sits at the heart of that.

What makes this moment unusual:

Go Beyond's flagship campaign, Ice Cream Moments, launches this summer — backed by Louis Theroux, James Acaster, David Gower and Jenny Agutter. The trustees want to go viral. A legacy programme is built and ready to launch. An alumni programme connecting with 21,000+ former beneficiaries is research-complete and waiting for someone to open the door. And a loyal supporter base of 200–300 regular givers — many of whom have been giving for over a decade — is generating £90,000 a year with almost no stewardship behind it.

Sara, the Director of Fundraising, describes what's needed like this: "Think of this as your own company. Think of this income stream as your domain — you could make it something amazing."

What the role involves:

The Supporter Engagement & Fundraising Communications Manager will own the supporter communications function end to end. This is a project management and strategy role — not an execution role. The doing sits with two direct reports and a network of freelancers. Your job is to build the plan, manage the team, deliver the campaigns and make sure the data tells you what's working.

In practice that means:

• Building and managing proper supporter journeys for regular givers, challenge event runners and Ice Cream Moments donors
• Project managing the full campaigns calendar — four annual appeals, Ice Cream Moments, challenge events, and a growing digital communications programme
• Developing and implementing a data strategy, setting up income dashboards and overseeing the CRM
• Launching the legacy programme and, in time, the alumni programme
• Managing two direct reports: a Digital Marketing Officer and a Data & Admin / Challenge Events Officer
• Writing an 18-month strategy with proper pipelines and income forecasts

What we're looking for:

This is not a pure fundraiser role or a pure marketing role. It's a hybrid — and the right person will see that as a feature, not a confusion.

• A track record of owning campaigns end to end — not being part of them, owning them. Specific examples, with dates, outputs and results
• Genuine data literacy — comfortable in a CRM, able to run queries, understand segmentation. Not expert-level, but curious enough that you're never caught out
• Financial awareness — you ask what the target is before anything else. You work backwards from an income number
• Hands-on as well as strategic — you can delegate and direct, but you can also do
• Strong project management — multiple workstreams, freelancers, deadlines you can't move

Charity sector experience is welcome but not essential. Commercial direct marketing, agency-side or individual giving backgrounds are all genuinely considered.

What Go Beyond offers:

• £35,000–£37,000 with annual pay review benchmarked to sector
• Fully remote — with the option to use Go Beyond's centres in Cornwall and Derbyshire
• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Flexible working pattern that can include an early finish on Friday
• Management training through the British Growth Fund's six-week programme
• A collaborative, supportive team culture in a genuinely mission-driven organisation

This role will suit you if:

You're energised by building rather than maintaining. You want to own a function, not just a job title. You think in income as well as engagement. And you want to be part of something where the work — the campaigns, the supporter journeys, the data — is directly connected to a child getting a break they wouldn't otherwise have had.

This role is being recruited exclusively through Raise + Recruit, an independent executive search adviser specialising in the charity sector. All enquiries are handled in complete confidence — including from your current employer.

To find out more or to express interest, contact John Austin. No lengthy application process at this stage — a conversation is all it takes.

Full candidate brief: https://go-beyond-roan.vercel.app/