Caroline Chisholm School is partnering with Robertson Bell on a retained basis to appoint a Chief Finance Officer on a permanent basis. This is a pivotal leadership role within a high-performing and ambitious organisation, offering the opportunity to shape financial strategy, lead transformation, and support the school’s evolution
Caroline Chisholm School is a high-achieving, values-led all-through school with a strong reputation for academic excellence, staff engagement, and community impact. Already operating at a scale and complexity comparable to a multi-academy trust, the organisation is entering an exciting new phase of growth, with plans to expand into primary provision and formally develop as a MAT.
This is a unique opportunity to join a forward-thinking leadership team and play a central role in driving financial sustainability, operational transformation, and long-term strategic growth.
The role
- Partner with the Principal, Trustees and Senior Leadership Team to develop and deliver a long-term financial strategy, supporting the school’s growth ambitions.
- Lead financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting across a complex and evolving organisation, ensuring strong financial control and sustainability.
- Take ownership of a significant transformation agenda, including digital system implementation (Bromcom), contract optimisation, and operational redesign.
- Support with the operational re-design of financial systems providing strategic oversight of major projects such as introduction of Bromcom for financial processes, ensuring robust due diligence, and stakeholder management.
- Act as a key advisor to Trustees, auditors and external stakeholders including the DfE and Local Authority.
- Drive value for money through effective procurement, contract negotiation and cost optimisation initiatives.
- Lead and develop the finance function, fostering a high-performing, collaborative and forward-thinking team culture.
- Support wider organisational leadership, overseeing linked operational areas including IT and educational visits.
- Identify opportunities for income generation, funding and financial innovation to support future growth.
The organisation
Caroline Chisholm School is a school with a strong ethos centred on kindness, curiosity and integrity. With a highly engaged workforce and a 96% positive staff survey rating, the school offers a collaborative and ambitious working environment.
The organisation has successfully navigated recent financial pressures, delivering significant savings while maintaining educational excellence. With a clear financial sustainability plan in place and strong governance support, the school is now well positioned for its next phase of growth.
Alongside this, a major digital and operational transformation programme is underway, modernising systems and infrastructure to support long-term efficiency and scalability.
Essential criteria
- Fully qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA or equivalent)
- Proven experience in a senior financial leadership role within a complex organisation
- Strong track record of leading financial strategy, planning and reporting
- Experience managing multi-million-pound budgets and driving financial sustainability
- Demonstrable experience leading transformation projects (systems, operations or organisational change)
- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at Board and executive level
- Commercial mindset, with the ability to identify efficiencies and funding opportunities
- A collaborative and adaptable leadership style, aligned to a values-driven environment
Apply now
If you are a strategic and forward-thinking finance leader looking to make a tangible impact within a high-performing and ambitious organisation, we would love to hear from you. This role requires primarily on-site working during term time, with some flexibility available.
Applications close on the 24th May but will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Thank you!
Lloyds Bank Foundation
Head of Programme Design and Organisational Development
Starting Salary: £66,438 (if London-based); £61,872 (if not London-based)
Contract: Full-time, permanent contract (we are open to conversations about flexibility - so please ask)
Location: Remote role - can be based anywhere in England or Wales with an expectation of frequent travel across England and Wales
About Lloyds Bank Foundation
Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is an independent charitable foundation, backed by Lloyds Banking Group and the people within it. We want everyone to be in a good place - personally, in a home that’s a good place to live, and in a community that’s a good place to belong.
We play our role by connecting and catalysing community-led change, providing the money, time, tools and connections that build organisations’ capacity and capability, to make people’s lives better and their communities stronger.
We back people and communities across England and Wales, to make that happen, because when you back brilliant people, brilliant things happen. Our communities are full of ambitious, energetic and determined people stepping up to make their neighbours’ lives better and their communities grow stronger. Day in, day out.
About the Role
This is a leadership opportunity to shape how the Foundation designs, delivers and strengthens its programmes across England and Wales.
As Head of Programme Design and Organisational Development, you will lead the Foundation’s approach to programme design, organisational development and volunteering, ensuring everything we do is high quality, evidence-informed and grounded in lived experience.
You will set the standards, frameworks and tools that underpin programme design across the organisation, working closely with Programme Leads to design new programmes and strengthen existing ones. You will also lead our organisational development offer, ensuring charities and partners are supported to become stronger, more resilient and better connected.
Alongside this, you will shape how volunteering contributes to our work, embedding it across programmes and ensuring it supports both community capacity and connection.
You will work across teams and directorates to ensure programme design, organisational development and volunteering are fully aligned and working together to deliver meaningful community-led change.
About You
We’re looking for an experienced and credible leader with a strong background in programme or service design, ideally in complex or multi-partner environments.
You will bring a deep understanding of how organisational development builds capacity and resilience, alongside experience of using evidence and insight to improve programmes and outcomes.
You will be confident developing frameworks, standards and approaches that ensure quality and consistency, while also enabling innovation and learning.
You will be a collaborative and relational leader, with strong partnership skills and the ability to work across internal teams and external organisations. A commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging is essential.
How to Apply
Please click ‘Apply’ to be redirected to our website, where you can download the Candidate Information Pack and find details of how to apply.
For an informal conversation about the role and application process, please contact our recruitment partner, Atkinson HR via the information in the candidate pack.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We hold Disability Confident Employer status (Level 2) and are working towards full status by 2027. This means that if you're a disabled applicant and your CV and application answers clearly demonstrate that you meet the essential criteria for the role, we will invite you to interview.
More broadly, we are committed to building a diverse team that reflects the communities and people we work with. We believe that diversity of background, experience and perspective makes us stronger and helps us make better decisions. We actively welcome applications from people who are under-represented in the charity sector, including people from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities, disabled people, and those with experience of the issues our funded charities work to address.
Key Dates
Closing Date: Thursday 28th May 2026
Optional Q&A Session: Wednesday 6th May 2026 at 09:00-10:00
First Interview: Tuesday 9th June 2026
Second Interview: Thursday 18th June 2026
Registered Charity
21 - 50
We support small, local and specialist charities across England and Wales.
Thank you!
Salary: £41,500
Location: Hybrid Work Culture. We are proud to promote a truly hybrid work culture, recognising that every role is different, and everyone has unique needs and preferences. Our Hybrid Work Arrangement empowers each team member to work with their manager to choose the most effective way to work that balances your needs and Hospice UK’s.
Our office is a short walk from King’s Cross station in London. For this role, we need someone to come into the office at least one day a week, on a Tuesday. A day where all of Income Generation come into the office. You can work remotely for the rest of the time. Equally, you may prefer to work from the office full-time. We encourage all colleagues to visit member hospices to help inform our work and you may be able to work from there.
Contractually this role is London-based.
Contract: 8 Month Contract ending on 31 March 2027
Benefits:
- 25 days annual leave pro rata based on the term of the contract
- Matched pension scheme up to 7% of salary
- Support for staff with caring responsibilities
- Family-friendly culture
How to apply: CV and supporting statement - using Hospice UK’s supporting statement document – available on our website to download.
Closing date for applications: 23:59 on Sunday 31 May 2026.
Interview dates: Tuesday June 9 and Wednesday June 10. Interviews will take place online via MS Teams.
Job Information
The Role
The Conference Manager (FTC) plays a significant part in delivering Hospice UK’s programme of conferences for our hospice membership. As a newly created position, you will take the lead on our one-day conferences while also supporting the delivery of our annual National Conference.
Our conferences are central to our strategic aim of bringing the sector together to share expertise, collaborate and celebrate innovation. Your work will ensure our conferences are delivered to a high standard and that hospice delegates have access to relevant and timely learning opportunities.
You will work with a range of internal and external stakeholder as well as the subject matter experts. Listening to their feedback, you will help shape the programme content, work with the wider project team to deliver a smooth and valuable learning opportunity for hospice colleagues.
The Team
The Conference team is made up of the Senior Conference manager and the Programmes Team Administrator, with support from the Deputy Director of Programmes, Director of Programmes and subject matter experts across the organisation.
It is a mighty team of two, managing a portfolio of 5 in person conferences across the year, from our role focused one-day conferences of around 130 - 150 delegates to our annual National Conference, which welcomes over 1000 delegates.Our team works across the organisation and collaborates with lots of internal and external stakeholders.
About You
You will have strong attention to detail, excellent organisational skills, and be confident building relationships with a wider range of stakeholders.
You will bring:
- Proven experience of organising in person conferences, events or seminars (or similar complex activities) for around 130 people or more
- Ability to distil conversations, feedback and discussions into actionable insights that support effective planning.
- Naturally curious and proactive
- A self-motivated, self-sufficient approach to managing your workload
- Strong time management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities
More information is available in the candidate information pack, which is available on our website to download.
Registered Charity
51 - 100
We represent and champion the community of 200+ hospices across the UK.
