An inspirational charity is seeking an inspirational CEO. The Amber Trust is a unique charity, dedicated to funding music opportunities for blind and partially sighted children and young people.
Job title: Chief Executive Officer
Reporting to: Board of Trustees through the Chair
Location: Flexibility to work remotely with at least one day per week in our SW London and other locations for meetings as required
Hours:,30 – 37.5 hours per week TBA with candidate
Contract: Permanent
Salary range: £55 - £60K pro-rata (depending on experience)
Charity overview
The Amber Trust provides musical opportunities for blind and partially sighted children, including those with additional disabilities, via its Music Awards and Music Services.
Amber Music Awards fund instrumental and singing lessons, the purchase of musical instruments and specialist software, funding for concert tickets, and travel to musical activities for vision impaired children throughout the UK. In addition, there are structured programmes in its Music Services.
‘Little Amber’ is a service that offers music resources and quarterly sessions with a specially trained music practitioner to children under five and their families. ‘AmberPlus’ provides music resources and sessions offered on a termly basis to children over five who also have complex needs.’ ‘With Music in Mind’ is a new service for visually impaired children and young people with life-limiting neurodegenerative disease. Amber’s workshop scheme offers music sessions for groups of children in schools, charities and community organisations.
We have also developed extensive online music resources for teachers that are freely downloadable from anywhere in the world.
The Charity has a turnover of around £400k, employs a small central administrative team, and, for the music services, works through a large network of self-employed practitioners.
Role purpose
The Chief Executive Officer is responsible to the Board of Trustees for leading The Amber Trust, developing and realising Amber’s vision and strategy, and playing a key ambassadorial role with funders and other senior stakeholders. The CEO is responsible for the management of the charity and its staff and the execution of Amber’s targets, plans and policies, ensuring that resources are used to best effect in meeting the needs of beneficiaries. The CEO is responsible for initiating and overseeing new initiatives that will ensure Amber plays a leading role in the field of music and blindness in children and young people into the future.
Role Description
Accountabilities: To develop, lead and manage The Amber Trust, in particular:
Strategy
• to develop and deliver innovative projects and services in accordance with Amber’s strategy.
• to ensure Amber flourishes, meeting all its charitable objectives and its legal obligations as a charity and a company limited by guarantee, and to honour its duty of care to its staff, beneficiaries and other stakeholders;
• to maintain Amber’s ethos of providing individual and personal support to beneficiaries and their families;
• to lead Amber in the development and implementation of its long- and medium-term strategy and annual business plans in accordance with the strategic direction and policy framework agreed by the Trustees;
Fundraising and events
• to attend, represent and promote Amber at meetings, conferences and other events, enhancing its profile across the UK – occasional evening and weekend work and travel may be required for this;
• to manage volunteers and liaise effectively with fundraisers and individual donors;
• to engage in fundraising and income-generating activity to ensure the sustainability and growth of Amber, including bid writing activity;
• to monitor and evaluate the services offered by Amber as required by external funders and Trustees, writing and submitting reports to deadline
Operations
• to manage and support operations and services and to be hands-on where required to ensure these are delivered;
• to be pro-active in maintaining digital media relating to Amber and its work, including (but not limited to) its web page, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube;
• to manage the budget prudently to ensure Amber’s financial soundness;
• to ensure efficiency and effectiveness externally in service delivery, and internally in its systems, resources and infrastructure;
• to communicate effectively and in a timely manner with Trustees, organising and contributing to regular meetings for the Board, and its Investment, Fundraising, Digital Media, Music Awards and Music Services subcommittees, including the provision of reports, financial information, data on service delivery and all other matters to enable the Trustees to fulfil their governance role.
People management
• to manage staff, setting their objectives and ensuring that these are met, and that colleagues appreciate the ethos and values of Amber, and work in accordance with its strategic objectives, with regular update meetings and an appraisal cycle, and to monitor and recommend to Trustees appropriate remuneration;
• to ensure all staff are aware of current national policies and procedures relating to safeguarding in relation to the children and young people that Amber serves, and are given training annually.
Also to undertake other such duties as may reasonably be required from time to time by the Trustees.
Person specification
The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate that they have the following essential requirements:
Essential criteria
· Proven leadership experience in the third sector
· Proven management experience in at least two organisations
· Demonstrable passion for music
· Experience of measuring the impact of charitable services and driving quality improvements
· Degree level education or equivalent
Knowledge, skills and experience
· Experience of working with trustee boards and an understanding of their role and governance experience
· Experience of programme development and the management of grants
· Familiarity with UK charity law and governance issues
· Awareness of disability issues
· A track record of successful fundraising
· Experience of staff management including personal development, objective-setting, recruitment and performance management
· A high level of computer literacy in standard office packages and CRM systems such as Salesforce ;
Competencies and personal qualities
· The capacity for innovative thinking
· The ability to motivate self and others – of developing a vision and enlisting others to share it
· The ability to see ideas through from concept to implementation and evaluation
· The capacity to operate at a strategic level and to analyse and understand complex issues;
· The ability to prepare and manage budgets;
· Strong organisational, written and oral communication skills, including experience and confidence in public speaking and in effective report writing
· The ability to work in a self-directed manner, and to develop good working relationships with stakeholders
· A commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, treating people from all backgrounds with respect, dignity
· The right to reside and work permanently in the UK
Desirable criteria
· Experience of working with or caring for people with visual impairment
· Familiarity with the UK education system, and in particular, music education
· Knowledge of and familiarity with special education provision, incl]uding special schools
· Familiarity with other regional and national music organisations working in the field of music education.
The closing date for all applications is 9:00 am Monday, 20th May 2024. Initial interviews are planned to take place face-to-face in London on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th May 2024.
To apply to the role, please send a CV and covering letter, outlining your motivation for applying for the role and how you meet the essential criteria.
To apply to the role, please send a CV and covering letter, outlining your motivation for applying for the role and how you meet the essential criteria.
In their search for two new Management Accountants on a permanent basis. The National Archives are a non-ministerial department, and the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. We are the guardians of over 1,000 years of iconic national documents.
Operating within the Management Accounting team, the role holder will act as a Management Accountant for the business area(s) for which they are made responsible. Working directly with budget holders / project owners, Heads of Department and Directors, they will manage all aspects of their management accounting and financial planning services providing incisive, value-add financial support and analysis which facilitates effective decision making.
The organisation:
We are expert advisers in information and records management and we work with partner across the cultural, academic and heritage sectors. We fulfil a leadership role for the archive sector and work to secure the future of physical and digital records. We collect and secure the future of the government record, from Shakespeare’s will to tweets from Downing Street, to preserve it for generations to come.
The role:
- Be responsible for the provision of timely, accurate, relevant management information to all levels of management within assigned Directorate(s), regularly reviewing this information with the senior management team. This will include provision of monthly reports, critical review of results, value-add analysis, explanation of variances and early identification of potential issues / opportunities.
- Proactively provide improvements to procedures, applying sound judgement based on knowledge and experience.
- Be responsible for providing analysis that informs and supports effective decision making
- Apply various tools such as investment appraisal techniques to better inform decision making.
- Support the business in gathering evidence to assess the costs, benefits and risks of a wide range of delivery options when making commercial decisions, and provide advice which helps secure value-for-money (vfm).
- Support the business in the development of detailed business cases.
- Build strong and positive relationships with budget holders and senior managers (notably heads of Departments), providing the necessary assistance and professional advice to assist them with the financial aspects of their duties.
The successful candidate will:
- Be a fully qualified Accountant.
- Have strong analytical skills, able to identify and interpret trends and improve financial forecasting
- Have the ability to understand the strategic business goals of an organisation, able to ‘look beyond the numbers’ and understand the wider business context.
- Be a team player, with exceptional interpersonal skills, able to work with a diverse and broad range of stakeholders across the organisation. Demonstrable ability to influence.
- Have good written and oral communication skills, able to communicate clearly, concisely, accurately and in ways that promote understanding but stands ground when needed
- Have strong finance system skills including advanced Excel skills
Desirable criteria:
- An understanding of accounting policy and an appreciation of the implications for an organisation of Government legislation and accounting standards
This position will be based officially at the head office in Kew and will require the postholder to work from the office three days a week.
Applications will be under constant review before the closing date, so please apply via the link or contact Katie Moore at our retained search agent, Robertson Bell. Please note the closing date for applications is Sunday 9th June 2024.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.