Principal policy advisor jobs

WORKING WITH US

The founder and sponsor of the Harris Federation, Lord Harris of Peckham, opened our first school in 1990. We have, over the past thirty years, implemented ideas and initiatives that have transformed the opportunities of pupils from working class and disadvantaged backgrounds. Harris academies are widely recognised as a force for social mobility. We are immensely proud of the role that our alumni are now beginning to play in the world and of what we believe our current generation of pupils will go on to achieve.

We now have over 50 schools educating more than 40,000 young people across London and Essex, and employ over 5,000 staff across our academies and head office. With the majority of our academies located in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage, a high-quality education is key to the futures of the pupils we serve.

As a provider of employment and education, we value the diversity of our staff and students, and all our staff are equally valued and respected. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment for our students and staff.

Our work will impact many generations to come, and our staff come from all backgrounds and walks of life, coming together to inspire young minds. We promote an inclusive culture that embraces the valuable and enriching contribution that all of our community make. We continue to be proactive in uplifting and supporting all voices at Harris.

To discover more about our culture, ethos and what it is like to work here, visit the page.

ABOUT THIS OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for a Finance Business Partner to support some of our academies with clear financial insight, smart budgeting, and data-driven decision-making. You’ll work closely with Principals and senior leaders, acting as a trusted advisor and helping drive efficiencies across our schools.

If you’re an analytical, confident finance professional with strong stakeholder skills, we’d love to hear from you.

MAIN AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Your responsibilities will include:

Financial Analysis & Reporting

• In-depth Financial Analysis
  • Produce monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports to assess business performance against targets and trends.
  • Perform analysis to guide strategic decisions.
  • Analyse margin performance, cost drivers, and overheads, recommending opportunities for efficiency and savings.
  • Produce and review monthly balance sheet reconciliations to ensure accuracy and reliability of reports submitted to stakeholders
• Reporting & Commentary
  • Prepare accurate and insightful financial reports including dashboards, variance reports, and commentary for business reviews.
  • Translate raw financial data into actionable insights tailored to specific audiences (e.g. operations managers, Principals, department budget holders).
  • Identify data anomalies and validate results by reconciling figures with source systems.

Business Partnering

• Stakeholder Collaboration
  • Act as a financial advisor to various departments/Schools, supporting them in managing budgets, understanding performance, and planning.
  • Build trusting relationships with stakeholders by being approachable, knowledgeable, and supportive.
• Decision Support
  • Provide financial modelling to support business cases, changes in trends, and contract negotiations.
  • Assist managers in interpreting financial outcomes and guide them on how to improve profitability and efficiency.

Risk Management & Compliance

• Regulatory & Policy Compliance
  • Ensure adherence to relevant UK financial regulations, such as HMRC requirements, Companies Act, and internal financial controls.
  • Monitor adherence to internal financial procedures, policies, and delegated authorities.

For a full list of responsibilities, please download the Job Pack.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We would like to hear from you if you have:

• A Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related discipline.
• Part-qualified or fully qualified accountant (e.g., ACCA, CIMA, ACA)
• Commitment to ongoing professional development to remain current with UK financial regulations and best practices.
• A minimum of 3–5 years’ experience in a finance role, ideally with exposure to financial analysis, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Experience in a commercial or multi-site operational environment is advantageous.
• Demonstrable experience working with financial systems such as Oracle, SAP, or equivalent ERP solutions for financial reporting and analysis.

For a full job specification, please download the Job Pack.

APPLYING FOR THIS POSITION

If you would like to discuss the opportunity further, or if you have any questions, please contact us via email to arrange a conversation.

Before applying please ensure you download the job pack from our careers website, this will help with completing your application. Please note that we only accept applications submitted online before the closing date.

When applying, you will have the option to import your CV or use a LinkedIn profile which will auto populate the online application. 

A reminder to check your junk mail for our email communications and add us to your safe senders list to ensure all future email communication is received.

OUR VISION & VALUES

Our vision, from the start, has been to provide the structure and services needed for our schools to amount to more than the sum of their parts, and to free-up our teachers and leaders to focus on one thing and one thing only: the outstanding education of all their pupils. Our young people and communities are at the heart of everything we do. Our core mission has always been to close the educational gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. Our ambition is one where every child in London, no matter their background, has equal access to high quality education, giving them the same opportunities and potential to succeed.

We know there are many challenges facing our young people and the communities we serve, and that’s why we need determined people like you to help us tackle those inequalities. Whilst each of our academies has their own unique cultures and values; as a whole Federation, we have four core values which are central to successfully achieving our vision: Excellence, Collaboration, Support, and Innovation. We are proud of our values because they guide us in how we work allowing us to achieve the best possible outcomes for our young people, communities, and colleagues.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Safeguarding Notice

The Harris Federation and all our academies are committed to ensuring the highest levels of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and we expect all our staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, references, an online search, and where applicable, a prohibition from teaching check will be completed.

Equal Opportunities

The Harris Federation is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates. We value the diversity of our staff and students, and everyone at the Harris Federation is equally valued and respected. We aim to be an inclusive employer that reflects the communities we serve. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment.

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU

Harris has a strong culture of collaboration and best practice, with professional development and career planning at its centre. We invest in our staff with support, coaching, mentoring, and a wide range of top-quality training programmes delivered at every level.

You will also have access to a variety of benefits, support programmes and initiatives including:

• Excellent opportunities for continuous professional development and career progression
• Annual performance and loyalty bonus
• Pension scheme (Teachers' Pension Scheme or Local Government Pension Scheme) with generous employer contribution
• 26 days' annual leave (inclusive of our Christmas Eve closure day) plus bank holidays, rising to 27 days after 2 years' service, or equivalent for staff on term time contracts
• Harris Wellbeing Cash Plan including cover for routine and specialist healthcare
• Employee Assistance Programme for free and confidential advice
• Cycle to work salary sacrifice scheme
• Wide range of shopping, leisure, and travel discounts
• 20% off at Tapi Carpets, exclusive to Harris employees
• Interest-free ICT and season ticket loans

For most non-teaching staff based at our Head Office in East Croydon, we also offer lifestyle friendly working arrangements including flexible start and end times, and hybrid working with two days from home and three days on site.

A new role, the Finance Manager is responsible for leading all aspects of the charity's day-to-day finances, contracts and risk management. As a member of the senior leadership team, they will support the CEO with strategic planning. A key part of the role will include financial planning and administrative support for the charity’s fundraising efforts as part of a £6.5m conservation and renovation programme. They will lead the preparation for, and presentations at the charity’s Board and related finance committees.

The postholder will ensure that the charity’s budget and out turn are closely monitored and that established financial controls, spanning the procurement to payments cycle, are firmly adhered to. They will lead budget setting, forecasting, and financial reporting (including management of the external audit and production of the annual report and accounts) and will support wider work programme-planning for the charity, setting the foundations for financial success and sustainability. In addition, the postholder will act as the central finance liaison with the Inns of Court of Inner and Middle Temple – TCT’s principal funders – as well as with other stakeholders, donors and cross-departmentally.

Candidates should meet the following essential criteria:

CIMA, ACCA or ACA qualified accountant

Experience in a senior/ management financial position in a charity/ not for profit

Experience of managing cash and investments.

Effective communications skills both written and oral

Excellent IT skills including MS Office and Finance Systems

About us

Temple Church is located in the Temple, City of London. Known as the “Mother Church of the Common Law”, and birthplace of Magna Carta, the Church serves the legal colleges of Inner and Middle Temple, two of the four Inns of Court responsible for calling barristers to the Bar of England and Wales.

How to apply:

Please email your CV and a covering letter of not more than two A4 pages (demonstrating how you meet the role’s essential criteria) by 15th March 2026.

All appointments are subject to acceptable background checks including a basic DBS Disclosure.

About us

Carers UK’s vision is to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. As the leading national charity for unpaid carers, we exist to make life better for carers, however caring affects them. Our support, advice, information and campaigning work are now needed more than ever, as unpaid carers are providing more and more care, adversely impacting on their own health and wellbeing.

About the role

We recognise the value of social media in communicating with all our audiences; whether unpaid carers or their friends and families, employers, politicians, service providers, supporters and all those people who may become a carer for a partner, family member, friend or neighbour and will need information, support, and to know that there are people working to make their lives better.

This role works with colleagues across the organisation - but also in partnership with external organisations and agencies, with targets set for engagement (and other indicators of the success of our campaigns). We're working on multiple campaigns simultaneously; whether that's Carers Week, campaigns to influence changes to the law to better support carers, encouraging unpaid carers to join us as members, updating on activities in the devolved nations or getting people to fundraise for Carers UK. And we use a mix of owned, earned and paid communications to drive engagement in a challenging and crowded environment in order to get our messages to cut through. It's a busy, but varied role, in a supportive and collaborative team.

About you

Working within the communications and marketing team, you'll be confident in managing our social media accounts (we have many), ensuring we're using platforms to get our messages out to both wide and targeted audiences with engaging and timely content.

You'll be happy using tools for social listening, interacting with our audiences and building our reach. You'll be familiar with key metrics for social engagement and will be reporting back to colleagues and other stakeholders - and using this data to constantly improve our communications.

You'll be skilled in writing longer form content for our members' magazine, Caring, proof reading articles, posting content on our websites, creating graphics and making sure our content is engaging, audience focused and dynamic. Oh, and you probably know your way around an emoji set and are not scared of a well timed pun. We're a small but effective communications team and pride ourselves on getting stuck in and supporting each other when we need to deliver big on fast moving projects, so you'll need be able to juggle lots of demands while recognising the importance of always hitting deadlines.

Diversity and inclusion

Carers UK is committed to becoming a diverse and truly inclusive organisation. We strive to create a workplace where our colleagues and volunteers can truly be themselves and feel like they belong and constantly seek to ensure all voices are heard.

To embrace this culture of diversity, our employee and volunteer recruitment should reflect our stakeholders and the society that we serve and support, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, disabilities or religious practices. We value individual diversity and are actively building diverse teams here at Carers UK and value our colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds.

As a membership charity for carers, we particularly seek employees and volunteers with a real understanding of the issues faced by carers. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the process and role dependent on the needs of the applicant.

At Carers UK we want our application process to be as accessible as possible. If you need any adjustments to apply please contact us to discuss.  

The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 7 April.

Carers UK anonymises all applications prior to shortlisting.

Carers UK reserves the right to appoint at any stage, should an outstanding candidate emerge.

Carers UK are actively interviewing as we receive applications.

Carers UK may carry out online and social media checks before a formal offer is made.

The Diocese of Guildford is seeking a gifted and collaborative Training Lead to coordinate and ensure delivery of high‑quality training for clergy, licensed lay ministers and parish leadership teams across the diocese.

As the Training Lead, you will be a key member of the St Martha’s College (SMC) team. St Martha’s College is at the heart of ministerial formation within the diocese, bringing together a growing range of training pathways including Foundations in Ministry, Occasional Courses, IME2, CMD, Clergy Wellbeing, and leadership development. This role plays a vital part in ensuring these programmes are coordinated, accessible and effective.

The Role

Some of the Key Responsibilities include:

• Overseeing the planning and delivery of high‑quality training for clergy and lay ministers across the diocese.
• Shape and maintain the diocesan One Training Plan, working closely with Mission Team colleagues and external providers.
• Respond to training needs emerging from the Parish Needs Process and Ministerial Development Reviews.
• Support CMD (Continuing Ministerial Development) by helping allocate training allowances and coordinating diocesan training events, including Bishop’s Study Days and conferences.
• Lead the development of St Martha’s new online learning portal and line‑manage the E‑Learning Coordinator.
• Build and maintain a network of external resources and providers to help direct individuals to appropriate training.
• Manage communications with parishes, clergy and chaplaincies to ensure training opportunities are clearly and effectively promoted.

About You

We are looking for someone who:

• Is skilled in planning, coordinating and managing multiple activities to time and budget
• Has experience designing and delivering training programmes.
• Is highly organised, able to manage multiple activities and work to deadlines.
• Builds strong, credible relationships and works well with clergy, volunteers and colleagues.
• Is confident facilitating groups and communicating clearly.
• Is comfortable recruiting, coordinating and supporting Volunteers.
• Has excellent administrative skills and is proficient in Microsoft Office.
• Understands church life and is committed to supporting ministry and mission.

Please refer to the attached Job Description for the full details of the responsibilities of the Training Lead.  

Benefits of the role include:

· Competitive salary within the Charity Sector.

· A 10% non-contributory pension scheme

· Life assurance provision of 3x annual salary

· 25 days annual leave per year, plus bank holidays increasing to 26 days after the first year.

· Employee assistance programme

· Ongoing learning and development opportunities

If this opportunity excites you and you meet the criteria, we would love to hear from you!

To apply, submit your CV along with a detailed supporting statement (cover letter), outlining how you meet the essential and desirable criteria in the person specification. The supporting statement is an essential part of the application process and thus a failure to provide this information will mean that the application will not be considered.  

This role carries an occupational requirement to be a practising Christian in line with the Equality Act 2010.

A DBS Disclosure is not required for this role.

We will shortlist and interview on a rolling basis as applications are received and we reserve the right to close the vacancy early. 

The Diocese of Guildford take our responsibility for the safeguarding of children and adults seriously. Our recruitment processes reflect this commitment.

We take your privacy seriously. To understand how your personal data will be processed during the recruitment process, please read our Candidate Privacy Notice before applying.

We believe that diversity is a strength. We actively welcome and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and identities, particularly those who identify as female, younger, of a UK Minority Ethnic/Global Majority Heritage, or disabled, as it is essential that we reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.

Please note that if you are shortlisted and are unable to attend on the interview date, it may not be possible to offer you an alternative date.