Schools jobs

ABOUT CHEFS IN SCHOOLS

Chefs in Schools exists to improve children’s health and futures through better school food and meaningful food education.

We work alongside schools and catering teams to transform what children eat every day, particularly in communities facing the greatest barriers to good health. We combine practical support, training, operational expertise and sector influence to help schools serve fresh, nutritious food that children want to eat.

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and are ambitious about both impact and scale. We want every child to have access to excellent school food and a real food education, regardless of background.

We are a values-led organisation - bold, honest, collaborative, innovative and focused on solutions.

WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS

You will lead the delivery of Chefs in Schools External Affairs function, ultimately ensuring there is widespread recognition that poor quality school food is unacceptable. Through integrated media, digital and advocacy work, you’ll ensure quality school food is viewed as a vital tool for healthy development and food literacy. 

You will turn strategic direction into coordinated delivery, leading a multidisciplinary team that increases our influence, strengthens our reputation and helps achieve meaningful improvements in school food.

Working closely with External Affairs colleagues and Chief Executive, you will ensure our public profile, policy influence and media work reinforce one another, while creating the management capacity required for a growing organisation. This builds on the new functional structure where media and content, policy and campaigns, and the School Food Review programme all sit within External Affairs.

We want Chefs in Schools to become the most trusted and recognisable voice in the conversation around school food and food literacy. This role will play a central part in building that influence and recognition.

We are looking for somebody who understands that influence is built through consistency, credibility, creativity and cultural relevance as much as through formal communications activity alone. 

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Leadership

• Lead the day-to-day operation of the External Affairs team.

• Translate organisational strategy into clear plans and objectives.

• Ensure media, content creation, campaigns, policy and coalition activity reinforce one another.

• Set priorities and allocate resources across competing work.

• Develop team capability through coaching, support and performance management.

• Contribute to organisational strategy and annual planning.

• Advise on reputational opportunities and risks.

• Ensure innovation is embedded at the heart of our work and approach.

• Deputise at SLT level where appropriate.

• Represent the organisation externally.

• Build a collaborative, ambitious, solutions-focused culture.

Operational planning

• Develop and oversee the annual External Affairs plan in line with strategy.

• Coordinate campaign calendars, policy priorities, publications and media moments.

• Ensure external activity supports fundraising, programmes and partnerships.

• Monitor delivery against KPIs and adjust plans where required.

Campaigns and public engagement

• Provide strategic oversight of policy development and campaigning.

• Challenge and refine policy recommendations before publication.

• Ensure campaigns are evidence-led and aligned with organisational strategy.

• Support relationships with government, sector leaders and coalition partners.

• Build strong relationships with media, MPs, councillors and key stakeholders.

Media & communications

• Oversee media strategy and organisational messaging.

• Ensure consistency across press, social media, website, publications and events.

• Identify media moments and hard hitting stories that will hit the headlines. 

• Sign off major messaging and communications.

• Lead communications planning around major announcements or crises.

School Food Review 

• Provide strategic oversight of the School Food Review programme.

• Ensure coalition work complements Chefs in Schools wider influencing strategy.

• Support senior relationships with coalition partners and funders.

• Remove barriers to delivery for the Programme Manager.

Budget & governance

• Manage the External Affairs budget.

• Ensure safeguarding, risk management and governance requirements are met.

• Oversee procurement of agencies and consultants.

ABOUT YOU

Essential experience and skills

• Significant senior leadership experience across media relations, campaigns, policy or public affairs.

• Experience managing multidisciplinary teams.

• Strong operational planning skills.

• Excellent political judgement.

• Experience influencing senior stakeholders.

• Outstanding written and verbal communication.

• Strong project and budget management.

• Comfortable balancing long-term strategy with fast-paced reactive work.

• Strong understanding of the UK media landscape and digital channels. 

• Excellent communication skills – written, verbal and visual. 

• Experience of working with MPs and other key stakeholders.

• Strong alignment with the mission and values of Chefs in Schools.

Desirable

• Education, food systems or public health experience.

• Coalition leadership.

• Charity senior management.

• Experience working with ministers, journalists and on national campaigns.

OUR COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION

We know that strong candidates may not meet every single requirement listed in this job description.

If this role excites you and you believe you could make a strong contribution to our mission, we would encourage you to apply.

We are committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation where people from different backgrounds, experiences and communities can thrive.

The School for Social Entrepreneurs backs people with purpose — entrepreneurs building organisations that change their communities. We're looking for a National Partnerships Lead to work directly with our CEO, driving high-priority national funding partnerships, diversifying our income, and building the relationships that fund our impact. 

You'll identify major funding opportunities, negotiate with trusts, corporates and government partners, and lead complex proposals from first conversation through to a signed agreement — including the budgets, risk assessments and value propositions behind them. You'll also act as a sounding board for the CEO, pressure-testing ideas and sharpening how we tell our story to funders. 

We're looking for sustained experience supporting a CEO or senior leader, a track record of leading multi-million pound funding initiatives end-to-end, and the versatile writing skills to move between board papers and detailed funder tenders without losing accuracy under pressure. Sharp budgeting and numeracy matter for this role, alongside real comfort building trust with senior external stakeholders. 

This position is for someone who thrives on ambiguity, enjoys solving complex problems, and wants their work to directly fund entrepreneurs changing their communities. 

The National Society for Education (NSE) is both an NCI and a Royal-charter charity. It's aims are to support Church schools and the wider education sector by developing leaders, shaping policy and growing faith.

The NSE leads the Church of England's national work in education in partnership with 41 Diocesan Boards of Education and approximately 4,700 Church of England schools. We also support the national education work of the Church in Wales, which includes around 150 schools. Our presence extends to work with community schools and academy trusts, as well as higher and further education through numerous chaplaincies, providing spiritual support and guidance to children and young people, and to adults.

We are a dynamic team, working remotely from our homes around the country. We gather regularly online, and also have in-person team days through the year.

7.5 hours per week (term-time only) / £34,475 per annum, pro rata / permanent /working day is currently Tuesday 0830 - 1630 (with unpaid 30-minute break), other days can be considered and discussed at interview

YMCA DownsLink Group is the leading charity for children and young people across Sussex and Surrey. We offer safe homes, mental health support and trusted advice.

We believe that every child and young person has the right to be safe, heard and to shape their own future. We work alongside them to make that happen.

We are here for children and young people, many of whom face multiple challenges and need our support.

Our Values - we do what’s right, we work with heart, and we build real connections – guide us in all our actions.

YMCA Dialogue is a BACP Accredited service, providing counselling services in schools since 1994. Dialogue has built an excellent reputation with schools, colleges, professionals and commissioners and the service has developed and expanded over the years, now operating across Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.

We are recruiting for qualified counsellor or therapist to join our team and deliver our service at Felpham Community College in Felpham, Bognor Regis. You will be working with a range of clients within the Dialogue Thresholds and working to a 6-8 session model. You will be working alongside another experienced Dialogue School Counsellor and working closely with the Student Services Pastoral team at the college.

We are seeking candidates who are passionate about making a difference to lives of the children they work with. You will provide an ethical, professional counselling service at Felpham Community College and will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff.

This will include discussion of referrals, managing a session timetable within the school day and agreeing a process for students coming to and from sessions.

You will be required to undertake assessments with parents/carers and counselling sessions with children, complete all associated admin and attend regular clinical supervision and line management meetings.

Key responsibilities

• Run a suitable appointment system flexible to the needs of the school, offering students appropriate assessments and counselling appointments.
• Manage the tight time boundaries of the role and the often complex and varied workload.
• Liaise with school staff over referrals, waiting lists and appointments.
• Carry out initial clinical and risk assessments and establish appropriate referral pathways with other services where appropriate. Continually assess risk throughout each student’s counselling.
• Follow YMCA Dialogue safeguarding procedures; to know who the School’s Designated Safeguarding Officer/s is and how to contact them when a safeguarding concern arises.
• Work at all times within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.
• Maintain individual membership of the BACP and to become a Registered Member (or other professional body such as HCPC).
• You will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff.

Qualifications, knowledge, and experience

You will have a genuine interest in working with children and young people of primary and secondary school age, together with experience of building effective therapeutic relationships. You will bring a professional, flexible approach, excellent interpersonal and time management skills, and ideally have experience of counselling children and young people using creative therapeutic approaches. Experience of working within a school setting would be advantageous.

Essential:

• Counselling or psychotherapy qualification at Level 4 minimum; Level 6 or above is desirable – along with two years’ post qualifying experience in face-to-face individual counselling or therapy with young people (preferred), including experience of working with risk-related issues as a qualified counsellor.
• You will already have a sound understanding of child protection and vulnerable adult safeguarding issues, policies, and procedures.
• You will already have proven experience in safeguarding children and young people, responding to, managing, and referring safeguarding issues.
• You will already have a BACP Membership; BACP Registered or Accredited. Or other professional body e.g. HCPC.

CLOSING DATE: Wednesday 12 August 2026 at midnight. 

Please note that we are unable to offer a work permit or visa sponsorship for this role; applicants must already have the right to live and work in the UK independently.

An inclusive workplace We are committed to policies and practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion and to supporting our people to make sure our culture is consistent with this commitment. 

Accessibility If you require assistance or have questions regarding the application process, please do contact us.

YMCA DLG requires all staff and volunteers to be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and to respond proactively to safeguarding concerns. 

Successful applicants will undergo a thorough background screening process, conducted by an accredited third-party provider. This includes an Enhanced DBS check (with Children’s and Adults’ Barred Lists) as well as comprehensive reference and activity check.

This is an exciting opportunity for an excellent communicator with experience in collaboration and partnership working who is keen to make good quality income maximisation advice and support accessible to families across Scotland.

As Development Officer (Income Maximisation in Schools) you will play a lead role in looking at the actions needed at different levels to sustainably embed advice in schools across Scotland. You’ll be involving and engaging schools, advice services and other partners to develop practical recommendations which can be used to improve provision nationally. You will also be helping to develop resources and professional learning to increase awareness and confidence in schools around financial entitlements and pathways to income maximisation support.

You will be based within the Cost of the School Day team at CPAG in Scotland and will work closely with Welfare Rights, Digital and Policy colleagues.

We welcome applications from individuals with the skills and experience outlined and we can be flexible about working arrangements. We operate a hybrid working system and would be happy to discuss any flexibilities required. CPAG is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion which you can read more about in the job pack.

For more information about this post and to apply, download the Development Officer (Income Maximisation in Schools) job pack and application form.

If you have questions or need specific arrangements or reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process please contact us at.

Closing date for applications: 11.59pm 16 August 2026

Interviews will be held at our Glasgow office in person on: 25 August 2026 

30 hours per week (term-time only) / £34,475 per annum, pro rata / permanent / working days to be discussed at interview (role may be considered for job share between two counsellors)

YMCA DownsLink Group is the leading charity for children and young people across Sussex and Surrey. We offer safe homes, mental health support and trusted advice.

We believe that every child and young person has the right to be safe, heard and to shape their own future. We work alongside them to make that happen.

We are here for children and young people, many of whom face multiple challenges and need our support.

Our Values - we do what’s right, we work with heart, and we build real connections – guide us in all our actions.

YMCA Dialogue is a BACP Accredited service, providing counselling services in schools since 1994. Dialogue has built an excellent reputation with schools, colleges, professionals and commissioners and the service has developed and expanded over the years, now operating across Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.

We are recruiting for qualified counsellor or therapist with experience of working with secondary school children to join our team and deliver our service at The Forest School in Horsham, West Sussex.

We are seeking candidates who are passionate about making a difference to lives of the children they work with. You will provide an ethical, professional counselling service at The Forest School and will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff.

This will include discussion of referrals, managing a session timetable within the school day and agreeing a process for students coming to and from sessions.

You will be required to undertake assessments with parents/carers and counselling sessions with children, complete all associated admin and attend regular clinical supervision and line management meetings.

Key responsibilities

• Run a suitable appointment system flexible to the needs of the school, offering students appropriate assessments and counselling appointments.
• Manage the tight time boundaries of the role and the often complex and varied workload.
• Liaise with school staff over referrals, waiting lists and appointments.
• Carry out initial clinical and risk assessments and establish appropriate referral pathways with other services where appropriate. Continually assess risk throughout each student’s counselling.
• Follow YMCA Dialogue safeguarding procedures; to know who the School’s Designated Safeguarding Officer/s is and how to contact them when a safeguarding concern arises.
• Work at all times within the BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions.
• Maintain individual membership of the BACP and to become a Registered Member (or other professional body such as HCPC).
• You will establish good professional working relationships with key school staff.

Qualifications, knowledge, and experience

You will have a genuine interest in working with children and young people of primary and secondary school age, together with experience of building effective therapeutic relationships. You will bring a professional, flexible approach, excellent interpersonal and time management skills, and ideally have experience of counselling children and young people using creative therapeutic approaches. Experience of working within a school setting would be advantageous.

Essential:

• Counselling or psychotherapy qualification at Level 4 minimum; Level 6 or above is desirable – along with two years’ or 450+ hours post qualifying experience in face-to-face individual counselling or therapy with young people (preferred), including experience of working with risk-related issues as a qualified counsellor.
• You will already have a sound understanding of child protection and vulnerable adult safeguarding issues, policies, and procedures.
• You will already have proven experience in safeguarding children and young people, responding to, managing, and referring safeguarding issues.
• You will already have a BACP Membership; BACP Registered or Accredited. Or other professional body e.g. HCPC.

CLOSING DATE: Monday 31 August 2026 at midnight. 

Please note that we are unable to offer a work permit or visa sponsorship for this role; applicants must already have the right to live and work in the UK independently.

An inclusive workplace We are committed to policies and practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion and to supporting our people to make sure our culture is consistent with this commitment. 

Accessibility If you require assistance or have questions regarding the application process, please do contact us.

YMCA DLG requires all staff and volunteers to be committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and to respond proactively to safeguarding concerns. 

Successful applicants will undergo a thorough background screening process, conducted by an accredited third-party provider. This includes an Enhanced DBS check (with Children’s and Adults’ Barred Lists) as well as comprehensive reference and activity checks.

Could you help transform the way schools and education providers identify and support young carers? There are over 10,000 children and young people with caring responsibilities in Essex alone.

We have an exciting opportunity for an Education Engagement Lead to join our Young Carers Team, in a new role leading our engagement with schools and colleges across Essex. This is a rewarding and varied role, working in partnership with schools, further education providers and key stakeholders to improve the identification, recognition and support of young carers.

You will have experience of partnership working, project coordination and delivering training within education, children's services or the voluntary sector. You'll be passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people and helping education settings embed sustainable support for young carers.

Action for Family Carers is a thriving charity which for over 35 years has been providing support for Adult Carers and Young Carers – people with unpaid caring responsibilities for others. We are a Carers Trust Network Partner and hold the Excellence for Carers quality mark. We provide support including, information, coaching, counselling, peer support, respite care and Young Carer clubs across Essex, working within schools, GP practices and a variety of community settings.

Responsibilities will include:

    Building effective partnerships with schools and colleges to improve young carer identification and support.

    Delivering training and guidance to education professionals.

    Supporting schools to achieve the Young Carers in Schools Award.

       Developing resources and promoting good practice with young carer team members and across education settings.

    Coordinating participation opportunities that enable young carers to influence service development.

 You will need to be:

       Experienced in partnership working within education, children's services or the voluntary sector.

    Confident delivering training, workshops or presentations.

    An excellent communicator with the ability to build positive relationships.

       Organised and confident managing projects and competing priorities.

       IT literate and comfortable using Microsoft Office and databases.

       Passionate about improving outcomes for children and young people.

    A driver with access to a vehicle.

We offer:

    Full induction and relevant training

       Contributory pension scheme

       24-hour Confidential Staff Helpline

       An opportunity to help vulnerable families in the local community

    A chance to be part of a supportive and friendly team

Who we are:

Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that's rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids health, through improving school food & food education. We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.

We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

We're backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

About you and the role

The School Food Project is an ambitious coalition-led initiative dedicated to transforming the school food system. To achieve this, we are deploying three distinct school engagement models: Beacon schools (intensive, in-person, deep-impact sites), Explorer schools (hybrid training and peer learning), and Discovery schools (online only support).

We are seeking an exceptional School Food Project Coordinator to serve as the operational engine room and central connective tissue of this project. Reporting directly to the Programme Manager for the School Food Project, this role will be responsible for ownership of all school-level coordination.

As the primary point of contact for all participating schools, you will bridge the gap between the school and the individual coalition’s delivery leads. You will be responsible for nurturing school relationships, maintaining seamless communication across all delivery partners, and ensuring that vital monitoring, evaluation, and impact data flows smoothly from the schools to our evaluation team.

The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don't meet every requirement but feel you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important 'experience' is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented communities, to apply.

We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you're at ease. We're an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.

As we work with children & young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.

Key responsibilities

School Coordination & Relationship Management

• Responsible for being the day-to-day first point of contact for all Beacon, Explore, and Discovery schools, ensuring they feel supported, informed, and valued.

• Responsible for the induction and onboarding of schools across the Project.

• Conduct regular, proactive site visits to schools, to build strong, empathetic relationships with school leadership, kitchen staff, and project leads. Initially across London and the North West, scaling nationally year on year.

• Use school visits to monitor delivery quality, identify localised operational challenges, and escalate potential issues to the Programme Manager before they impact delivery.

Coalition & Stakeholder Liaison

• Serve as the central touchpoint and coordinator between the delivery leads of each program across the different organisations within our coalition.

• Ensure that all partner organisations are kept fully up to date with real-time, accurate on-the-ground information and feedback from the participating schools.

• Help facilitate communication loops, ensuring action items involving schools are clearly communicated and executed by the relevant coalition partners.

Data Capture & Impact Reporting

• Take ownership of ensuring that required data points, surveys, and metrics are accurately captured within each school according to project timelines, including conducting school audits for Beacon schools where required.

• Package, organise, and report school-level data back to the Monitoring and Evaluation team to help track project success and iterate delivery models.

Insight & Communication Support

• Keep an eye out for exceptional success stories, milestone achievements, and inspiring moments during school visits.

• Act as a conduit for the internal Communications team by passing along these notes, updates, and on-the-ground insights to celebrate the project's impact.

Essential skills & experience

• Exceptional Project Coordination: A proven track record of managing moving parts, timelines, and logistics across multiple sites or projects simultaneously.

• Superb Relationship-Building: Outstanding interpersonal skills with the ability to quickly build rapport, trust, and influence with a diverse range of stakeholders, from school cooks and headteachers to coalition partners.

• Clear, Proactive Communication: Ability to summarise complex feedback from the ground into clear, concise, and actionable updates for senior leadership and external partners.

• Data Diligence: Strong organisational skills with a sharp eye for detail, ensuring data is collected systematically and accurately in line with M&E requirements.

• IT, Software, and Tech Literacy: Proficiency with office software (Google Workspace or Microsoft 365), and familiarity with CRM systems or project management tools.

• Adaptability & Autonomy: Highly self-motivated and comfortable working independently in a hybrid/remote structure, managing your own schedule and priorities effectively.

• Flexibility to Travel: Willingness and ability to travel frequently and extensively across England, specifically prioritising regular visits to school clusters.

Desirable skills & experience

• Sector Familiarity: Prior experience working within, or closely alongside, the UK education sector, schools, charities, or food system initiatives.

• Coalition Experience: Experience working within a multi-partner, consortium, or coalition framework where diplomacy and cross-organisational collaboration are key.

• Problem Solving Skills: Proactive problem-solving skills or the ability to manage and resolve on-the-ground operational challenges.

• Data Protection and GDPR Awareness: An understanding of GDPR compliance.

• A valid UK Driving Licence

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality's happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you'll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays. We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.

Each question has a 250-word limit. We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you're ready, to make sure you don't lose your work if interrupted.

All communication about your application, other than a verbal job offer, will be sent through the Applied platform - please check your Applied account regularly (as well as your spam folder) for updates.

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers are anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A longlist of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 minute online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.

Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks

Round one interviews online: Tuesday 25th August

Round two interviews in-person: Wednesday 2nd September

Following a restructure of the school’s development department, St Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh, is looking to appoint a self-motivated and dynamic fundraiser to help secure and sustain significant grants from trusts and foundations.

The postholder will develop high quality applications, bids and reports for a diverse range of audiences.
The School is keen to appoint someone with excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as exceptional relationship-management skills, who will work to develop and deliver a strategy to grow sustainable income from grants and foundations over time.

The successful candidate will work closely with the School Bursar, Individual Giving Manager, Marketing & Communications Manager and Database Assistant, as part of the School's development team.

This is a part-time post of 21 hours/3 days per week, working over the whole year.

Role Purpose:

To develop and manage a programme of trust, foundation and statutory fundraising that delivers sustainable income for St Mary's Music School.  The Trusts and Foundations Manager will identify funding opportunities, prepare compelling applications and reports, and build strong relationships with funders to support the School's strategic priorities.

Specific duties will include:

Fundraising

• Contributing to the overall Fundraising Strategy;
• Developing and implementing plans to meet income targets;
• Working with the development team on fundraising messaging, including a consistent and compelling narrative;
• Establishing strong relationships with staff, the public, stakeholders, supporters, funders and the media.

Research, Bids and Grant Applications

• Managing and researching a pipeline of prospective trust, foundation and statutory funders;
• Developing relationships with existing and prospective funders, attending fundraising events as required;
• Preparation of cases for support including the development of restricted funding proposals for projects and bursaries;
• Creation of high quality grant and tender applications for funding and submission of funding reports.

Reporting, Fundraising Database & Compliance

• Ensuring that all activity undertaken is accurately recorded and submitted reports as required;
• Ensuring the maintenance of up to date, accurate records of trust and foundation contacts;
• Building relationships with representatives from trusts and foundations;
• Capturing and recording information on individuals’ relationships with relevant organisations.

Job Title: Project Officer (Nourish Secondaries)

Salary: £31,500 FTE

Position Type: Paid/Full time

Contract: Fixed term for two years (until September 2028)

Reports to: Head of Nourish

Based at: School Food Matters, Blackfriars Settlement, 9 Rushworth Street, London. SE1 0RB with travel to schools across London

Working Hours: 5 days a week, 9am-5pm (some flexibility required to attend breakfast clubs)

Holiday: 31 days including bank holidays that fall on working days. Holidays must be taken during school holidays

Pension: School Food Matters pays pension contributions at 7% of pensionable earnings

Background to School Food Matters

At School Food Matters we believe that school food can unlock a happier, healthier, more sustainable future for every child. We want a school food system that delivers for all children, so they can enjoy nutritious, delicious and sustainable school food and leave school with an informed and positive relationship with food. To achieve this, we campaign for a better school food system, bringing the voices of children, parents, and teachers to government policy, and deliver fully funded food education programmes in schools across the country.

Background to Nourish

Our Nourish programme supports schools to create a food environment that puts children and young people's nutrition first. The evidence-based, multi-component programme helps schools to develop action plans and policies to cover the food served across the whole school day. Nourish uses a collaborative whole school approach to food involving everyone across the school community to create lasting positive change.

Job Purpose

· To promote, develop and deliver the Nourish programme in secondary schools across London

Key Tasks include:

· Recruit schools to take part in Nourish

· Complete in person food audits in schools looking across the whole school day

· Support schools to create and deliver a food improvement plan (action plan)

· Develop and deliver workshops in schools to staff, parents and students based on their action plan (incl. assemblies, consultation/feedback sessions, cooking sessions, school food standards training)

· Support schools to write a school food policy[AB1]  using our policy template

· Build relationships and work closely with teachers, teaching assistants, cooks, kitchen teams and senior leaders in schools to improve the food they offer their students

• Work with local authorities [AB2] involved with Nourish to pursue shared school food goals
• Support Head of Nourish with written and verbal reports for LA and funders
• Share the project's learnings with the Nourish team and wider SFM team
• Work with other Nourish Project Officers to plan, design, and develop resources and training packages for schools

· Collect data and maintain accurate records relating to the programme in Airtable

• Work closely with our evaluation team to complete all monitoring and evaluation

· Gather content for our comms team (website and social media platforms)

• Keep the Line Manager fully updated on progress

· Keep up to date with safeguarding requirements and reporting procedures

• Contribute to the smooth running of SFM at this time of growth
• Maintaining the ethos of the charity and positively promoting our work at all times
• You will also be expected to undertake any other tasks relevant to the affairs of SFM that may arise from time to time. Therefore, being flexible and approaching the job with an open and positive mindset is essential.

Person specification

Essential

· Registered nutritionist or advanced understanding of nutritional guidelines and health promotion

· Good interpersonal skills, with experience of building relationships

· Confident engaging with a variety of audiences (students, headteachers, school staff and parents), including communications via email, virtual and face to face meetings with the ability to deliver workshops & presentations

· Excellent administrative and organisational skills with great attention to detail

· Excellent IT skills including excel, word and email

· Self-motivated and optimistic with a can-do attitude

· Ability to work in a team and seek help when needed

Desirable

· Experience of working for a charity or not for profit organisation

· Experience of engaging and working with secondary schools

· Knowledge in food education and children’s health

Who we are

Chefs in Schools is an ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.

We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

About you and the role

This role comes at a pivotal time for Chefs in School and will be key to supporting our vision and ambitions for the next four year strategic period. 

You will have significant experience in monitoring and evaluating programmes in a charity, non-profit, or social enterprise setting. As this is a standalone role with no direct reports, we are looking for a unique professional who is highly strategic but equally happy to roll up their sleeves and be hands-on. You will lead on high-level impact strategy, and you will also be the person designing surveys, managing databases, and directly analyzing the data.

To thrive in this role, you should be:

• An Analytical Thinker & Practical Doer: You can confidently clean, manage, and analyze quantitative and qualitative data yourself, translating complex numbers into highly visual, easy-to-digest reports for our team and funders.

• An Empathetic & Pragmatic Collaborator: You understand that school kitchens and delivery teams are incredibly busy. You excel at designing evaluation tools that are low-burden for our partners but high-yield for our learning.

• Curious & Improvement-Driven: You don't just collect data to check a box for funders; you are passionate about building a "learning culture" where findings are actively used to iterate and improve our programmes.

As we work with children and young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.

Key responsibilities:

• Leading on developing and implementing Chefs in Schools’ evaluation and learning strategy, in line with our Theory of Change.

• Owning and overseeing the impact dashboard

• Ownership for embedding a learning culture, ensuring that timely and actionable insights are generated and fed back into design and delivery to support continuous improvement.

• Using internal data and external research to identify what works, ensuring these insights are shared internally and across the sector in line with our strategic objectives.

• Support delivery teams to collect quantitative and qualitative data using the evaluation toolkit. Ensuring data collection is proportionate and meaningful with high completion rates.

• Support delivery teams to understand how impact data can help to improve and develop programme effectiveness, whilst maintaining quality.

• Lead on the dissemination of findings across the organisation, including presenting at internal meetings and events

• Translating data into clear, evidence-based recommendations to guide decision-making 

• Work across the organisation to ensure our impact is effectively communicated with external audiences.

• Identify future research, evaluation and learning priorities that could strengthen Chefs in Schools’ programmes and contribute to wider sector understanding of effective approaches to improving school food.

• Work with external academics and researchers to commission external evaluations to develop our evidence base and contribute to national and international studies .

Essential Skills and Experience

• MEL Experience: Proven experience in a monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) or impact measurement role within a charity, non-profit, or social enterprise setting.

• Evaluation Design: Confidence designing and implementing practical evaluation frameworks, data collection tools, logic models, or Theories of Change.

• Hands-on Data Skills: Strong analytical skills with the ability to independently collect, clean, and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data. You must be highly proficient in Excel/Google Sheets and comfortable managing data platforms.

• Translation of Evidence: A track record of critically appraising evidence and translating findings into actionable, practical recommendations for delivery teams.

• Communication & Reporting: Ability to produce high-quality, highly visual, and engaging reports and presentations tailored to different audiences (e.g., trustees, funders, operational staff).

• Relationship Building: Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence and support busy operational teams to value and embed data collection.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Sector Knowledge: Knowledge of food systems, school environments, or children and young people’s health and wellbeing.

• External Evaluations: Experience commissioning, managing, or collaborating with external academics and research partners to evaluate programmes.

• Tech & Systems: Familiarity with specific data visualization tools (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau) or CRM databases (ours is Beacon) to streamline data capture and reporting.

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who work hard, but believe in a healthy work / life balance. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to, and draw on, a variety of projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days (pro-rata for part time positions) of holiday per year, including bank holidays, a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues, enhanced parental leave. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the AIG Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to the role. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.

We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview and complete a task at our office in Brixton, London.

Expected duration of this application process: 4 weeks

1st Round interview will take place the w/c 7th September

Who we are

Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education.

We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.

We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

About you and the role

As our Digital Manager, you will be the strategic anchor, quality guardian, and operational driving force behind our online presence. You will fully own the performance of our two primary websites: the main Chefs in Schools (CIS) platform and the complex, public-facing School Food Project (SFP) national resource and coalition hub. You will be directly accountable for driving traffic, mastering SEO, maintaining exceptional content quality, and ensuring a seamless, highly secure user experience against clear, measurable targets.

This is a leadership role that bridges technical execution and creative strategy. You will act as the crucial, confident link between our external technical agencies (who build and maintain the infrastructure of the sites) and our internal content creators and programme teams. Crucially, you will be an empowering manager, leading a dedicated digital sub-team of 1-2 direct reports, supporting them to manage day-to-day content workflows, e-learning administration, and community moderation.

We are looking for someone solutions-focused, collaborative, and deeply analytical who takes pride in helping a high-profile, mission-driven organization run at its absolute best.

Key responsibilities:

1. Website Ownership & Performance Management

• Own the overarching strategy and performance of our two flagship websites (CIS and SFP), optimizing UX and UI for user journeys, design, and maximum accessibility standards across both sites.

• Own and maintain a forward-looking, prioritized digital platform roadmap, striking a strategic balance between long-term feature development and agile, day-to-day reactive requests

• Ensure both platforms—particularly the highly visible, national School Food Project website—maintain the highest standards of data security, uptime, quality assurance, and accessibility, proactively managing risks associated with public scrutiny.

• Take end-to-end ownership of web analytics and data integrity—from configuring custom event tracking to reporting on performance—utilizing Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for quantitative metrics and Microsoft Clarity for behavioral insights.

• Set, monitor, and report against clear performance targets spanning web traffic, user engagement, resource downloads, and search rankings.

• Lead content and platform feature reviews through a risk mitigation lens—ensuring strict compliance with safeguarding, privacy, and coalition guidelines—while running targeted A/B tests to optimize user experience.

• Lead on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy to maximize organic reach and connect school leaders, chefs, and partners to our resources.

• Establish and manage digital incident response protocols, defining clear workflows for first responders, triage steps, and escalation pathways in the event of site outages, technical bugs, or security breaches.

2. Agency & Supplier Management

• Act as the primary, confident technical interface with our external web development agencies and tech suppliers, holding them accountable to high-quality delivery.

• Translate internal program, comms, and membership goals into clear technical design briefs, managing timelines and tracking project budgets.

• Coordinate rigorous testing of new features, bug logging, and site maintenance to guarantee absolute platform stability before public deployments.

3. Team Leadership & Collaboration

• Line manage, mentor, and support 1-2 direct reports (including roles focused on systems, community moderation, and resource uploads).

• Work closely with the Communications team, External Relations team and Programme Leads to align digital development with broader organization campaigns and resource rollouts.

• Oversee the content calendar and governance for both sites, ensuring all published assets strictly adhere to brand tone of voice and quality standards, working closely with the senior social media officer, engagement team to ensure cross org planning .

4. Data, CRM & Systems Integration

• Oversee the data integrity and smooth technical flow between our website frontends, e-learning platform (LMS), and internal CRM systems.

• Ensure all digital systems, data tracking, user permissions, and marketing platforms comply fully with GDPR and organizational data protection policies.

• Construct and present scannable dashboards and reports (using Google Analytics and CRM data) for the Senior Leadership Team and stakeholders to demonstrate impact.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Digital Product & Platform Leadership: Proven experience managing digital products, websites, or online platforms—ideally at a Manager level within a charity, agency, or fast-paced setting.

• Complex Systems Integration: Strong confidence managing (or partnering with a technical agency to manage) integrated digital environments where the CMS, CRM, and LMS operate as a unified platform. You must be comfortable understanding and troubleshooting multi-layered user access permissions (e.g., tailored journeys for different school types and member tiers).

• Foundational literacy in HTML and CSS to troubleshoot layout issues, understand site structure, and effectively translate technical requirements to developers.

• Agency & Project Management: Confident experience collaborating with, briefing, and managing external technical partners, developers, or freelance technical staff to deliver complex features on time and on budget.

• People Management: Demonstrable experience managing, mentoring, and developing direct reports, fostering a supportive and high-performing team environment.

• Data Fluency & Quality Control: Ability to analyze, clean, and visualize data (using Google Analytics, CRM reporting, or spreadsheets) to monitor site performance, ensure data integrity across system integrations, and drive user experience improvements.

• Communication & Collaboration: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; able to translate complex "technical speak" for non-expert internal staff, write brand-aligned content, and build strong cross-team relationships.

• Mission Alignment: A deep personal commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, alongside a genuine interest in our mission to transform child health through school food.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Familiarity with online community/forum moderation and user engagement strategies.

• Prior experience working within the wider charity sector.

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays.  We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.

We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.

Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their answers to a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.

First Interview will take place the w/c 14th September

Who we are

Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education.

We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.

We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

About you and the role

You are a pragmatic, highly analytical data professional who lives at the intersection of charity compliance and modern cloud systems. You are someone who understands that a rapidly growing £2m charity needs lean, workable frameworks, not corporate red tape that stalls delivery.

You bring a strong track record of working within the UK non-profit sector, meaning you already understand the nuances of donor data, PECR regulations, and charity-specific workflows. You don’t just write policy documents; you enjoy untangling data flows and translating complex regulatory requirements into practical, everyday processes.

In this interim role, you will act as the "Product Owner" and "Information Governor" for our systems upgrade. You won't need to do the technical database configuration—we already have a trusted, external Beacon CRM expert to handle the builds. Instead, you will bridge the gap between our teams and the technology. You will run discovery sessions with our Fundraising, Programmes, Finance and Operations teams to map their operational needs, translate these into a compliant data blueprint, and drive our Beacon expert to build them.

Crucially, you won’t need to draft our Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs)—these are already in place. Your job is to audit our systems and processes to ensure we are physically complying with them, designing the exact workflows, access permissions, and data retention schedules needed to keep us airtight. Finally, you will advise us on how to sustainably own our data protection internally going forward.

Key responsibilities:

1. Operationalising Our Data Sharing Agreements (DSAs)

• Translate Contracts into Code: Review our existing, drafted DSAs and map out the exact system processes, fields, and permissions required in Beacon CRM to physically comply with them.

• Consent & Retention Alignment: Ensure that our data capture, consent practices, and deletion cycles perfectly match the legal promises made in our DSAs.

• Audit System Compliance: Inspect our current data flow (website $\rightarrow$ Beacon CRM $\rightarrow$ integrated platforms) to ensure no data leaks or unauthorised sharing are occurring.

2. Business Analysis & Team Alignment

• Run Discovery Sessions: Work with our Fundraising, Services, and Finance teams to understand and map how they currently use data and where their bottlenecks are.

• Synthesise Requirements: Balance the operational needs of different teams (e.g., keeping sensitive service user data strictly partitioned while allowing the fundraising team to run compliant donor campaigns).

• Create Technical Specifications: Translate these mapped team needs into clear, structured functional requirements for our external Beacon CRM expert to build.

3. Data Governance & System Security

• Access & Permissions Architecture: Review and redesign the user access roles within Beacon CRM, establishing a robust "least privilege" framework so staff only access data essential to their role.

• Data Minimisation & Deletion: Define precise data retention schedules and work with the Beacon expert to automate the archiving or permanent deletion of expired records.

• Record of Processing Activities (RoPA): Document and map our internal data flow so we have a clear, compliant audit trail of how data moves through the charity.

4. Sustainable Ownership & Handover

• Future Governance Design: Assess our internal capacity and design a realistic, lightweight model for how we should own data protection internally going forward (including identifying internal roles vs. when to use external support).

• Process Testing & Team Training: Test the newly configured Beacon setups to ensure they work for staff, and deliver a practical, non-boring training session to the team on the new processes.

Essential Skills and Experience

• UK Charity Sector Expertise: Direct experience working within or consulting for UK registered charities, with a deep understanding of charity-specific data issues (such as donor consent, fundraising regulations under PECR, and handling sensitive beneficiary or safeguarding data).

• Operationalising Compliance: Proven experience translating legal data requirements (specifically implementing existing Data Sharing Agreements, DPAs, and GDPR frameworks) into practical, everyday staff workflows and system processes.

• Business Analysis & Stakeholder Mapping: Excellent track record of running discovery sessions with non-technical team heads to untangle, map, and simplify their operational data needs.

• Technical Translation & Developer Management: Experience acting as the "Product Owner" or lead interface between internal teams and external database developers—specifically translating operational needs into clear technical specifications for CRM builds.

• Practical GDPR & PECR Knowledge: A highly pragmatic approach to compliance, with experience building Records of Processing Activities (RoPA), setting up data retention schedules, and designing role-based access permissions.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Passion for our mission. to improve children’s health through school food.

• Familiarity with Beacon CRM: Prior experience auditing, working with, or directing builds within Beacon CRM (or closely related modern cloud charity CRMs like Donorfy or Salesforce).

• Information Governance Qualification: A professional certification in data protection (such as CIPP/E, Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection, or equivalent), though hands-on charity sector experience is valued above theoretical qualifications.

• Transition & Training Experience: Experience training small charity teams on new data habits and helping leadership teams design lightweight, internal data ownership structures.

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays.  We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. Please follow this link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.

We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.

Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their answers to a series of questions related to their day-to-day job.

Who we are

Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. Working in areas of high deprivation, we support and train schools and their kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share our learning and resources freely, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.

We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.

About you and the role

This is a pivotal role, at a pivotal moment for us. We are entering a critical growth phase, which includes rapidly expanding our own operations and managing significant external partnership. As Head of Finance & Systems, you will be accountable for ensuring we have the right systems and structures in place to grow at pace without detriment to good governance.

The purpose of this role is to lead on our finance strategy, and ensure all of our systems, reporting and processes are helping to drive forward the charity and deliver on our objectives at scale. You will work closely with the Chief Executive and Directors to ensure that financial planning is effective and supported by accurate data analysis. You will report directly to Trustees as required and ensure that the highest standards of transparency and probity are maintained. 

You will be joining the team during a period of growth in the size and complexity of our delivery. We currently have 24 employees and anticipate growing significantly in the next twelve months. You will have a crucial role in shaping our systems and processes to ensure we can scale effectively, both our existing programmes and a new membership-based programme that is in development. We’re looking for an experienced finance professional with an interest in effectively using technology and systems to drive efficiency, without compromising on accuracy or compliance. 

You will oversee all financial administration, ensuring this is carried out proficiently and in line with all legal and regulatory requirements, including ultimate responsibility for ensuring that all statutory filings are made accurately and on time. Your role will also encompass ensuring that we operate within legal & regulatory frameworks and stay up to date with changes in relevant legislation.

The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement, but feel as though you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we would urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this, or other roles.  

We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.

As we work with children & young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.  

Key responsibilities:

• Developing a comprehensive financial strategy that supports the delivery of the charity’s objectives and activities.

• Have ultimate oversight of the external audit and production of the statutory accounts, supported in delivery of this by the book-keeper.

• Produce the monthly management accounts and bespoke financial reports—including accurate forecasting, restricted fund tracking, and variance analysis—ensuring decision-makers have clear, actionable data.

• Forecasting cash flow and managing the treasury position.

• Manage the contract and performance of the bookkeeper  and outsourced payroll providers; setting strict monthly closing deadlines, enforcing data accuracy, and ensuring they deliver a clean trial balance for management accounting.

• Oversee sound financial administration, management and governance across the organisation, ensuring robust financial controls in place and operating effectively.

• Provide leadership and guidance to all things finance related, providing mentoring and support to the team, and coaching on financial awareness. 

• Accountability for monitoring that the organisation’s services are, and will, run to budget, supporting budget holders and reporting promptly on risks 

• Support the Partnerships & Impact team and Programme Managers with financial inputs to funding proposals and ensure restricted funds are used in compliance with grant conditions.

• Developing our systems strategy, including reviewing suitability of our current systems (Quickbooks for accountancy, Beacon CRM, PLEO for expenses management, Survey Monkey for data collection etc. ) and ensuring optimal use of systems, maximising automation, and using AI where appropriate.

• Constantly seeking to develop and improve the organisation’s financial systems, policies and procedures to promote dynamic, best practice and up-to-date application of tools, systems and approaches

• Supporting the organisation’s data governance by ensuring financial systems (e.g., Quickbooks, payroll, expenses) are secure, compliant, and integrated in line with data protection principles.

• Leading an effective risk management process.

• Ensuring the organisation’s compliance with charity law, in accordance with the Charity Commission in England & Wales and all financial reporting requirements.

Essential Skills & experience:

• Charity Finance Experience: Practical, senior-level experience working within a UK non-profit finance function, including a strong working knowledge of the Charities SORP and accounting for restricted vs. unrestricted funds.

• Hands-on Management Accounting: Proven experience independently producing monthly management accounts, cash flow forecasting, and variance analysis from scratch.

• End-to-End Audit Management: Experience preparing year-end audit files, reconciling balance sheet control accounts, and acts as the primary point of contact for external auditors.

• Accountancy Qualification: Full or partial qualification through an accredited body (ACCA, CIMA, ACA, CIPFA). 

• Tech Literacy & Data Reconciliation: Comfortable troubleshooting and navigating modern finance tech stacks (e.g., Xero, Pleo) and pulling financial data/reports from a CRM system (e.g., Beacon).

• Vendor & Staff Management: Experience supervising junior staff (or office managers) and actively managing the performance, timelines, and accuracy of outsourced providers (e.g., bookkeeping and payroll).

Desirable skills & experience

• Systems Implementation: Past experience project-managing a software migration or building native integrations/automations between a CRM system and accounting software.

• Broader Operations/HR Exposure: Basic familiarity with HR administration, GDPR workflows, or managing organizational risk registers in a small team environment.

• Sector Passion: A demonstrable interest in food education, children’s health, or food systems.

Benefits

You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who works hard but believe in a healthy work/life balance. We were voted one of CODE Hospitality’s happiest places to work in 2024. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.

We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays.  We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.

We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Health Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.

Application process

In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we invite candidates to answer a series of questions related to their day-to-day job. 

We recommend that you develop your answers offline and copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if interrupted.

Your answers will go through our sifting process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 30 mins online interview. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a second, in-person interview at our office in Brixton, London.

Expected duration of this application process: 7 weeks

First interviews will be held 1st -4th September