Support jobs in chertsey, surrey

Contract: 1.0 FTE (37.5 hours per week), permanent with 6-month probation period

Salary: £56,650-70,000 per annum, depending on experience

Location: Remote working, with option to use co-working space

Start Date: As soon as possible

Reports to: Executive Director

Please note: You must have the right to work in the UK.

How to Apply

Closing Date: 4th January 2026 (23:59 GMT)

To apply, please submit the following: 

• Cover letter (maximum 2 pages)

• CV

Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. If you have not heard from us within two weeks of the closing date, your application has not been successful on this occasion.

About BASIC

BASIC is an independent, non-profit think tank working to safeguard humanity and Earth's ecosystem from nuclear risks and interconnected security threats, for generations to come. Our vision is for a global security consensus founded on multilateralism, the recognition of the indivisibility of security, adherence to Earth's planetary boundaries, and consideration of future generations.

For nearly 40 years, we have built a global reputation for groundbreaking dialogue and incisive thought leadership to strengthen international peace and security. We are an intellectually and culturally diverse team of 20 expert-practitioners with deep institutional experience, headquartered in London with additional presences in Berlin and Rome. We are independent, receive no core funding from any state, and our project work is funded transparently.

BASIC's approach to resolving contemporary nuclear dynamics is centred on dialogue as both a practice and a philosophy. We interpret dialogue broadly, recognising that meaningful engagement takes many forms: from facilitating direct strategic conversations between adversaries grounded in conflict resolution principles, to developing networks and diplomatic initiatives that build consensus around shared objectives, to shaping the intellectual foundations of policy discourse through rigorous research and thought leadership.

BASIC is a fast-paced and rewarding environment with an exceptionally positive and inclusive team culture. We have experienced rapid growth over the past decade and are well-suited to people who are motivated by our mission, able to work at a sustained pace, keen to develop professionally, and enjoy being part of a collaborative team working on consequential issues.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary with room for growth

• 30 days annual leave (pro rata), plus bank holidays and closure days over the December festive period

• Employer pension contributions of 5% (above the national minimum)

• Flexible working arrangements, with set days (Wednesdays required) but flexibility on hours

• Remote working with option to use co-working space

• 1-2 all-staff in-person team away day per year, as well as other in-person working opportunities

• Opportunities for professional growth and development

• Excellent team culture built on respect, openness, and inclusion

The Role

BASIC is seeking a hands-on Financial Controller to lead our finance function during a period of sustained growth. The Financial Controller will work across Programme teams ensuring strong financial management and reporting to funding partners, maintain strong financial controls, ensure compliance with charity finance regulations, and provide accurate financial reporting to our Directors and Board of Trustees.

The Financial Controller will oversee the small finance team, including line management of a Finance Assistant and management of an external bookkeeper consultant. This team will be responsible for the majority of financial accounting, processing payroll, and accurate bookkeeping, for which the Financial Controller will be ultimately accountable.

The role includes managing restricted and unrestricted funds in accordance with funder requirements and programme needs, preparing statutory accounts for external audit, and overseeing payroll processing. This role reports directly to the Executive Director to prepare annual budgets and financial strategy, and works closely with the Board's Financial Development Committee to present its implementation.

The ideal candidate will be a qualified accountant with strong technical accounting skills, experience in charity finance, and a proven track record of effective financial management of a growing organisation. You should be comfortable both managing a small team and working hands-on when needed, building collaborative relationships across the organisation. You will need to be a multitasker with the ability to work at pace, and be willing to develop the finance function and best practices to enable the organisation to grow further.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Accounting and Reporting

• Oversee the maintenance of accurate financial records and bookkeeping in accordance with charity accounting standards (SORP)

• Prepare monthly management accounts including variance reporting and rolling forecasts

• Prepare annual statutory accounts and manage the annual independent audit process in its entirety

• Manage restricted and unrestricted funds in accordance with funder requirements

• Provide accurate and timely financial reporting to the Board of Trustees, Executive Director, and funding partners

Financial Operations

• Oversee day-to-day finance operations including payment processing, staff expenses, and cost allocation (including staff costs)

• Oversee monthly payroll using QuickBooks (led by Finance Assistant)

• Manage treasury functions including bank and cash management

• Oversee procurement of key assets such as IT equipment

• Cashflow management

Grant and Budget Management

• Support budget development for funding bids and proposals

• Monitor spend against grants and projects, working towards full cost recovery

• Prepare financial reports for donors and funding partners

• Lead annual budget-setting and forecasting processes in collaboration with the Board and Executive Director

Financial Systems and Controls

• Develop and maintain robust financial systems, processes, and controls

• Continuously improve finance processes and identify efficiencies

• Advise on financial governance and best practice

• Manage financial risks and opportunities (e.g., insurance, foreign exchange)

Team Management and Stakeholder Relations

• Line manage the Finance Assistant and oversee external bookkeeper consultant

• Build collaborative relationships across the organisation

• Manage relationships with key external stakeholders including banks, international transfer services, and audit partners

• Work closely with the Board's Financial Development Committee and BASIC's Treasurer

Please note: This list is not exhaustive. Other tasks may be required as they arise.

Person Specification

Essential Criteria:

• Qualified accountant (ACCA, CIMA, ACA or equivalent) or part-qualified with significant relevant experience
• Proven experience in a mid-level to senior finance role, with responsibility for financial accounting and reporting
• Experience managing restricted and unrestricted funds
• Experience preparing statutory accounts and managing audit processes
• Experience in a growing organisation, implementing and improving financial systems and controls
• Strong technical accounting skills and understanding of financial controls
• Excellent numeracy and attention to detail
• Proficiency with accounting software (experience with QuickBooks highly desirable)
• Strong Excel/spreadsheet skills
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain financial information to non-finance colleagues
• Highly organised with ability to manage multiple priorities and work to deadlines
• Proactive and solutions-oriented, with ability to work both independently and collaboratively
• Comfortable working hands-on when needed while also providing strategic oversight
• Ability to work at pace in a fast-growing organisation
• Commitment to BASIC's mission and values

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience in charity finance and understanding of charity accounting standards (SORP)
• Experience line managing finance staff
• Experience in an international organisation or with international funding
• Understanding of charity governance and regulatory requirements

Salary: £46,698 (London) / £42,373 (National) per annum

Hours:                       35 hrs per week

Contract: Fixed term contract (until March 2027)

Benefits

· 27 days annual leave + statutory holidays + 3 closures days over the Christmas period;

· Flexible working for all staff including working from home / hybrid working, and flexi-time/TOIL scheme;

· Attractive family friendly policies;

· Private healthcare cover;

· Season ticket loans;

· Employee awards, and training and development opportunities.

For more information about our benefits please visit our website.

Office locations:  London, Bristol or homeworker

The role will involve spending a substantial amount of time in the East of England (including early starts/late finishes and overnight stays where required) and regular travel nationwide for NHF events and meetings. 

Please note, if office based, the successful candidate will be expected to carry out two days in-person working per week on average which will include attendance at your office location.

Flexible working arrangements can be discussed and agreed with the line manager subject to role and business needs.

An exciting opportunity has arisen at the National Housing Federation (NHF) to join our team of External Affairs Managers on a fixed-term basis to cover maternity leave. The NHF is the voice of housing associations in England. We are the trade body to almost 600 housing associations, who have grown from philanthropic roots to provide 2.6 million homes to around 6 million people. You can find further information about the NHF on our website.

Could you be our new External Affairs Manager, working closely with our housing association members across the East of England?

This is a unique and varied role which would appeal to someone with a background in areas such as stakeholder management, policy, public affairs, communications, programme management – or a combination of these areas! For example, you may be looking to step into a role to further develop your leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, whilst still building on your policy or programme management experience and knowledge.

You will operate at the heart of social housing by working with key decision makers across the housing association sector – including managing relationships with chief executives, chairs of boards and executive directors. Strong communication and influencing skills are essential to the role, as well as the confidence to work at the most senior levels.  

It is crucial that you can work collegiately to lead key programmes of work across the NHF with colleagues in other teams, for example from our policy, press, events, and public affairs teams. Equally, you will be comfortable working autonomously and shaping your own work programme.

The core of the role involves being responsible for engagement with a whole geographic region of our membership; and working closely on or leading one of the NHF’s key themes of work, which include areas such as supported housing; devolution; developing new homes; decarbonising existing homes; ensuring the building safety agenda is delivered; or representing our rural or smaller housing associations.

The role is wide ranging and in addition to stakeholder management and programme leadership, will include running roundtables between our members and government, chairing sessions at NHF conferences, and presenting political and policy updates to senior teams within housing associations.

You will be part of a team of eight External Affairs Managers sitting within the member services directorate, which is there to ensure that we provide excellent value for money for our housing association members.

Key elements of the role:

· You will build and maintain brilliant relationships with housing associations leaders, using your well-developed communication and advocacy skills to maximum effect.

· You will develop knowledge, insight and understanding of housing associations to shape our policy and influencing work and to create structured programmes of member engagement on critical policy and political issues.

· You will be the contact point for housing associations in your region, ensuring they receive first class customer service on the issues which matter to them. Working closely with NHF members you will facilitate the organisation of regional chief executive or leaders forums and sounding boards.

· In addition to your regional work, you will lead on the strategic planning and delivery of a key NHF policy priority. This will require collaborative working with colleagues from across the organisation and working with members across every region and specialism.  You will play a leadership role, creating structured engagement strategies to ensure members are able to influence policy as well as engaging key NHF stakeholders and sharing best practice.

· Your role will be to implement structured member engagement to ensure our policy priorities, positions and influencing work are member-led. This will include working directly with members to inform our policy positions and lead our influencing work.

· You will influence debates at the highest level and you will spot in advance and act strategically to mitigate the risk to our membership. As such, this role requires a high degree of political and organisational acumen and the ability to horizon scan.

· You will work with colleagues in our Commercial and Events teams to maximise commercial opportunities and help shape content at our conferences, as well chairing conference sessions.

· To be the face and voice of the NHF with members, stakeholders and the media.

· To ensure that as an organisation we deliver as a whole team, seamlessly, to members to achieve greatest impact in line with the business strategy.

· To maintain high quality standards and follow NHF policy and process.

The successful candidate:

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

· A sound knowledge and understanding of housing associations and issues affecting the wider sector.

· A sound understanding of the political and policy landscape that housing associations operate in.

· Demonstrable knowledge and experience of establishing and maintaining relationships with senior stakeholders, demonstrating excellent customer service and value for money.

· Effective communication skills, in person and in writing, including the ability to credibly and confidently present at meetings and events.

· Ability to listen to and influence senior stakeholders, demonstrating diplomacy, effective communication and negotiation skills.

· Clear leadership skills, able to lead complex and strategic programmes of work effectively, including experience of matrix managing and motivating a team.

· Excellent analytical skills and strategic nous with the ability to summarise complex information effectively to aid decision making.

· A commitment to excellent customer service.

· A positive, energetic and agile approach to work.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The NHF has published its equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, which was co-created with staff. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and we value the contribution each individual makes to our work.  

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and are working to increase the diversity profile of our workforce. We are currently under-represented by ethnic minorities, people with a disability or disabilities and LGBTQ+, and would particularly welcome applications from people in these groups.

Disability confident employer

We are a disability confident employer and if you are a disabled person who meets the skills and experience we consider essential for the role, we will offer you an interview.

Please note: there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume of applications, we may be required to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.
In these circumstances the NHF will select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as we would do for non-disabled applicants. This is in line with the Disability Confident guidelines.

We are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process if you have a disability or have a condition that you feel may affect your performance during the recruitment process. Please contact the People team with your request or to arrange a time to discuss in more detail.

Our role profile and job advert can also be requested in large print or in accessible format via this email address.

Completing our Application Form

To apply for this role, please complete our online application form. The application form includes your employment and education history plus you will be asked to answer questions in relation to your knowledge, skills and experience, why you are applying for the role and questions in relation to our values. The application form is anonymous and will not require you to upload a CV or cover letter. This will help us to shortlist candidates for interview based solely on their knowledge, skills and experience.

Right to work in the UK/UK VISA sponsorship

You must have the right to work in the UK and it is important to note that the NHF does not sponsor individuals to work in the UK.

Closing date for applications: 4 January 2026

Interview date: 14 and 15 January 2026