Chief Financial Officer in Ossett

The Bishop Wheeler Catholic Academy Trust is a group of schools serving communities across North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Lancashire. Our sixteen schools, two secondary and fourteen primary, work together to educate more than 5,000 pupils. In doing this, we aim to fulfil our mission of working together as a true family of schools to offer high quality Catholic education, enabling our young people to develop spiritually, morally, intellectually and personally, putting their faith into action, through serving Christ in others, in the church and in the world around them.

We are seeking to appoint our new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and are looking for a highly credible Trust leader, with deep knowledge and experience of finance, who is keen to embrace the challenge of helping to take our Trust forward in the next year during the lead-up to a planned merger with two other Catholic trusts in the Leeds Diocese. As a Trust, we recognise that the commitment and care shown by all staff are fundamental to the success of our students and commit to supporting, encouraging, and respecting all colleagues and providing them with an enjoyable and rewarding working environment, where we take account of their workload and wellbeing.

Our schools and Central Team are led in an ethical way, driven by moral purpose, creating a positive and aspirational culture. Our CFO will work as part of the Trust Central Team, led by the Chief Executive Officer, providing support and advice to Headteachers who lead their school teams. We recognise that maintaining a long-term financial stable footing, coupled with strategic delivery of operational capacity and capability, will enable this Trust to deliver on its ambitions for children and its staff.

The strategic role of CFO involves drawing out and developing all that is best within our schools, ensuring a shared culture of excellence. The CFO will work with Headteachers and leaders in our schools and across our Trust, with external business partners, and other stakeholders to drive financial efficiency to support our educational practices, in pursuit of our mission and strategic aims.

You will be empowered to make decisions and to be creative, within the framework of regulation and compliance. You will lead a supportive and experienced team, building on the well-organised finance systems that are in place across the organisation. The successful candidate will be a highly respected finance professional and operational leader, a role model with broad leadership experience, which may include working in education. We are looking for a candidate with a proven track record of implementing sustained finance improvement across several settings.

You must have the ability to initiate and lead change in a positive way which makes a real difference to learning and share each of our school’s commitment to ensuring the pupils are safe and happy and achieve their full potential. Working in a supportive Trust environment must be central to your thinking, helping school leaders to sustain their mutual support across the wider network of schools.

What benefits does the Trust offer to its employees?

• A Defined Benefit Pension Scheme with favourable terms for all employees (Teachers’ Pension for Teachers; LGPS for Support Staff)
• Employee centred and family friendly policies and practises that support you in and beyond your workplace.
• Offering flexible working wherever we can, in order to support the work life balance of our employees.
• Enhanced sick pay, maternity leave, paternity leave and parental leave.
• Competitive holiday entitlement for support staff.
• Cycle to work scheme, funded eye tests and glasses for DSE users (subject to T&Cs).
• Access to Occupational Health and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) through Education Support.
• Employee benefits scheme through Vivup specialising in health and wellbeing.

If you would like further information, including a confidential conversation with our CEO, please contact Amanda Whelan, Head of HR. Closing Date – 12:00 Thursday 10th July 2025. Interview Date – Wednesday 16th July 2025.