Leonard Cheshire

Chief Financial Officer

Job Reference NALCH
Closing Date Friday 24 Feb 2023

For nearly 75 years, Leonard Cheshire has worked directly with disabled people to give them the freedom to live their lives the way they choose with the opportunity to fully take part in society. Today, our 4,000 staff provide social care services support to help over 2000 disabled people across the UK. A vital cause and organisation – one of the largest charities in the UK, supporting disabled people with accommodation and other key services as well as advocating and campaigning for structural change to legislation in support of disabled people’s basic rights – this is an important and fantastic legacy on which to build for the organisation and as incoming CFO.

We are facing substantial challenges as an organisation, although good progress has been made. We now require a new Chief Financial Officer to join us, drive us further forward, and bring about a transformative impact in these circumstances. The organisation is in financial turnaround, and we are reverting to our core business of providing accommodation for severely disabled people. You will play a key role in delivering our turnaround plan and achieving the best outcomes for our residents and beneficiaries and be able to make a real impact at this critical time for our organisation.

This is a significant leadership role in both scale and remit. We are looking for a new permanent Chief Financial Officer who can clearly demonstrate that they have prior experience in successfully delivering positive commercial transformation in an environment experiencing similar challenges at scale to ours, ideally with breadth of experience across finance, legal, IT and property. Alongside overseeing the commercial transformation, you will lead the transformation of the Finance function itself to ensure Leonard Cheshire has a highly effective team and operates an exemplary financial control environment. The charity has agreed funding in place with its bank, and you will be responsible for managing that relationship in partnership with the Chief Executive and Chair, as well as managing our key stakeholder relationships with the Charity Commission, CQC and Auditors.

You will be fully qualified with strong accountancy and/or financial management experience with involvement in setting up and running finance systems.

You will also have experience of managing and developing staff, excellent interpersonal skills, be customer and solution-orientated and be willing to undertake travel within the UK. Importantly, you will have a passion for and commitment to the values and ethos of Leonard Cheshire.

Leonard Cheshire is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion in all our activities, and we welcome and encourage candidates from under-represented groups to consider applying for this opportunity.

Saxton Bampfylde Ltd is acting as an employment agency advisor to the Leonard Cheshire on this appointment. For further information about the role, including details about how to apply, please visit www.saxbam.com/appointments using reference NALCH. Alternatively telephone +44 (0)20 7227 0880 (during office hours). Applications should be received by noon on 24 February 2023.

Today, our 4,000 staff provide social care services support to help over 2000 disabled people across the UK.