Director Of Finance And Operations

Ace of Clubs – Post of Director

Salary: £45,000 - £50,000 pa

Probationary Period: 6 months

Notice Period: 3 months

Responsible to: The Ace of Clubs Trustees Management Committee

Post Summary

The Ace of Clubs is a Day Centre for Homeless and Vulnerable people that has operated for 30 years in Clapham, south London. It is under the Trusteeship of the Redemptorists of the London Province; a Roman Catholic Religious Congregation of priests and brothers and it is staffed and managed by a staff of lay professionals. It is a Registered Charity.

The Director leads a core staff of dedicated professionals who with the assistance of volunteers; manage the day-to-day operation of the Ace of Clubs; ensuring the efficient delivery of its range of services to its clients.

The Ace of Clubs charity has grown over the past thirty years expanding its range of support services with the help of partners:  Glassdoor (who provide housing and services advice), START Homeless Outreach Team who support people experiencing Homelessness & Rough Sleeping and the NHS who hold clinics at Ace of Clubs centre, both dental and medical with nurses visiting on a weekly basis.

The principal responsibilities of the Director:  to provide overall leadership within the organisation, the management of the core staff, regular reviews of performance both for AoC, the core staff and partners; developing a strategic plan with regular reviews.  S/he will exercise oversight of the AoC’s finances.  

The Director will also work closely with the chair of the AoC Trustees Management Committee to whom s/he will report regularly.

The key to the sustaining of the Charity’s core services is Fundraising.   The Director will lead on Fundraising: identifying and meeting with appropriate funders; preparing the bids as per the required specifications; drafting monitoring reports and ‘keeping funders warm!’

Key Objectives and Responsibilities

Line Management

·      Overall leadership and management of the charity staff team, working directly with staff, volunteers and centre users.

·      Line management of the Centre Manager on a regular basis; conducting appraisals and agreeing ‘targets’ going forward.

·      Line management of the Ace Charity shop manager; weekly meetings; conducting appraisals and agreeing ‘targets’ going forward

·      Manage all staff team development, including recruitment, appointment, training, performance management at the centre, during projects and in the shop.

Budgetary Management

·      In close collaboration with the Treasurer to manage the day-to-day finances of the Charity. To develop and manage the charity’s future financial strategy of the charity, including setting the annual budget and forecasts, reporting on the financial performance of the charity in conjunction with working in collaboration with the Treasurer and regularly reporting to the board of Trustees.

Review, Monitoring and Evaluation

·      To undertake regular reviews of the Charity’s policies, procedures, practices, and documentation, to update and develop, ensuring all H&S and Safeguarding protocols reflect current best practice.

Knowledge, Skills and Certification Required

·      Established Managerial experience of managing projects for homeless and vulnerable people, showing a strong knowledge of the homeless sector, how it works, and what the issues are facing homeless people and the charity’s wishing to support them (London based experience preferable).

·      Successful long-term experience working with, helping, and relating well to homeless and vulnerable people, understanding the issues they face whilst also at times needing to be able to draw boundaries for people, including, at times, having to exclude people from services for periods of time, as appropriate.

·      Demonstrable experience in strategic planning showing an ability to maintain existing donor relationships whilst developing new sources of income and diversifying a funder base, including making bid applications for funding and managing and/or completing all relevant monitoring reporting.

·      Up to date knowledge of current best practice and experience in the implementation of all matters of Health and Safety, and Safeguarding and so forth, which shows an ability to manage these things in a way that keeps projects up to date and progressing with such standards.

·      Experience in management tasks such as recruitment, staff management and appraisal, team building, chairing meetings, writing and collecting reports, monitoring, drawing up meeting minutes, action plans, good prioritising of work, adaptability of approach and so forth.

Other Requirements

Enhanced DBS Check required.