Finance And Administration Officer

About The Roots Foundation Wales

We are an award-winning charity supporting children and young people in care, in kinship care, those transitioning to independent living and care leavers. We also support foster and kinship carers.

In 2017 we featured on a BBC1 DIY SOS & Children in Need special and as a result we have a beautiful centre with 3 semi-independent living flats attached.  Our Transition to Independent Living programme is bespoke and holistic in its approach and aims to teach young people on the cusp of leaving care (16-19 years old) independent living skills to aid a smooth and positive transition into adulthood.

We have a team of youth workers, night staff and volunteers who run groups, activities and clubs throughout term time and school holidays for young people aged 4-25. We hold coffee mornings for carers, a playgroup for young parents and activity groups ranging from crafts club to cookery, youth club and movie nights.

As a result of increased funding from a range of grant making bodies and charitable foundations, and an enthusiastic Board of Trustees we are keen to grow our team so that we can offer more opportunities to even more young people and carers.  

We have been without a Centre Director for 6 months whilst we undertake a review and refresh of our policies and processes. After some exciting changes we are ready to recruit for this role. We have funding for the post for 3 years but hope to extend it subject to securing additional funding. 

A message from our Youth Panel 

“Roots is our home from home, it's a place where we can share our personal experiences and always be supported. Building good relationships with the staff and other young people is very important to us. It's important to have staff who are respectful, caring and trustworthy while being able to have fun and enjoy a bit of banter! We need someone who is honest, responsible and appreciative of the fact that Roots is like our family.”

 About You

Are you ready for your next leadership challenge in a workplace full of life and passion, surrounded by inspiring young people and colleagues who love their jobs? Are you able to lead collaboratively, speak confidently to a range of audiences to promote our work, manage multiple work streams and projects simultaneously and to oversee and plan budgets and operations both efficiently and strategically? 

The Centre Director at Roots will work closely with the Board of Trustees: to deliver our strategic plans for growth; to set, oversee and monitor budgets and financial operations and to ensure our day to day operations at Roots are run safely and effectively. 

And to lead Roots to deliver the best possible outcomes for the young people and carers who rely on us every day. 

The job holders main responsibilities will be: 

●      Leadership and Management: to build strong working relationships with and provide leadership and management for the staff team of 12 plus volunteers

●      Operational Management: to oversee the day to day management and operational running of the Centre including financial monitoring and reporting, payroll (working with a part-time Finance and Administration Officer), IT, IM and data protection

●      Service Delivery: to ensure the provision of high quality and appropriate activities and programmes are delivered to the young people accessing our services and to ensure service users’ feedback is sought and acted upon

●      Stakeholder Engagement: to raise awareness of the work of Roots and build our profile with key local and national stakeholders

●      Accommodation oversight: to oversee the development and management of the semi-independent living accommodation in partnership with the Accommodation Manager

●      Reporting to Funders: to develop and oversee robust monitoring and evaluation processes to enable accurate and timely reporting to Funders and commissioning bodies. 

●      Fundraising: to support the Board of Trustees to secure new avenues of funding in line with the charity’s objectives

●      Safeguarding: to be the main point of contact for any safeguarding concerns and ensuring the safeguarding processes are followed, making sure that any concerns are also reported to the designated trustee for safeguarding

The post requires flexibility as the Centre currently has staffing on a 24-hour basis and you will be expected to support with any safeguarding issues that occur out of normal working hours (on a rota basis) and there will be some out of hours work when required to meet the charity’s needs.

Person Specification

You do not need to have all of the experience listed below, we are looking for the right person to fit our team and a willingness to learn. Full training can be provided for the right candidate.

Essential 

●      Experience in an operations management and/or strategic leadership role within a health and social care / childcare / education  or similar setting

●      Experience of leadership and managing a large team to deliver multiple work streams or services to vulnerable users

●      Highly numerate with a track record of successfully managing budgets and delivering value for money

●      Experience managing safeguarding processes and policies and a working understanding of Wales Safeguarding Procedures. 

Desirable

●      Experience of working with our beneficiary group which includes those in mainstream care, secure residential settings, kinship care and Special Guardianship care, as well as kinship and foster carers and care leavers where statutory support has ended.

●      Experience of stakeholder engagement and/or public speaking

●      Experience of service development and of managing commissioned services 

●      A recognised qualification in management and leadership or programme and project management 

●      Experience of working in the charity sector with a good understanding of governance requirements and the challenges facing the sector, in particular the Welsh context

●      Excellent IT skills and the ability to learn and use new software and IT packages

●      Experience of identifying and applying for funding on a national, regional, or local level

●      An understanding and experience of how to implement  a trauma informed approach