Head of Financial Frameworks

About the team

This role is in the Financial Frameworks Team within the Assurance Division of the Funding and Financial Oversight Directorate (FFO) of Operations and Infrastructure Group.

The team comprises the grade 6 Head of Financial Frameworks, three grade 7 managers and 3 SEO senior advisors.

It is at the forefront of establishing financial governance, reporting and audit, arrangements for academy trusts, colleges and other training providers in receipt of DfE funds.

About the role

We are seeking to recruit a high-calibre individual to lead the team, which plays a fundamental role in preventing the misuse of public funds. The post is critical to the development of the Department’s financial framework for pre-16 and post-16 education providers, leading on both technical accounting and audit requirements under UK GAAP, and on all financial governance, management and control matters for these providers.

You will be a key member of the FFO Assurance senior leadership team, working alongside the Heads of pre-16 and post-16 assurance, as well as reporting to the deputy director (assurance).

There are significant current changes to the external financial reporting environment including a revised FRS102, and Charities / Further Education and Higher Education (FEHE) Statements of Recommended Practice (SORPs), published in autumn 2025. You will lead the team developing revised frameworks documents which are compliant with the new SORPs. We therefore require a fully qualified accountant with extensive experience, a proven record of working in a technical accounting environment, and who enjoys working in that environment.

The role will require you to engage and consult with relevant sector and professional bodies at a senior level including, Charity Commission, Financial Reporting Council, the Further and Higher Education SORP Board, ICAEW and Association of Colleges as well as academy trust and college finance directors and accountancy firms where you and your team will act as technical assurance leads and ambassadors for the Directorate and the wider Department.

You will work with colleagues within the team and across the Department to support the development of the financial assurance framework for education providers generally, and to ensure it aligns with policy, contractual requirements and funding rules.

We also support the sector at external meetings/webinars, which you and your team would lead, to ensure key messages about audit and assurance are embedded across the sector.

The role will offer the opportunity to apply your professional accountancy knowledge and project management abilities, lead technical work-strands and use your relationship management skills.

Your main responsibilities will include:

Leadership:

• This is a specialised senior leadership position responsible for setting the direction for a team of professionals working in a complex technical area.
• Ensuring robust planning of individual projects across the team.
• Delivering agreed outcomes to the highest standards, underpinned by thorough research and sound rationale.
• Identifying and managing risks to delivery.
• Applying the right balance of support and challenge across the team, reflecting both delivery needs and individual needs.

Products:

Overseeing the development of:

• The financial governance framework for the academy, college and independent training provider sectors including the academy trust handbook, the college financial handbook and the ITP financial handbook.
• The financial reporting framework for the academy and college sector including academy and college accounts directions.
• The audit and regularity requirements for the sector including frameworks and guides for academy and college auditors.
• Good practice guides, bulletins and other documents for academies, colleges and auditors.

Stakeholder management:

• Leading the Department’s relationship with key stakeholders on financial management, control, reporting and assurance including the Confederation of School Trusts, Institute of School Business Leadership, Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form Colleges Association.
• Collaborating credibly with the sectors and influencing effectively on financial management, control, reporting and audit requirements including consultation when introducing and developing financial governance, reporting and assurance framework requirements, to ensure they are fit for purpose.
• Representing the Department at HM Treasury, Charity Commission, Financial Reporting Council, the Further and Higher Education SORP Board, ICAEW and Association of Colleges sector webinars / meetings including presentations by the team to explain developments in the financial management, control, reporting and assurance framework.

Research:

• Maintaining up to date technical knowledge of financial reporting and auditing standards so that the frameworks keep abreast of all UK requirements. This includes ensuring the team thoroughly assesses the impact of UK financial reporting requirements and liaising with and influencing relevant organisations to support colleges’ application of those requirements - for example the Charity Commission, Financial Reporting Council, the Further and Higher Education SORP Board and ICAEW.
• In particular, you will be required to lead professionals developing revised frameworks documents for academies, colleges and independent training providers, which are compliant with legislation in particular the Companies Act, and with UK financial reporting and auditing standards including FRS102 and the new SORPs for charities and further and higher education,
• Identifying policy initiatives across the Department and other parts of government including HM Treasury that will impact upon assurance requirements and translating these into workable and deliverable guidance.
• Thorough research is a critical skill for the team you will lead.

Support:

• Providing expert advice to the assurance team and other operational teams within the Department on financial governance, management, control, reporting and audit/assurance issues.
• Operating collaboratively and flexibly across the division, directorate and Department to support your senior civil service colleagues on wider corporate delivery.

We welcome applications from candidates seeking part time or compressed working pattern. However, due to the nature of the work and the shift coverage required, the minimum number of contracted hours for this role is 30 hours per week over a 4 day period.

Fully qualified accountant (e.g. ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA, CIPFA, CIMA or equivalent).

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this role, please select 'Apply Now' at the top or bottom of this advert. CV details need to be included in the template within the application form; attached or emailed CVs will not be considered.

Stage 1 – Application

At sift stage, you will be assessed on your Experience in line with the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job advert. You will also be assessed on the Behaviours listed in the advert.

To apply for this role, please provide:

• A Short CV setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.
• Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 1000 words, provide examples of how your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the essential criteria. This is not intended to be a cover letter, instead work through each essential criteria in turn. You may wish to follow the STAR technique to help focus your examples. The key things we are looking for are what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was.
• 250-word examples to demonstrate how you meet each of the behaviours listed in the advert.

To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is 1000 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over 1000 words will not be taken into account.

The CV, Statement of Suitability & Behaviours will be assessed against the essential criteria detailed in the advert.

Experience - When looking at your experience, we’re looking for examples of things you have previously achieved or your knowledge in a particular field, which are relevant to the job role. We’re not looking at how much time you spent in a particular field, but rather how you performed. Sometimes experience can be transferable from a non-work context. Skills gained through voluntary work or a hobby, such as teamwork or communication, can demonstrate the experience required for the role.

Should there be a high volume of applicants, candidates will be sifted using the lead Behaviour, Seeing the Big Picture and the lead essential criteria Being a fully qualified accountant with extensive experience with a proven record in a technical accounting environment and who does, or would, enjoy doing so.

Please note, CV details must be contained within the template on the application form. Any CV or Statement of Suitability that has been emailed to our team will not be considered.

Once you have submitted your application it cannot be amended; only submit your application when you have completely finished, answered all the relevant questions and reviewed the information entered.

Application sifting will take place w/c 21 September 2026 onwards. Please note these dates are subject to change.

If you are successful at application sift stage, your application will be progressed onto Stage 2 part of the Selection process.

Stage 2: Presentation/Interview

The interview will be a 2-part process:

Part 1: Prepare and deliver a short presentation (approx. 10 minutes) to the panel. Please be prepared to answer follow up questions on the presentation.

Presentation details

“What are the key considerations when leading the development of a financial framework to provide effective and proportionate oversight of academy trusts and colleges?”

You can use handouts if you wish to. Feel free to use notes as a point of reference, if needed.

Part 2: The interview will last approximately 1 hour. You will be asked questions on the Behaviours and Essential Skills listed above to determine your level of experience in these areas

We will also ask you Strengths based questions.

Experience is the knowledge or mastery of an activity or subject by involvement in or exposure to it. When looking at your experience we are looking for/;

• Previous examples of what you have achieved.
• Your knowledge in a particular field which is relevant to the job role.
• How you performed in a particular field – not how long you served.
• Sometimes experience from outside work can be transferable from a non-work context. Skills gained through voluntary work or a hobby can show the experience you may need for a role. For example, teamwork or communication.

Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job. We want to get an understanding of the actions and activities that you have done (or would do) that result in effective performance.

Strengths are a way for Hiring Managers to understand what motivates you and what you enjoy doing, which helps the panel to understand your areas of strength. Evidence shows that people do better work when a job aligns well with what they enjoy and find motivating. We don’t advertise which strengths we are going to assess you on as we want to be able to assess your first, natural response to the questions.

Interviews will take place mid-October 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change. Please note these dates are subject to change. Interviews will be held in person at our London Hub, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We receive many applications, and unfortunately we’re not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren’t shortlisted. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

All communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.

Other Information

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.