Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Assistant Business Director - currently responsible for strategic business, financial and HR leadership at Acacia Family Support. Experienced professional, who has led on numerous successful business, policy, project and change management programmes in the public and charity sector. Skills include financial management, project / change management, policy and strategy development, strategic HR, governance, compliance, business analysis, service and process redesign, training and staff / stakeholder engagement. Education & Continued Professional Development includes: BA (Hons) Government & Politics (2.1) APMG accredited - Change Management Practitioner CMI Level 5 Management & Leadership (fCMgr) : including certificate in Managing Finance Level 7 Senior Strategic People Professional apprenticeship diploma ongoing (which will include Chartered MCIPD)
Responsible for business, finance and HR leadership and statutory governance. Providing strategic and operational business management oversight and assurance to the Directors and Trustees Board, ensuring financial sustainability and regulatory compliance, delivering organisational development and transformation. Strategic Finance & Business Leadership • Lead finance and business support functions and internal controls. • Manage £750k annual budget, including budget setting, monitoring, cash flow and long-term financial planning across multiple income streams and restricted funds. • Produce and present monthly and quarterly management accounts and financial analysis reports to Directors / Trustees. • Manage audit / independent examination processes to ensure compliance with charity and company law. • Deliver Board-level financial insight and reserves strategy to inform organisational decision-making. Strategic HR Leadership & People Management • Lead HR strategy and operational delivery across the full employee lifecycle. • Implemented a new HRIS and develop new and existing HR policies and procedures. • Implemented performance management, wellbeing and L&D initiatives aligned to strategic priorities. • Oversee HR admin, payroll, pensions and employment compliance. • Deliver Board-level insight to align people strategy with financial sustainability (i.e introducing a new pay and benefits framework and proposals for organisational redesign / restructure). Governance & Strategic Advice • Act as Company Secretary, responsible for Companies House and Charity Commission statutory filings and regulatory compliance. • Advise Directors and Trustees on risk, governance and compliance obligations. • Deliver strategic advisory support / Board papers, including business cases, policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, equality impact and risk management.
Business manager in the charity / perinatal mental health sector, responsible for business, HR and financial management. Duties include : Budget management including monitoring organisational income and expenditure, invoicing, managing service contracts and negotiation with stakeholders. Lead on HR, payroll and pensions - developing organisational policy and procedures, implementing the real living wage and new employee engagement and recognition activities. Led an organisational pay and grading review - responsible for creating the business case, conducting research, benchmarking, job evaluation, financial modelling, consultation and analysis. Provided content for online training modules with the Hearts & Minds Partnership, to support other VCSE organisations. Provided regular advice and guidance to Trustees / the senior leadership team to support financial / workforce planning and continuous business improvements.
Lead business analyst responsible for requirements gathering and process mapping for DIO transformation programmes. Managed a team of Business Analysts responsible for stakeholder engagement to understand customer needs for IS enabled business change. Facilitated and managed stakeholder workshops. Working with business owners to assess the impact of change, gather, capture, analyse, develop and document process maps and detailed requirements, establishing ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ positions. Engagement with solution architects and IT suppliers to ensure requirements understood and progressed to successful deployment.
Successful policy and project manager responsible for a new Council Tax Support scheme/policy in Birmingham, that achieved £10million in savings. Delivered key research,business analysis, consultation,communications and reports during the project to engage / inform decision makers and stakeholders at all levels. Developed financial modelling and business transformation proposals for a further £1 million scheme redesign. Policy lead for the development,review and implementation of strategies,policies,procedures, communications and delivering technical advice on legislative issues. Preparing clear and robust briefings and reports to inform senior leadership decision making,delivery teams,the public and stakeholders. Lead for national welfare reform projects,such as UC and the Benefit Cap - responsibility for implementing changes affecting policy,procedures, communications, IT systems,work processes and organisation. Developed a Risk Based Verification policy and Discretionary Hardship Payment strategy - responsibility for research,expenditure and caseload trend analysis to scope and define the schemes; public and stakeholder consultation and equality analysis to review the schemes. Conducted systematic process reviews in order to identify business improvements,managing transition and organisational change. This included the business case,requirements and costs for e-Services, identifying savings of £850k. And a strategic review of customer interfaces,contributing to a 76% increase in online channel shift in 12 months. Responsible for delivering a training/communication programme for 200+ staff. Co-ordinating the department’s adherence to Data Protection, FOI, Equality and H&S regulations. Completing impact, risk and equality assessments. Managing a team of policy, change management, training and FOI officers, dealing with recruitment, work planning, 1-1’s, performance related appraisals, staff development, attendance, sickness,disciplinary and grievances.
Successful project / change manager who has delivered the scoping, development, testing and implementation of a range of Revenues and Benefits transformational programmes, deploying new and innovative IT solutions, procedural, process, compliance and legislative changes. Leading projects aimed at driving operational efficiency; conducting service improvement reviews and activity based costings and working with service area managers to re-engineer their processes to manage resource and reduce workload. Responsible for producing, maintaining and analysing all project documents during the project life cycle using PRINCE2 and CHAMPS2 methodology. Managing project plans, risks, issues, dependencies, stakeholders, work schedules, monitoring the status and progress of project deliverables; ensuring my team supplied all projects on time and within budget. Managed relationships with IT suppliers and business owners to ensure effective data migration, user acceptance testing, cleansing, quality assurance, management information development, operational acceptance, monitoring, evaluation and transition into business as usual. Provided internal consultancy and expert technical knowledge including the delivery of special projects and business analysis to document requirements for IT solutions and develop high quality business cases. Effectively networked with a range of stakeholders - local authorities, charities, housing associations, Government departments and IT suppliers to add value to deliverables and share best practise. Organised, facilitated and presented at events and city-wide public consultation.
Successful project and strategy development officer, responsible for delivering service wide improvements and/or efficiency savings by implementing and reviewing a variety of IT, procedural, process, compliance and legislative programmes.
Team leader responsible for the supervision of a team of 20 administrative officers, that consistently exceeded departmental targets for the timely and correct payment of state pensions.