Are you an experienced finance professional looking to make a significant impact in the third sector? Avenue, a leading charity in the North East of Scotland, is seeking an exceptional Finance Manager to join our senior leadership team. This pivotal role will ensure our financial health and sustainability, driving our mission to support families, children, and individuals through life’s challenges.

About Us:

For over 70 years, Avenue has provided a range of services across Grampian, designed to help families and individuals overcome obstacles and improve their relationships and wellbeing. With values rooted in effectiveness, integrity, respect, credibility, innovation, and independence, we are committed to making a real difference in our community.

The Role:

As Finance Manager, you will lead all aspects of our financial operations, from strategic planning and budgeting to cash management and financial reporting. You'll work closely with the CEO and the Board of Trustees, providing insightful analysis and advice to support strategic decision-making. Your responsibilities will also include:

• Developing and implementing financial policies and controls
• Leading the annual audit process and preparing statutory accounts
• Supporting funding bids with excellent financial analysis and planning
• Supporting managers in budget management and financial literacy
• Ensuring compliance with financial, charity, and company legislation

What We’re Looking For:

• Fully qualified (ACA, ACCA, CIMA) or part qualified with commensurate experience
• Proven success in a senior financial management role
• Strong knowledge of relevant legislation and financial regulations
• Excellent communication, organisational, and problem-solving skills
• Proficiency in finance software (preferably Xero) and advanced Excel skills
• Experience in strategic financial planning and risk management

Why Join Avenue?

This is an exciting opportunity to bring your expertise to a vibrant and impactful organisation. You'll work in a supportive and collaborative environment, with opportunities for professional development and to influence the financial direction of our charity.

The person specification gives a broad indication of expectations. Please get in touch if you

feel you would have a lot to offer even if it isn’t an exact match with our requirements.

Aberlour are the largest solely Scottish children’s charity; we help to transform the lives of disadvantaged children, young people and families across Scotland, and we are looking to recruit new Trustees who will join us in our efforts to ensure children have the opportunities and support they deserve.

Aberlour has a rich history of delivering vital services to vulnerable children, young people and their families. Since our inception as an orphanage in Speyside in 1875 and the formal establishment of Aberlour Child Care Trust in 1976, we have developed a significant reputation for delivering the following services: residential care and fostering, recovery, early years, disability, early intervention and youth work. We offer support at the earliest opportunity – giving children the best possible start in life is at the heart of everything we do.

Due to Trustees coming to the end of their term, we are seeking up to five new Trustees with a range of skills to join the Board during 2025 to help us to deliver our ambitious strategic priorities and goals to transform the lives of disadvantaged children across Scotland. Applicants should have the values, experience and passion to lead one of Scotland’s leading charities at a time when our support is needed more than ever.

We are looking for the following skills:

• Chartered accountant with strong financial skills, in particular charity accounting, that would allow you to chair or join our Finance Committee.
• Understanding of children’s services or social care. Also experience of scrutiny or quality improvement that would allow you to chair or join our Improvement, Audit & Risk Committee.
• Experience of social investment.
• Policy development, especially in relation to engaging with children and families who are overcoming trauma.
• Learning and development.
• Lived experiences that can bring empathy with children and young people.
• Understanding of the demands and complexities of board-level governance and experience of operating at a senior level in Corporate, Public or Third sector environments would be an advantage.

In welcoming applications from all parts of Scotland’s communities, we recognise that diversity in the voices around our table will better reflect the communities we serve. If you believe you could add real value to our board table but don’t meet some or all the criteria we have laid out, we would still love to hear from you, but please highlight for us the value you would bring in your application.

You will be required to attend 4 Board meetings, relevant committee meetings and a Board Development Day each year.

Charity trustees are expected to direct the affairs of the charity through efficient, effective and accountable governance, ensuring that the organisation is professionally run and acts in accordance with its stated aims and objectives. These are unpaid roles, but reasonable expenses will be reimbursed.

Barnardo's Lanarkshire Locality has a number of services which provides both generic and bespoke help to some of the most vulnerable children, young people, and families.

In partnership with Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol (Scottish Families), we are promoting the Grow Your Own Routes service across North Lanarkshire. This service is funded by the cross-government Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, led by Scottish Families with the support of the Scottish Government's Drugs Policy Division. As part of its growth the service is being rolled out across several local authorities in Scotland. As a delivery partner for Scottish Families, Barnardo's provides this service, within North Lanarkshire.

The service known as North Lanarkshire Routes, provides bespoke support to children and young people aged 12 – 26 years who have been impacted by someone else's drugs and or alcohol use. The service will operate from our Motherwell office but will support children and young people across North Lanarkshire.

The delivery approach focuses on providing a range of tailored interventions through practical support, youth work and evidence-based approaches including but not exclusive to Solihull, Lets introduce Anxiety Management (LIAM) and Mental/emotional health interventions.

We are advertising for a 37-hour Project worker 2 to join our team however applications are welcome from those seeking part time hours. If successful, your role will be to provide support through 1:1 and group activities to children and young people affected by drugs and alcohol. As part of a team, you will work with young people in identifying support needs and gaps, and developing plans to meet these needs.

A strong understanding of the legislation impacting children and young people is required as well as a good working knowledge of wider and local strategies in place to reduce wider drug and alcohol related harms.

The role will involve evening and weekend work. This post covers a large geographical area and therefore a full driving licence with access to a car for the purposes of work is required.

As part of our commitment, we will offer you excellent learning and development opportunities, competitive flexible annual leave and bank holidays, pension scheme, access to employee assistance programmes such as counselling and life assurance.

We embrace the unique worth of everyone and value the diversity of our workforce. As such we seek to celebrate and observe different cultures and backgrounds.

If you would like more information, please contact Karen Motherwell (Children Services Manager) karen.motherwell@barnardos.org.uk or Lynn Morrison (Team Manager) lynn.morrison@barnardos.or.uk

When completing your application please refer to your skills knowledge and experience in relation to the Person Specification, Job Description and Additional Information document (if applicable). This should be done with an understanding of the context of the service described.

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.

Benefits

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

The world of work has changed. We are understanding of what works best for our colleagues both current and future as we look to embrace this new way of working. Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or any combination of these.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• 26 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing after 5 years service
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

About Barnardo's

At Barnardo's we believe in children – no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. Please read about our basis and values following the link below. You will be asked questions relating to them as part of the recruitment process for this role.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is reflected in our values and our practice, and we have invested in this area of our work to ensure that we can deliver on our commitments to be an inclusive employer. EDI is a key enabler of our purpose as a charity and we want to ensure that the diversity of our teams is reflective of the communities we serve and that we continue to learn and develop our work with a focus on inclusion. We particularly encourage applications from candidates from Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Communities, candidates who are LGBT+ and Disabled candidates.

Our basis and values

An exciting opportunity to be part of a growing and evolving award-winning Charity which pushes boundaries and works to change the landscape for children & families in Drumchapel and beyond. Reporting to the Head of Operations, you will provide and maintain high-level budgets and financial reporting systems.

3D Drumchapel is a Charity which has been working with children and families in Drumchapel and surrounding areas for over 27 years. We journey with children, families and communities to build strong foundations for families to thrive. We aim to strengthen family relationships, support parents to be the best parents they can be, improve family health & wellbeing, support children's development and build capacity in communities for family support delivery. Our services include a perinatal programme, parent & child sessions, parenting programmes, learning & development sessions, outdoor play, peer support groups, 1-1 support, family support in schools and practical support including Bairn Necessities which redistributes clothing and equipment for 0-5 years. We also lead the Drumchapel Children & Families Network which brings together children & families, third sector, social work, health, education, police and housing to work together to improve outcomes for children and families in Drumchapel.

The role

Our Finance Manager Role is to ensure the financial health and sustainability of the charity by managing and overseeing all aspects of its financial operations. Key duties include maintaining an effective financial reporting system, managing the online accounting system (QuickBooks), and ensuring compliance with charity regulations. This role involves day-to-day oversight of accounting, banking, cash flow, and payroll processes, while also producing monthly management accounts and tracking cashflows.

The Finance Manager works closely with the Chief Executive, Head of Operations, and the Administration & Finance Officer to prepare and report on budgets, manage grants, and support funding proposals. In addition, they provide financial reports for decision-making, risk management, and year-end accounts, while also attending Board, Finance, and Management meetings. They are

responsible for ensuring financial controls and compliance, advising the CEO, Head of Operations and Board on finance-related issues, and staying current on best practices in charity finance.

What we are looking for

We are looking for a reliable person with a passion to create change for children and families and who follow our values of INTEGRITY, LOVE, EXCELLENCE & COLLABORATION with the following skills and experience –

Skills –

• Exceptional financial skills
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, verbal and written
• Strong organisational skills
• Proficient IT skills with strong skills in Microsoft Excel
• Ability to be pro-active and to work on own initiative as well as effectively as part of a team
• Good analytical mind for developing good systems and procedures
• Ability to multitask and work in a busy environment
• Ability to prioritise work and meet deadlines
• Strong lateral thinking capacity
• Respect for confidentiality
• Ability to work flexibly

Experience and Knowledge –

• Demonstrate experience implementing and maintaining financial systems
• Understanding and commitment to vision, values and ethos of 3D Drumchapel
• Knowledge and understanding of financial management principles and practice
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of best practice and regulatory requirements in relation to Charity Finances
• An understanding of the challenges facing families in Drumchapel and surrounding areas
• Understanding of and commitment to equality & diversity
• Proactive and reflective approach to own learning and development and professional practice

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a skilled, supportive and inspiring team making a real difference and changing outcomes with and for children & families in Drumchapel and beyond. You will be joining our team at a pivotal as we grow, seek to break new ground and take 3D Drumchapel to the next level.

What we offer

• Competitive salary with incremental rises
• 6% employer pension
• 35 days annual leave which grows with length of service (includes 10 days public holidays)Flexible working in line with the needs of the Charity
• Opportunities for growth & development including comprehensive induction & training programme, coaching & mentoring, support & supervision, appraisals and team development
• Nurturing environment