DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & CORPORATE SERVICES
INTRODUCTION
Centrepoint is a unique organisation dedicated to making an important contribution to life opportunities for disadvantaged young people. I feel privileged to lead it but also frustrated that we are still needed in the UK today, in a society that I know cares deeply for the well-being of the next generation.
For nearly 55 years, Centrepoint has supported homeless
ABOUT CENTREPOINT
WHAT IS CENTREPOINT?
At Centrepoint, we believe no young person’s life should be defined by homelessness.
Centrepoint exists to make a difference for young people — a difference that lasts.
It was founded in 1969 by an inspirational group led by Reverend Ken Leech, Vicar of St Anne’s Church in Soho, London. Determined to do something about the scores of homeless young people sleeping rough around his parish church, Ken got a handful of volunteers together. Armed with just £30, they cleared the basement of his vicarage and got going. They insisted that the young people they hosted must get involved in productive activity and we are delighted that even now, we stay true to that ethos, and to their vision that youth homelessness should not exist in the UK.
Our vision therefore is to end youth homelessness nationally, and while we pursue this, we want to enable young people in our care to have and sustain a job and a home. Centrepoint provides housing and support for young people regionally in London, Manchester, Yorkshire and the North East and through partnerships all over the UK.
We are passionate about our work and see young people’s potential rather than their limitations. We share their hope that, with our help, they will realise their ambitions and leave homelessness behind for good.
WHAT WE DO
YOUNG PEOPLE AT THE CENTRE
We strive to put young people at the centre of our work. The work that we do is always informed by their needs and we are committed to empowering young people to influence every aspect of what we do.
PREVENTING YOUTH HOMELESSNESS
Centrepoint Helpline
Launched in 2017, the Centrepoint Helpline works to prevent youth homelessness by offering free and confidential advice and support to anyone in England aged 16–25. The Helpline has supported 7,666 young people over the last 12 months, with call numbers continuing to increase year on year.
Prevention upstream
We are undertaking projects that aim to develop solutions over the next five years that could prevent youth homelessness by moving assistance upstream. Our pre-16 prevention pilot is the largest in England and responds to the challenge of intervening far earlier in the lives of young people and their families to prevent homelessness at age 16. A second project in the Midlands is trialling a holistic approach that would bring together the information held separately by health, education, and social services, as the basis for a relationship with families that would be deep enough to make lasting change.
SAFE AND SECURE
A safe place to live forms a fundamental stepping-stone in building a future where young people can realise their potential. Centrepoint currently supports over 1,500 young people a day through our supported housing, floating support, rough sleeper and resettlement services.
ENABLE, INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE
The focus of our support work is to inspire and motivate each young person to achieve the right outcomes for them. The young people we support have varying needs and we work with each young person as an individual, focusing on their particular needs. We offer interventions that support young people to get and stay healthy both mentally and physically; to develop skills for work and for independent living; as well as enabling them to discover their aspirations, access education and make the transition into employment.
LIVE INDEPENDENTLY
At all times, our overall goal is to prepare homeless young people to live independently. Once young people are ready to move on from our supported services, we work hard with them to find appropriate options for independent living, supporting them for a further six months after they’ve left our services. This could be in council or housing association properties, private sector housing, or one of the independent living homes we are now developing ourselves.
Independent Living pilot
We know from our direct work with young people that they face significant financial barriers when they are ready to move to living independently, particularly into the private housing sector. We have therefore developed an Independent Living pilot that redefines genuine affordability by linking rent to a young person’s income. The pilot will deliver 300 new homes for single young people in London and Greater Manchester by 2027, with 50 of these delivered to date. Our aim is to prove that such a model is feasible and work with our partners, local authorities, developers and other providers to scale the pilot nationally.
INFLUENCING PUBLIC POLICY AND SOCIETY
We cannot end youth homelessness without mobilising society to drive systemic change.
We work hard to influence the policies that impact on young homeless people, including housing, skills, education, benefits and health, at all levels of government. Alongside this, we support local authorities and local agencies around the country not only to secure the best outcomes for homeless young people, but also to deliver much needed services. We work equally hard to mobilise society, encouraging people to get involved by giving their money, time or voice to help us orchestrate societal change. All of this is underpinned by our research, including commissioned studies and, importantly, what young people tell us every day.
For further information, please click HERE
OUR VISION
Our vision is to end youth homelessness by 2037.
Any young person born in 2021, the year our latest strategy was set, will turn 16 in 2037 — the year in which they may need help from Centrepoint. We therefore aspire to end homelessness for the next generation.
As the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint will spearhead this endeavour by testing potentially effective solutions, delivering exemplar services for young people, and using insight gained to campaign, influence, and orchestrate systemic change. On the journey to 2037, our current strategy focuses on the following four areas:
I. OPTIMISE - Ensure we have the optimum capacity to deliver our strategy.
II. PREVENT - Prevent those who face immediate homelessness from experiencing it.
III. SUPPORT - Deliver exemplary and innovative interventions that enable those who suffer homelessness to have a job and a home.
IV. AMPLIFY - Amplify the voices of young people and orchestrate solutions to the youth homelessness cycle that can be scaled up.
OUR FINANCES
Centrepoint’s finances remain strong.
Total income for the year ending 31 March 2023 was £50.2m, a decrease of £2.5m compared to the previous year, primarily due to the impact of the cost of living crisis on fundraised income. Income from charitable activities was £17.2m. Income from rents and charges amounted to £8.0m. Income from supported housing and other grants reached £9.2m.
Expenditure during the year ending 31 March 2022 was £47.5m. Reserves stood at £36.3m, of which £28.3m has been designated for essential activities or invested in fixed assets, such as housing and property development for our Independent Living Programme.
OUR VALUES
To read our financial statements for 2022-23, please click HERE .
ENERGY
We are ambitious for young people, and we have relentless drive, commitment, and resilience to achieve that.
ACCOUNTABILITY
We know what we have to do and why. We have high standards and expectations of ourselves.
FOCUS
We deliver for, and with, young people in a way that is creative, inspiring, and enjoyable.
INTEGRITY
We always put the good of young people and Centrepoint first.
HUMILITY
Our work is a service that supports and challenges each person in our sphere of influence to fulfil their potential and ensure that they are engaged and inspired to perform.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
We are enterprising and innovative — professional, optimistic, and always thinking about how to improve.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
OUR PEOPLE
Centrepoint has around 600 committed staff who are led by a talented Senior Executive Team and experienced Board.
We are delighted to have HRH The Prince of Wales as a long serving Patron alongside a committed group of Ambassadors.
Further details on our people can be found HERE
ROLE DESCRIPTION
Job title Director of Finance and Corporate Services
Career family Senior Executive Team (SET)
Salary
Contract
£100,000 - £110,000
Initial 12-15 month contract
Reports to Chief Executive
OVERALL PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
Centrepoint’s vision is to end youth homelessness by 2037. We define this as making youth homelessness rare overall, brief when it occurs, and therefore the experience of it frictional. Our driving goal is to orchestrate a society in which there is nationwide availability of services that prevent young people who face homelessness from experiencing it; responds rapidly to those who face homelessness to give them support to move forwards; and enable young people to move-on to fully independent lives.
The Director of Finance and Corporate Services is a member of the charity’s Senior Executive Team and as such has joint responsibility for delivering this vision.
The particular responsibility of this role is to ensure that Centrepoint is healthy and stable financially, while also thinking about long-term funding strategies. They will also take executive responsibility for financial operations; technology and business systems; internal audit and assurance; regulatory and professional compliance; and procurement.
The Director will:
• Focus relentlessly on the vision and balance effectively the trade-offs between long-term strategies and medium to short-term imperatives.
• Build collaborative relationships with senior executives and other staff members to enable successful execution of Centrepoint’s strategy for achieving its vision.
• Promote and protect Centrepoint’s leading status and reputation, building key relationships with senior leaders across, and where necessary, beyond the sector.
• Reinforce and promote Centrepoint’s values personally, both internally and externally.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
LEADERSHIP
• Work with the CEO and other senior executives to formulate, develop and evolve Centrepoint’s strategy, bringing in external insights that are relevant, and taking direct responsibility for translating the strategy into activities that deliver the required outcomes.
• Build high performing teams to deliver required outcomes.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership that inspires and motivates staff within the team and more widely across the organisation. This will include articulating the vision and strategy in a way that creates excitement, enthusiasm, and commitment from colleagues as well as a pathway from our vision to outcomes, especially in their areas of primary responsibility.
• Act internally and externally as a role model for Centrepoint’s values, promoting a culture that enables people to flourish, and the best of them to develop their careers within Centrepoint. Features of such a culture will include inclusion, learning, professionalism, collaboration, innovation and celebrating successes.
• Attend and actively participate in Centrepoint Board and Board Committee meetings, and develop, under the CEO’s leadership and direction, relationships with relevant members of Centrepoint’s Board.
RELATIONSHIPS
• Establish, develop and maximise for Centrepoint’s benefit, a range of relevant external relationships (e.g. with professional advisers, partners and suppliers, and when required, major donors and corporate supporters) in order to garner insights that are relevant to all aspects of Centrepoint’s work.
• Establish and develop strong interpersonal relationships with the Chief Executive, the Senior Executive Team, and a wide range of internal stakeholders, negotiating with and influencing peers, other colleagues, and the CEO as required.
• Build an effective working relationship with the Director of Strategy and Communications to ensure a seamless interaction between Centrepoint’s technology and business systems and digital transformation.
• Align the work of the directorate with the corporate strategy, ensuring that through collaborative working, the directorate’s activities reinforce activities in all other directorates.
• Foster an inclusive organisation, challenging discrimination and promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and cohesion.
• Work with others and as part of cross directorate teams to ensure communications within and between the teams are effective and successful outcomes are delivered.
• Represent Centrepoint externally and internally, being an effective ambassador for the organisation.
IMPACT AND RISK
• Develop and implement a financial strategy to support the corporate strategy and ensure that Centrepoint is financially strong in the short term and remains financially healthy in the medium and long terms.
• Work with the Director of Strategy & Communications to ensure a seamless connection between business planning (for which they are responsible), long term financial planning and budgeting.
• Prepare a detailed annual budget as part of a rolling long term financial plan to support the organisation’s strategic framework and business plans.
• Take overall responsibility for treasury management, ensuring that a holistic approach is taken to managing Centrepoint’s financial resources, including but not limited to cash flow forecasting, cash management, investment strategies and debt management.
• Take overall responsibility for technology infrastructure including business systems across the organisation, creating and implementing technology strategies that align with the organisation’s overall objectives.
• Develop strategies that are consistent with the corporate strategy to effectively deliver procurement; internal audit and assurance; and regulatory and professional compliance services across the organisation.
• Review and confirm the financial feasibility of new initiatives, investment, projects and development schemes.
• Make recommendations to the organisation as a result of internal audit and quality assurance processes, and ensure that agreed remedial actions are implemented within agreed timeframes.
• Take decisive action when reputation, financial or operational risks are identified.
• Define methods of measuring quality, including identifying and sharing true indicators of good practice.
• Lead the effective integration of the financial and other support functions of any new organisations joining Centrepoint.
• Continuously monitor performance against the strategic plans, spotting early warning signs of deviation, animating remedial action, and following through to ensure such actions are successfully executed.
• Develop and implement effective processes for identifying, appraising, and managing risk in accordance with Centrepoint’s culture and overall approach to risk, including risks to Centrepoint’s reputation, brand, and finances.
DISCRETION
• Work proactively and on their own initiative, not waiting for instruction and requiring minimal supervision and direction as should be expected of a senior role such as Director.
• Keep matters that come to their attention through internal meetings and meetings of Board Committees and the Board confidential, unless it has been previously decided that confidentiality is unnecessary.
YOUR BENEFITS PACKAGE AT CENTREPOINT WILL INCLUDE:
• 30 days leave per year, plus statutory bank holidays. 5% employer pension contribution.
Income protection cover.
• A Healthcare cash plan and Private medical insurance for you and discounted for immediate family.
Access to Help @ Hand which provides unlimited mental health support from a qualified mental healthcare professional, 24/7 remote GP appointments, a fully integrated Employee Assistance Programme and access to a range of wellbeing consultations including nutrition, personal training, physiotherapy, and lifestyle.
• Life insurance (death in service) policy.
Access to a range of discounts including gym memberships, Refer a friend scheme, Travel Loan and Cycle to Work schemes.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
Detailed below are the type of skills, experience, knowledge, and attributes that are relevant to the role:
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
• Significant gravitas and an excellent networker, communicator and influencer who is at ease and skilled in representing and promoting an organisation with different audiences, at different levels and in different contexts. Able to command respect externally and internally.
• Strong diplomacy, communication, and advocacy skills with the flexibility to adapt to different situations, cultures, and ways of working; at ease with collaborating with others, building relationships and partnerships.
• Ability to spot and grow future leaders by supporting, coaching, and developing people, especially within an environment of change.
• Ability to work remotely and lead change across a part office/part home based team that is also geographically dispersed and managing, supporting, and developing staff in that context.
• Excellent judgement, including in balancing short and long-term priorities, focusing on key issues, and identifying and managing both opportunities and risks.
• Commercially astute and strategic thinker, at ease with promoting an insight led approach while supporting innovative ideas; at ease with translating broad goals into specific actions; and bringing demonstrable experience of initiating, leading, and delivering change and transformation.
• Experience of developing and implementing strategic plans, including creating and shaping the right culture and/or leading a culture change programme.
• A good understanding of relevant regulatory framework in all areas of primary responsibility.
• Experience of managing and delivering high level complex tasks to tight time deadlines and against agreed annual income and expenditure budgets.
• Energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to delivering ambitious outcomes, including working variable hours as needed and comfortable with being both hands-on and strategic.
• Relevant professional qualification, supported by formal management learning appropriate to directorial level work.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
• Low ego and highly team-oriented personality that is inspired by others’ success.
• Growth mindset that is curious, open, and receptive to new ideas.
• Comfortable with ambiguity; handling stakeholders with divergent viewpoints; working with diversity and difference; and adapting to different situations, cultures, and ways of working.
• Purposeful, with high levels of integrity, energy, and self-motivation, and thus committed to achieving the best possible standards of work, being reflective yet pragmatic.
• Politically astute, with high emotional maturity and self-awareness. Open to admitting when things are not working, learning from mistakes, and encouraging others in the same vein.
• A generous spirit that seeks to help others be the best they can be and makes people feel involved, inspired, and invested.
• Committed to own professional and personal development.
• Willing to travel.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply for this position, please upload a comprehensive CV and a supporting statement of no more than 1000 words on our website. Please outline your motivation for the role and how your skill and experience aligns with the person specification.
As an inclusive employer Centrepoint actively encourages applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures.
At Prospectus we believe passionately that a truly inclusive workplace leads to increased social impact. We are committed to supporting our clients build more inclusive teams. To understand how we are performing, we ask that you kindly complete the brief questionnaire when you submit your application via our website.
Please be assured that your responses are kept confidential, separate from your candidate record, are not part of any application you make, and that the consultants never see individual responses to the questionnaire. Full feedback is also available at any stage, to all candidates throughout the process.
We would also be grateful if you could let us know if you will require any special provision as a result of any disability should you be called for interview.
Finally please ensure that you have included mobile, work and home telephone numbers, as well as any dates when you will not be available or might have difficulty with the indicative timetable.
Applications should be made via the Prospectus website at: https://prospect-us.co.uk/jobs/188297
TIMETABLE
Closing date Sunday 7th July
Meeting with Centrepoint From w/c 8th July
Please note that applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and early applications are advised.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Should you decide to make a formal application, you will receive feedback within seven working days of the closing date. The successful appointment is subject to satisfactory references.
QUERIES
If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information or would like to have an informal discussion, please contact our retained advisors at Prospectus; Harjit Bola or Mia Walker-Saunders at:
harjit.bola@prospect-us.co.uk mia.walkersaunders@prospect-us.co.uk