Financial Frameworks Manager

Job summary

About the team

This role is in the Financial Frameworks Team within 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 management and control, and financial reporting and audit, arrangements for academy trusts, colleges and other training providers in receipt of DfE funds.

About the role

The post is critical to the development of the post-16 financial framework, leading on the UK GAAP-based financial reporting and audit arrangements, and the financial management and control requirements, applicable to further education and sixth form colleges and independent training providers (ITPs), as well as liaising with external stakeholders.

There are significant current changes to the external financial reporting environment including a revised FRS102, and a new Further Education and Higher Education (FEHE) Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) which was published in autumn 2025. You will take a lead role in developing revised frameworks documents which are compliant with the new FEHE SORP, and potentially supporting development of other documents based on the new (and concurrent) Charities SORP. We therefore require a fully qualified accountant who would be interested in working in this technical environment, and who would enjoy doing so.

The role will require you to engage and consult with relevant sector and professional bodies at a senior level including college finance directors and accountancy firms where you will act as a technical assurance lead and an ambassador for the Directorate and the wider Department.

You will also work with colleagues within the team and across the Department to support the development of the financial assurance framework generally, and to ensure it aligns with policy, contractual requirements and funding rules. This is likely to include supporting the development of the frameworks for academy trusts, dependent upon team priorities.

We also support the sector at external meetings/webinars, which you 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.

Job description

Your main responsibilities will include:

Products:

• Overseeing the development of the financial management and control framework for the college and ITP sectors, including the College financial handbook and the ITP financial handbook.
• Developing the financial reporting framework for the college sector including the College accounts direction.
• Developing the audit and regularity requirements for the college sector including the Framework and guide for college auditors.
• Developing good practice guides, bulletins and other documents for colleges and auditors.

Stakeholder management:

• Leading the Department’s relationship with key stakeholders on financial management and control, and reporting and assurance including the Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form Colleges Association.
• Collaborating credibly with the sector and influencing effectively on financial management and control, and reporting and audit requirements including consultation when introducing and developing assurance framework requirements, to ensure they are fit for purpose.
• Representing the Department at sector meetings/webinars including presenting to explain developments in the financial management and control, and reporting and assurance frameworks.

Research:

• Maintaining up to date technical knowledge of financial management and control, and reporting and auditing standards so that the framework keeps abreast of all UK requirements. This includes assessing 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 on developing revised frameworks documents for colleges which are compliant with the new Further and Higher Education SORP which came into effect from January 2026. You may also need to contribute concurrently to the development of equivalent documents for academies based on a new Charities SORP.
• Identifying policy initiatives that will impact upon assurance requirements and translating these into workable and deliverable guidance.

Support:

• Providing expert advice to the assurance team and other operational teams within the Department on financial management and control, and reporting and audit/assurance issues.
• Operating flexibly across the Frameworks Team to support delivery in relation to academies and other non-college post-16 providers as priorities dictate.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Be a fully qualified accountant with at least five years post qualification experience who is fitted to work in a technical accounting environment and who does, or would, enjoy doing so.
• Professional knowledge of financial accounting, reporting and audit requirements.
• A high level of professional and technical skill, achieved in this environment.
• Knowledge and understanding of best practice financial management and governance arrangements.
• Able to look at the big picture and consider the wider factors, but at the same time can be details-focussed.
• Ability to undertake technical research and collate evidence to support decisions and to create solutions for complex areas of activity.
• Strong writing and drafting skills with the ability to take complex ideas and translate these into clear guidance and briefings for external publication.
• Effective stakeholder management and leadership skills including the confidence and ability to influence and negotiate at a senior level, whilst establishing mutual respect and trust to build long-lasting relationships.
• Strong and effective management skills with an approachable, supportive and challenging style.
• You are prepared to take ownership of your decisions and hold yourself accountable for what you deliver.

Desirable Criteria:

• Knowledge of the college and independent training provider sectors including financial reporting and assurance requirements.
• Knowledge of charity accounting including the Charities SORP and Further Education and Higher Education SORP.
• Knowledge of regularity requirements within public and/or education bodies.

Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.

Qualifications

Fully qualified accountant

Memberships

Membership of a professional accountancy body, for example ICAEW, ICAS, ACCA, CIFPA, CIMA or equivalent

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,437, Department for Education contributes £16,929 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

If you would like to apply for this position, please complete the Civil Service Jobs application form by clicking the "Apply Now" button at the top or bottom of this advert.

Stage 1 – Application

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

To apply for this role, please provide:

Your CV – Set out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.

Your Statement of Suitability – In no more than 1250 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.

You will also be required to provide 250-word examples to demonstrate how you meet the following behaviours:

• Making effective decisions
• Seeing the big picture
• Communicating and influencing

Where possible, please link your examples with the listed essential criteria.

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

If we receive a high number of applications, we will sift your CV and statement on “Being a fully qualified accountant with at least five years post qualification experience who is fitted to work in a technical accounting environment and who does, or would, enjoy doing so”, and the "Making Effective Decisions" behaviour only.

Stage 2 - 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 developing a financial framework to provide effective and proportionate oversight of 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 60 minutes. You will be asked questions on the essential criteria listed above to determine your level of experience in these areas. Questions will typically ask for a brief and broad overview of your experience relevant to a criteria (e.g. tell us about your experience delivering policy projects) and/or a specific example (e.g. tell us about a time when you….). We may also ask you some follow-up questions.

We will also ask you Behaviour questions aligned to the behaviours listed in the advert.

You will also be asked strengths-based questions. Strengths are the things we do regularly, do well and motivate us. There are no right and wrong answers to these questions, we want to find out whether you are a good fit for the role. 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.

Other Information

Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.

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.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : David Massey
• Email : david.massey@education.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk

Further information

The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages

Attachments

Reasonable Adjustments guide 05_2025 - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 723kB)DFE Terms & Conditions - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 215kB)OGD Transfer Supplementary information - accessible version (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 327kB)