SEND Finance Officer - Education Access & Inclusion

37 hours per week

Do you want to make the difference to the lives of children and young people across the Isle of Wight?

Do you want to have a once in a career opportunity to support Special Educational Needs service within the new Children’s Services Directorate at the Isle of Wight Council?

Do you like a challenge? If so, come and join us on the Isle of Wight, as we transform education on the Island.

We are seeking a proactive and detail-oriented SEND Finance Officer to support the strategic leads to meet the educational aims as set out in the Isle of Wight Education Strategy 2024 to 2030. This role will lead the procurement, management, and monitoring of SEND-related contracts and expenditure, ensuring services are cost-effective, compliant, and meet the needs of children and young people. The role includes financial oversight, contract development, quality assurance, and close collaboration with internal teams to support strategic planning and budget forecasting.

Key Responsibilities:

• To ensure all spend is considered and controlled, with regular checks on all spend. 
• To be responsible for all SEND expenditure, ensuing packages are procured appropriately and managed over the course of the contract, so that children and young people have their needs effectively met, including bulk purchasing of placements.
• To ensure all SEND expenditure is good value for money and an efficient use of resources.
• To analyse and recorded in accordance with Isle of Wight Council’s financial regulations, highlighting to Senior Officers any discrepancies.
• To procure and manage the development, maintenance and renewal of service specifications and contracts for specialist provision and advisory/support services, ensuring compliant.
• Ensure that all providers are aware of and are compliant with KCSIE 2025 and that a system of robust annual checks is in place, so that children and young people are kept safe.
• To establish a robust system to Procure/Commission and Manage contracts.
• To establish a quality framework for commissioned places, with regular dip sampling.
• Work closely with the IOW Council Procurement Team to ensure all expenditure is regularised if necessary to become compliant by initiating development of contracts.
• To work closely with the budget accountant to provide up-to-date financial information to enable suitable budget forecasting and on monthly actual spend reporting to Senior Officers and Strategic leads.
• Extract financial data from systems which enables the service to forecast or retrospectively identify high value spend.
• To line manage the financial assistant and ensure all purchase orders, invoicing is in line with council policy.

This is a varied and impactful role that requires strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to build constructive working relationships across a wide range of stakeholders.

In line with the Council's Recruitment and Selection Policy, please note that we are unable to accept CVs. Any information provided on CVs will not be considered for short-listing purposes.

The Isle of Wight Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

You may be required to attend meetings outside of standard office hours.

For further information or an informal discussion, please contact Naomi Carter at email naomi.carter@iow.gov.uk

Join #TeamIWC and you'll receive our staff benefits package, including:

• Annual leave entitlement of 32 days p/a PLUS public holidays!
• Local Government pension scheme
• Discounted Solent ferry travel
• Island bus network discount
• Cycle to work scheme
• Staff parking permit scheme
• Discounted island sports & leisure gym membership
• National and local discounts & benefits schemes
• Relocation scheme of up to £8,000 may be available for some roles (subject to criteria)
• Travel allowance may be available if commuting from the mainland (subject to criteria)

Find out more about working for the Isle of Wight Council and living on the Island.

The Isle of Wight Council currently does not have a license to sponsor overseas workers.

We actively promote the diversity of our workforce, and provide flexible working options (where appropriate) to support the different needs of our employees. We are an equal opportunities employer, proud to encourage applications from all cultures, backgrounds and abilities to better reflect the diversity within our local community.

We are a Disability Confident employer. Along with a number of commitments, this means, providing you meet the basic essential requirements of the advertised role and have declared yourself as disabled, you will be offered an opportunity for an interview within the council.

The Isle of Wight Council protects its employees from discrimination, and this is supported by;

unacceptable behaviour policy

employee code of conduct

our values, culture and inclusivity

The Isle of Wight Council’s Terms & Conditions of employment are available upon request. Please contact our recruitment team via [email protected] if you would like to receive a copy.

The Isle of Wight Council reserve the right to close vacancies earlier than stated, if required. To ensure your application is considered, it is recommended to submit your application promptly.

This council and its schools recruit according to the council’s Recruitment, Policy and Procedure and are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share in this commitment.

For support completing your online application or for further information on how to apply, phone 01983 823134 or email [email protected]  Only applications submitted online by the closing date will be accepted.

We often receive a high volume of applicants for our vacancies. If you do not hear from the recruiting manager within three weeks of the closing date, we regret that your application will not have been successful on this occasion. Please revisit our job page for alternate posts that may be suitable.

 Please read the Application Guidance Notes before applying. If you are unable to complete this application, email us at [email protected] or telephone us on 01983 823113