Assistant School Business Manager

Grafham Water Center; Cottenham; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A local educational institution in Cottenham is seeking an Assistant School Business Manager to support the School Business Manager. Responsibilities include managing finance and HR functions, overseeing health and safety compliance, and ensuring effective first aid provision within the school. The ideal candidate should possess experience in Health & Safety, First Aid, and administrative support. This position offers a chance to contribute to the smooth running of the school while making a positive impact on the community.

Benefits

Supportive and inclusive work environment

Commitment to professional development

Diverse community

Access to employee support groups

Qualifications

• Experience in Health & Safety and First Aid administration is essential.
• A proactive approach to support school functions in Finance and HR.
• Effective communication skills for liaising with staff and parents.

Responsibilities

• Support the School Business Manager in managing HR and Finance.
• Oversee effective first aid provision within the school.
• Ensure records of Health & Safety policies are maintained and implemented.

Skills

Health & Safety knowledge

First Aid administration

Finance support

HR Administration

Procurement

Job description

Assistant School Business Manager

About the Role

We are seeking a talented, energetic and resourceful Assistant School Business Manager with a proven track record in Health & Safety, First Aid administration, Finance support, HR Administration and Procurement. The successful candidate will need to have a ‘can do’ attitude, be able to assist with the smooth running of the school by working alongside our School Business Manager to ensure effective and efficient co‑ordination of the school’s HR & Payroll, Finance and Procurement functions, and act as the school’s Health & Safety Co‑ordinator, Fire Officer and First Aid Lead.

Cottenham Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Main Purpose of the Job

To support the school, its pupils, Headteacher and Governing Body by making an active contribution to the day‑to‑day Finance, HR, Health & Safety and Procurement functions of the school and to take a lead role and oversee an effective first aid provision within the school.

Accountable To

School Business Manager

Areas of Responsibility

• Finance
  • Ensure invoices are accurately raised and paid in a timely manner as per financial procedures.
  • Locate, collate, analyse and present basic numerical information, as required.
  • Respond, file, distribute or escalate all the emails through the [e-mail] address.
  • Initiate BACS payments in accordance with school financial regulations.
• Procurement
  • In conjunction with the Office Manager, review and agree premises service level agreements.
  • Effective management and deployment of the school’s administration budget, procuring office equipment and services and observing best value.
  • Assist the School Business Manager in procurement, ensuring that the school achieves value for money, and adheres to policies and procedures relating to purchase of goods and services.
• Personnel
  • Assist the School Business Manager with all personnel administration tasks within the school, maintaining accurate personnel and payroll records via the EPM Portal and ensuring effective security of both manual and computerised data.
  • Process supply time sheets and overtime claims.
  • Record and monitor all staff absences, reporting any concerns to the School Business Manager, maintaining up‑to‑date records on the EPM Portal.
  • Responsible for the completion and submission of the annual workforce census, ensuring accurate recording of staff and their roles, teacher qualifications, staff ethnicity and all sickness absences.
  • Prepare recruitment material for all posts, place advertisements and ensure the administrative task associated with interviews is completed (e.g. copying application forms for short‑listing and interviewing panels, informing candidates of interview arrangements).
  • Ensure that new personnel are onboarded and inducted effectively, coordinating training as necessary.
  • Ensure confidentiality of information is maintained.
  • Keep record of and book all CPD for the school.
  • Chase up on outstanding online training and periodically prepare a report of all outstanding training to the SLT.
• Health & Safety
  • Act as the school’s Health & Safety Co‑ordinator and Fire Officer.
  • Plan, instigate and maintain records of fire practices and alarm tests.
  • Ensure the school’s written Health & Safety Policy is clearly communicated and available to all personnel.
  • Ensure the Health & Safety Policy is implemented at all times, put into practice and is subject to review and assessment at regular intervals or as situations change.
  • Enable regular consultation with people on Health & Safety issues.
  • Ensure systems are in place to enable the identification of hazards and risk assessments.
  • Ensure systems are in place for effective monitoring, measuring and reporting of Health & Safety issues to the SLT, Governors, and where appropriate, the HSE.
  • Ensure the maximum level of security consistent with the ethos of the school.
  • Complete and review risk assessments.
• First Aid Lead
  • Responsible for the welfare of those taken ill or injured at school, being the first point of contact for medical emergencies.
  • Responsible for the welfare of pupils with specific medical conditions, involving day‑to‑day health planning and/or administering medication where appropriate.
  • Recording and reporting accidents and illness in accordance with regulatory guidelines and school policies (including confidentiality, data protection and safeguarding).
  • Liaise with staff and parents.
  • Liaise with emergency services as required.
  • Liaise with support services – e.g. school nurses or SENCO.
  • Administration of the medical room and first aid equipment, and maintaining supplies.
  • Monitoring and coordinating staff first aid training and associated records.
  • Liaison with Class Teachers regarding pupil medical information and needs.
  • Providing suitable first aid kits for off‑site school trips and in‑school events.
  • Maintaining pupils’ personal medications and the school’s emergency asthma inhalers & AAIs, ensuring appropriate storage and monitoring of expiration dates.
  • Reviewing the school’s first aid needs, protocols and policies, including identifying and logging any sources of evidence or information, where relevant.
  • Monitoring and weekly testing of both defibrillators on the school site.
• Administration
  • Complete lunchtime registers, ticking off names of the children who have opted for a school meal and following up with those children who do not appear. (This is a shared responsibility with the other members of the Office team and amounts to 1 x 1.5 hour lunchtime duty per week).
  • Provide efficient administrative support for the SLT, prioritising, allocating, managing and monitoring work.
  • Ensure that good relationships are maintained with parents, staff, governors, contractors, representatives from the LA and all other visitors to the school.
  • Undertake any other relevant duties as required by the School Business Manager, including special projects.

Our Benefits

Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes. Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do. We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network ‘IDEAL’ and self‑organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout.