Assistant Accountant (Schools)

The Finance Team in Cambridgeshire is well regarded and is a key support service that helps the smooth running of the Council and ensures value for money for local taxpayers. This post will be involved in range of financial activities and will be integral to supporting the finance team to fund and monitor maintained schools as part of the annual financial cycle. It makes a real difference to the financial sustainability of our schools and is a key part of ensuring good stewardship of public funds. We work on a hybrid basis at Cambridgeshire, with teams coming into the office together one or two days per week, with the option to be home or office based for the rest of the week. Interviews are expected to take place in week commencing 20 May 2026., You will be involved in range of financial activities and will be integral to supporting the finance team to fund and monitor maintained schools as part of the annual financial cycle. You will be responsible for monitoring, reconciling and passporting grant funding to maintained schools. You will be responsible for maintaining financial policies and guidance for maintained schools to reflect national and local changes. You will be working alongside colleagues in the Children's finance team, as well as liaising directly with school finance staff., We are committed to the professional development of our staff in the Finance Team, so don't be worried if you don't have a background in Schools finance., 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 the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.

We are looking to appoint a committed and self-motivated individual who is focussed on providing good quality financial advice to customers, with excellent communication skills to deal with both finance and non-finance staff within schools and the wider finance team. Ideally you will need to be a fully or part-qualified accounting technician (AAT) and be able to demonstrate experience in a similar financial setting, together with strong technical accounting skills. The successful candidate must be proactive and able to work under their own initiative, as well as contributing to wider team objectives.

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.

We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…

• A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
• Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
• Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
• Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
• Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
• Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
• Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
• An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes