Company

Wheatley Group (Wheatley) is Scotland’s leading housing, care and property-management group. Owning or managing over 93,600 homes, Wheatley delivers a range of award-winning services aimed at “Making Homes and Lives Better” for over 210,000 customers across 19 local authorities in Scotland. Services are delivered through Registered Social Landlords, the care organisation and a commercial property management subsidiary. The activities of the Group are supported by
Wheatley Solutions, the support services subsidiary and the Groups charitable trust, Wheatley Foundation, invests its funding to create opportunities for people to improve their lives.

Wheatley employs over 3,000 people directly and a further 2,000 as joint owners of one of Scotland’s largest repairs and maintenance companies, City Building (Glasgow). Over the past
decade Wheatley’s Registered Social Landlords have created no fewer than 11,000 jobs and 2,000 training places as they seek, with partners, to break the cycle of poverty and exclusion that many of its customers still experience.

Wheatley’s partner organisations remain firmly rooted in their local communities, whilst drawing on the strength, size, scale and resources of the Group to contribute on a regional and national
level to affordable housing, care and community regeneration across Scotland. Wheatley is the UK’s largest builder of homes for social rent for four out of the last five years and
is also one of the country’s best accredited organisations. By way of example, the Group’s largest subsidiary, Wheatley Homes Glasgow (formerly Glasgow Housing Association (GHA)), was named by the European Foundation of Quality Management as one of only three winners of the 2017 Global Excellence Award – and both Investors in People’s UK’s Platinum Employer and Apprentice Employer of the year. Wheatley was also named in 2018 as the Best Development Team at the
prestigious Inside Housing Awards.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Group’s EatWell emergency food service delivered over 28,000 food packages to customers across central and southern Scotland. Furthermore,
thousands of welfare calls made and an Emergency Response Fund created to provide supplies to those most in need including essential white goods, fuel top-ups and the provision of children’s
education packs to support families during school closures.

Wheatley’s efforts in supporting communities through the crisis were recognised nationally. The Group received support from Scottish Government’s Food Fund which was announced by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in her daily coronavirus briefing on national television. Most recently the First Minister attended the official launch of the Groups £6million ‘Here for You’
fund. The fund will support tenants of Wheatley’s Registered Social Landlords – Wheatley Homes Glasgow, Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership, Dunedin Canmore, Loretto and WLHP – as well as tenants of Lowther Homes, which is Scotland’s largest private-rent property company during the cost-of-living crisis.

To learn more about Wheatley Group, please visit them online at www.wheatley-group.com

Background to the opportunity

Due to a couple of recent internal promotions, an opportunity has arisen to introduce a talented individual to the business. The role will report directly to the Director of Financial Reporting, manage a team of finance professionals within the Group Finance function, and interface regularly with other members of the Senior and Executive team.

This position represents an exceptional career opportunity for an ambitious, driven, qualified accountant, who is able to provide first class financial and business support to the Executive Team.

The Role

Job Title: Financial Controller
Reports to: Director of Financial Reporting
Location: Wheatley House, Glasgow City Centre and home-based agile working

The Financial Controller will be responsible for all aspects of the delivery of financial reporting and control across the Wheatley RSL portfolio and will deputise for the Director of Financial Reporting as required. This will include, but not be limited to:

• Responsibility for ensuring the preparation of the RSL subsidiary budgets and management/statutory accounts
• Regular communication of financial information to Boards, the Executive Team and senior budget holders across the Group
• Support on business planning processes
• Taxation (including VAT)
• Line management responsibility for a number of members of the Group Finance team (in total via 4 direct reports)

The Financial Controller will be part of the senior management team within Group Finance, with responsibility for supporting delivery of the Group strategy. This will include ensuring a culture of financial awareness and value for money exists throughout the Group.

As such, the role possesses a number of interdependencies, including:

• Group Director of Finance
• Director of Financial Reporting
• Financial Controller - Commercial
• Finance Managers
• Business Planning team
• Director of Treasury
• Group Treasury team
• Operational directors and other budget holders of assigned subsidiaries
• Board/Committees of assigned subsidiaries
• External Auditors
• Assurance team
• Governance team
• Regeneration and repairs team

Preferred Candidate Background

This is a key position within a well-established, sizable and complex organisation requiring a qualified accountant of the highest calibre.

The successful candidate should be highly adept in delivering all the budgeting, planning, statutory and reporting requirements for the Group, along with ensuring that the management information requirements of the Executive team are consistently met and exceeded as they arise. It is highly likely that the individual will have trained as a Chartered Accountant within a large or Big 4 firm and, as such, have an excellent technical foundation in the areas of audit, corporate governance and taxation.

As this is a leadership role, the appointed individual will be experienced in managing, training, coaching and/or mentoring others to ensure that tasks are delivered to the highest standards. As the organisation continues to grow and develop, it is critical that the Financial Controller can further develop systems, processes, reporting and a team that allows them to support the delivery of shareholder value. First class communication skills and an ability to manage a wide range of stakeholders is essential in a complex multi-site, relationship led business.

A summary of the key candidate requirements are as follows.

Experience:

Essential:

• Proven ability to operate at a senior level within a finance department in a diverse organisation
• Experience of reporting and presenting financial performance at Executive and Board level
• Demonstrable assertive leadership qualities
• Experience of successfully driving organisational change
• Demonstrably able to derive the best performance from others
• Experience and success in driving results
• Enthusiastic to adopt new ideas and ways of working
• Ability to communicate effectively with non-finance professionals

Desirable:

• Detailed technical knowledge of FRS 102/SORP 2014
• Knowledge of Brixx financial modelling software

Qualifications:

• Degree qualified with a strong academic track record
• Professionally qualified accountant (preferably CA/ACA) with PQE consummate with a role at this level of responsibility

Behaviours and Competencies:

Wheatley Group organisational competencies:

• Think Excellence
• Think Relate
• Think Collaborate
• Think Professionally
• Think Innovate

The Financial Controller should be able to demonstrate the following behaviours and competencies:

• Building appropriate and effective networks, locally and group-wide for the benefit of our communities
• Strong leadership and management skills
• Adept at removing the barriers that get in the way of delivering excellent customer service
• Creating an environment of trust
• Ensure two way dialogue with teams
• Finding creative solutions for customers
• Good listener
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to ensure that staff are confident using their own initiative
• Self-aware and self-motivated to realise their full potential
• Inspire others to achieve their full potential
• Excellent time management skills
• Computer literate
• Ability to take responsibility for own learning and continuous improvement
• Ability to represent the Finance team and the Wheatley Group in a positive and effective manner
• Take responsibility for managing excellent performance results

Remuneration and recruitment process

Salary: Competitive

Company Pension: High attractive defined benefit pension scheme with Strathclyde Pension scheme

Holiday Entitlement: 28 plus 13 statutory days

• Initial interviews are with our retained advisors at Rutherford Cross – full details of remuneration are available on application
• First round interviews are with the Director of Financial Reporting and other members of the Senior Management Team
• Second round interviews will be with the Chief Financial Officer and other members of the Executive Team

Applications should be sent to Jonathan Donnelly: [email protected]