The Role

As our Trust Payroll & Finance Officer, you will play a vital role in ensuring our staff are paid accurately and on time. Working within the Central Trust team, you’ll support schools by managing a wide range of payroll processes across multiple settings, with varied working patterns and contractual arrangements, while applying statutory entitlements consistently and accurately across the Trust.

Reporting to the Trust Finance Manager and Director of Resources, you’ll take ownership of end‑to‑end monthly payroll processing, maintain high‑quality payroll data, and provide clear, confident advice to staff and school leaders. You will work closely with colleagues across HR, Finance and our school admin and operations teams to ensure payroll changes are processed accurately and efficiently.

Alongside payroll, you will support core finance functions including invoice processing, reconciliations and month‑end tasks, contributing to the smooth running of our central finance operations.

Key Responsibilities:

In this role, you will: 

• Deliver accurate monthly payroll processing, including new starters, leavers, contractual changes, absences, overtime and expenses.
• Input and maintain payroll data across Edupay, BPS and IMP Planner, ensuring accuracy and compliance.
• Investigate and resolve payroll errors promptly, maintaining strong communication with staff and managers.
• Administer statutory and occupational leave (maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental leave and sickness), ensuring correct calculations and timely adjustments.
• Manage pension administration, including monthly submissions and responding to queries.
• Process statutory leaver documentation, including P45s, and ensure compliance with HMRC requirements.
• Support year‑end payroll activities such as P60s, P11Ds and pension annual returns.
• Maintain robust audit records and support payroll‑related reconciliations and variance checks.
• Provide first‑line payroll advice to staff and leaders, resolving complex queries independently.
• Support the Finance Team with invoice processing, sales invoicing and supplier payment runs.
• Contribute to efficient, accurate financial administration across the Trust.

About You

You’ll bring exceptional attention to detail, strong organisational skills and the ability to work calmly under pressure. You’ll be confident working independently, proactive in resolving issues, and able to communicate clearly with colleagues at all levels. Experience in payroll, ideally within education, public sector or a multi‑academy trust, will help you thrive in this role. You will also hold, or be willing to work towards, a CIPP Level 3 qualification.

Our Total Reward Offer:

The Special Partnership Trust recognises the importance of developing a properly implemented People Strategy to underpin the overall strategic aims of the Trust.

Our People Strategy is designed to help us attract prospective high calibre candidates, as well as drive engagement, productivity and retention of our high performing and high potential employees. It reflects our belief in putting our people first. This does not mean putting our learners second. It is based on the philosophy that if we create a positive and rewarding work environment, if our staff feel motivated, well managed and well supported, they in turn will provide the best possible outcome for our learners.

We recognise that our total reward offer, has got to consist of more than just money. We seek to provide our staff with a diverse range of benefits that support their day to day needs both at work and outside of work. These include generous leave entitlements and pension scheme as well as access to health/wellbeing tools, training & development, career pathways and opportunities to ensure they feel valued.

For further information, click here to visit the Special Partnership Trust website for our People Strategy and Benefits.

Are you ready to make a lasting impact? Join us today.

Contact Us

If you would like any further information, or to access this application in a different format please contact us  on 01872 613115 or email recruitment@specialpartnership.org

Safeguarding:

The Special Partnership Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment are subject to the satisfactory completion of checks and references, including an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. In accordance with guidance in Keeping Children Safe in Education; the Trust will undertake an online search of all shortlisted candidates.