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John Halstead is the chief finance and operations officer at Consilium Academies, a multi-academy trust with eight schools across the North of England.

�Ჹ�����ٱ𲹻�’s previous roles include director of finance and trust head of finance. Before working in education, he trained as an accountant specialising in academy audit work and accounts preparation.

He spoke to Tes about a typical week in his role.

Managing staff

Two-thirds of my week is taken up through management of the trust’s central teams - these are finance, estates, IT, marketing, health and safety and administration.

I have to manage them in a way that has the trust priorities at the heart of all decision making, while having oversight of the impact of decisions on other areas.

For instance, I may work with the estates team who are running a capital investment plan. I have to ensure that the decision making as to where resource is being targeted is as impactful as possible on the overall trust strategic objectives, while also being aware of any potential conflicts of priority with other teams, such as finance.

Structured meeting time

Our trust leadership team meeting happens once a week, and then I’ll have other strategic meetings with school improvement team members.

I hold bi-weekly one-to-one meetings with each of my direct reports during which we have the opportunity to celebrate recent work, review progress against any agreed CPD projects, look ahead to any pinchpoints coming over the hill and, where necessary, plan out capacity.

I also attend local governance meetings in schools, which allow me to pick up key themes in respect of individual school priorities and can then task specific departments with providing capacity and support where required.

Being reactive

A lot of my week involves reactive work to challenges that come up in our schools. Particularly in the estates team, where an emergency is more likely to happen. For example, a boiler can blow up at midnight.

My role as CFOO is not necessarily to be hands-on and do the detailed, problem solving part. Instead, it is to make sure that the right teams are in the right places, doing the right things and supporting others to solve the problem so schools can carry on as usual.

Supporting team wellbeing

I make sure to manage my teams in a way that enables them to be empowered in their roles, while also taking into account their workload and their wellbeing.

By this, I mean managing my team of leaders in a way that gives them the breathing space and agency to lead in their areas, while staying close enough to the detail to provide additional capacity at certain times.

Keeping weekends sacred

It is important when you are in these leadership roles that you try and make some time to decompress. I do not send emails after 5.30pm - most things after that time can wait until the day after, although part of this role is being available and contactable almost at any point.

As you progress through your career, while your physical output reduces in terms of producing reports, papers and accounts, the mental load, such as high-stakes meetings with colleagues at the Department for Education or with other trusts and school leaders, increases.

On a Friday afternoon, I make sure I am up-to-date with sector publications, such as Tes. I use this time for some of the less taxing jobs, including catching up on any emails and planning my next week’s travel.

I also really try and encourage my teams to keep weekends sacred and, where possible, work is done Monday to Friday within the hours that suit the individual. I apply that same approach to myself.

John Halstead was talking to Cerys Turner

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