I Still Do
The Job.

Most MAT CFOs came through local authority finance, schools finance, or practice. I didn't. I came through a car dealership P&L and NHS commissioning.

I qualified as a Chartered Accountant with UHY Wingfield Slater, auditing clients up to £50m turnover and advising owner-managed SMEs. Four years. Proper practice grounding.

I left practice to run the numbers at Lexus Sheffield. Financial Controller first, then Finance Director across three dealerships. Monthly management accounts, VAT, year-end audit, KPI production, IT, HR. Real commercial pressure. Real stock sitting on a forecourt.

Then NHS. Interim Directorate Accountant at Sheffield Health and Social Care, business partnering the Community Directorate. Finance Manager at Sheffield CCG, running independent sector contracts and acute commissioning. Senior Finance Manager at NHS South Yorkshire ICB, leading Primary Care Capital, Mental Health and Digital workstreams.

I moved to Learners' Trust as CFO in December 2021. I have been in that seat ever since.

MAT CFOs carry a remit that would, in most sectors, come with peer infrastructure. A finance leadership team. An equivalent number in the next business. A standing forum where the job gets pressure-tested.

In MATs, that infrastructure is thin or absent. The statutory framework is specific enough that generalist executive coaching doesn't touch it. The sector-specific support that does exist is mostly delivered by people who left operational finance a decade ago.

The result is a population of senior finance leaders doing high-stakes work with no one at their altitude to talk to.

Trust Balance is the practice I would have wanted to find in my first year in the seat. It is delivered by a peer, not a former one, because that is the thing the sector doesn't have.