Chief Operating Officer

This is a pivotal strategic role for a values driven leader who can bring clarity, grip and long term thinking to finance, estates, HR services, IT, compliance and organisational development.

The Howard Partnership Trust (THPT) is one of Surrey’s largest and most diverse multi‑academy trusts, educating children across five secondary, six primary and three special schools, with a further special free school in the pipeline. Formed from a long‑standing tradition of partnership working, we have grown steadily and intentionally, now comprising four secondary schools, six primaries and three special schools, with further expansion planned.

We are a values-driven Trust, and we strive to live by our values across all parts of the life of the Trust:
Aspiration, Collaboration, Inclusion, Integrity, Resilience and Respect.

As we continue to evolve, we are appointing a Chief Operating Officer to help strengthen the operational foundations that support our educational mission. This is a key strategic role within our Executive Team, ensuring that our systems, processes and infrastructure are aligned, resilient and capable of supporting a large, multi‑phase organisation.

The Howard Partnership Trust (THPT) is a growing family of schools in the South East of England. We exist to ensure a great school sits at the heart of our communities, serving every child with ambition and care. Our Trust includes Primary, Secondary and Special Schools and welcomes any school that shares our values and commitment to provide a life-changing education for every one of our children and young people.

Our Trust has a proud history of improving and sustaining schools at all stages of their development journey, including both high-performing schools and schools in need of support and improvement. To do this, we work in deep collaboration and partnership across our schools to share expertise and enable the highest quality education for every child.

Driven by our three shared values, we build up
, we serve
all, and we forge
paths
. We strive to do our best for every child, expanding their life chances and choices from the moment they join us. We use the wealth and diversity of experience across our different settings, together with the expertise available within our dedicated operational service teams, to benefit all within the Trust, sharing and extending good practice to support our continual improvement and secure excellence in education in all of our schools and beyond.

Like the children in them, our schools are unique, and our principals, headteachers and staff teams make key decisions to shape schools to best serve their children. We believe our schools have a crucial role as community anchors and providers of education for the here and now, and the future.

In addition to our three special schools, many of our mainstream settings benefit from additional resources to support learners with a wide range of needs, including vision impairment, communication and interaction needs (COIN), and autism.

Our COO will work closely with our CEO, Executive Team and Trust Board to lead and integrate our core operational functions: finance, estates, HR services, IT, compliance, risk, governance operations and wider business services. We want a leader who can ensure our systems, processes and infrastructure are robust, efficient and future‑proof, enabling our schools to focus on delivering excellent education.

You will help us strengthen financial resilience, ensuring value for money and long‑term sustainability. You will oversee estates strategy and compliance, including major capital projects. You will lead workforce planning, HR transformation and culture development across a diverse staff body. You will ensure…