Deborah Austin

Background

About Deborah Austin

I have over 30 years of experience in accountancy, audit and financial reporting. In that time I have also developed a broad knowledge of other specific areas such as Charities reporting requirements, Solicitors Accounts Rules, and groups of companies. Having worked in practice for 30 years, almost 18 of those with Dafferns LLP in Coventry, at the beginning of 2022 I left practice to take up my first “Industry” role. Given the many years spent leading on and supporting Charities, in practice, taking up a Head of Finance / Finance Manager role with a charity seemed the perfect move.The Smallpeice Trust are an Educational Charity delivering STEM events and providing scholarships nationwide to encourage our next generation of Engineers. We are only able to do this though the generosity of our partners and the Endowment left to us by Dr Cosby Smallpeice.Making the move to Industry and joining a charity post pandemic may not seem ideal to many. The Third Sector is suffering harder than most other industries, with reductions in funding availability post pandemic, the cost of living crisis and rising costs among many issues it is facing. However, my time in practice has armed with many problem solving skills that can be applied to address the impact of some of these for the Trust.Outside of work I am a governor ata local primary school and also on the Executive Board of a group of local schools in a hard federation. This commitment takes up much of my free time however the work is rewarding when you see the children enjoying the benefits of the senior leadership team and board of governors hard work.On those occasions I have free time I enjoy spending it at the allotment, there is something very therapeutic about weeding and turning over soil after a busy week!