Head Of Governance,Risk And Assurance

HEAD OF GOVERNANCE,RISK AND ASSURANCE
  
Provides strategic leadership for Governance, Risk & Assurance, ensuring controls, compliance & accountability. Supports informed decision-making, continuous learning from audits & inspections & maintains public trust & inspection readiness.

Risk Management
· Own and maintain the force-wide risk management framework, ensuring risks are identified, assessed, escalated and managed consistently.
· Maintain strategic risk registers and ensure alignment between operational, departmental and strategic risk.
· Support senior leaders in understanding risk appetite and tolerance and their implications for decision-making.
2 Governance and Assurance
 
Design and maintain effective governance and assurance arrangements, including boards, reporting mechanisms and decision records.
• Oversee assurance mapping, ensuring a clear line of sight between risk, control and mitigation.
• Coordinate internal and external assurance activity to avoid duplication and assurance gaps.  3 Inspection, Audit and Compliance
· Act as the force lead for HMICFRS inspection coordination, evidence management and action tracking.
· Oversee responses to inspection findings, recommendations and causes of concern.
· Maintain a single, authoritative repository for audit and inspection actions, ensuring accountability and follow through.
4 Organisational Learning
• Ensure learning from inspections, audits, serious incidents and reviews is captured, analysed and embedded.
• Promote a culture of openness, learning and improvement rather than blame or compliance only behaviours.
5 Advisory and Professional Leadership
• Provide authoritative advice to the Director, Chief Officer Group and senior leaders on risk exposure, assurance gaps and governance maturity.
• Challenge constructively where governance or risk management is ineffective or inconsistent.
6 Undertake other duties appropriate to the grade and character of work as may be reasonably required, including specific duties of a similar or lesser graded post.
  
Key Results Areas
 
Force‑wide Risk Management Effectiveness
2. Robust Governance and Assurance Frameworks
3. Inspection, Audit and Regulatory Readiness
4. Organisational Learning and Continuous Improvement
5. Independent Professional Advice and Assurance to Senior Leaders
6. Assurance Culture and Capability
7. Confidence, Legitimacy and Public Trust  Graduate qualification (or demonstrable equivalent professional experience) in a relevant discipline.
• Relevant professional qualification or accreditation in risk management, governance, audit or assurance.
• Experience of working with or alongside HMICFRS, OPCCs or public audit bodies.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS &

EXPERIENCE:

Experience
• Significant experience in a senior governance, risk, assurance, inspection or compliance role, within policing or a similarly complex, regulated public sector organisation.
• Proven experience of working directly with senior leaders, providing professional advice and challenge on risk exposure, assurance confidence and organisational readiness.
• Demonstrable experience of inspection, audit or regulatory environments, including coordinating responses, managing recommendations and embedding sustainable organisational learning.
• Experience of operating with a high degree of autonomy and discretion, exercising independent judgement while working within broad strategic direction.
• Experience of partnership working with external oversight bodies, regulators or auditors, building trusted professional relationships based on credibility and transparency.
Skills
• Advanced analytical and critical thinking skills, enabling the identification of systemic risk, assurance gaps and root causes across complex organisational boundaries.
• Highly developed influencing and communication skills, with the ability to: o Challenge senior leaders constructively o Communicate complex Governance, Risk and Assurance issues clearly o Persuade others to act without relying on line management authority
• Strong professional judgement and independence, enabling proportionate escalation of Governance, Risk and Assurance concerns, even…