Compliance and Assurance Lead

Role Purpose The Compliance and Assurance Lead is responsible for organisation-wide leadership and coordination across health and safety, statutory compliance and estates-related governance. The primary focus of the role is to strengthen compliance systems, improve oversight, and embed a proactive safety and governance culture, while maintaining appropriate oversight of estates and facilities-related risks. The role provides strategic leadership on compliance matters and acts as the central point of advice for health and safety systems, inspections, audits, contractor compliance, business continuity and estates-related projects. The postholder will work closely with the Facilities, Housekeeping, Catering, Care, People and Senior Leadership Teams to ensure that compliance is proactive, proportionate and well evidenced. Day-to-day service delivery will sit with the relevant teams, with this role focused on standards, risk management, escalation, forward planning and continuous improvement. 1. Health & Safety Leadership Lead and maintain the organisations Health & Safety Management System, ensuring legal compliance, proportionate controls and alignment with best practice. Provide expert health and safety advice, guidance and assurance to leaders, managers and teams, supporting clear ownership of responsibilities. Develop, review and embed health and safety policies, procedures, risk assessments, audits, inspections and action tracking arrangements. 2. Regulatory & Organisational Compliance Lead and coordinate non-clinical compliance activities, maintaining compliance registers, evidence records, action plans and escalation routes. Monitor legislative, regulatory and sector changes, advising on organisational impact, risk exposure and practical actions required. Act as Business Continuity Lead, maintaining plans, coordinating testing and exercises, and supporting incident response, recovery and organisational learning. 3. Estates, Facilities & Project Oversight Provide strategic oversight of estates and facilities compliance through standards, assurance processes, planned checks and risk escalation. Ensure compliance requirements are built into capital projects, refurbishments, contractor management, statutory servicing and building works. Support long-term estates planning by identifying compliance risks, improvement priorities, infrastructure needs and resilience requirements. 4. Governance Assurance & Reporting Produce clear, evidence-based compliance, risk and assurance reports for senior stakeholders, Committees and Board, highlighting trends, gaps and actions. Coordinate organisational readiness for audits, inspections and external reviews, ensuring evidence is available and agreed actions are completed. Contribute to governance, risk management and assurance frameworks, promoting a practical culture of safety, compliance and continuous improvement. 5. Leadership & Ways of Working Lead and manage Facilities, Housekeeping and Catering teams, setting clear standards, priorities, expectations and accountability. Coach and support managers to understand and fulfil compliance responsibilities through practical advice, communication, guidance and follow-up. Build effective cross-departmental relationships, share learning and use performance insight to drive improvement across services.