Board Secretary and Head of Governance

• Salary: £77,124 - £84,724 (London) / £73,142 - £79,550 (National)
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Working Pattern: This post is available on a full time, part time or job share basis, and flexible working hours can be accommodated.
• Location: We will consider applications from people able to access the following offices: Birmingham, Bootle, Bristol, Croydon, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Swansea.

About GIAA

The Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) is driven by its unparalleled access across government to build better insights, better outcomes for our clients. This role offers a strong platform for career progression within the Agency and the wider civil service, providing opportunities to develop leadership, partner engagement and strategic relationship management skills across government. The Agency’s unique access across the public sector exposes you to different risk and control environments, allowing you to gain insights, apply experience, contribute meaningfully, and continue developing professionally.

About the Role

The Board Secretary and Head of Governance is responsible for leading the development, implementation and continuous improvement of the Agency’s governance, risk and assurance frameworks and practices. In this role, you will ensure that robust systems are in place to support effective decision-making, management of risk, transparency and accountability. You will be required to manage a small team of subject matter experts and collaborate widely across the organisation and wider government to embed a strong governance, risk and assurance culture.

You will play a critical role in maintaining the integrity and effectiveness of the Agency’s decision-making and risk management processes, ensuring that the Board, its Committees and the Chief Executive are supported to meet their responsibilities.

You will be required to use your depth of governance knowledge to provide expert advice to senior leaders and non-executive members on governance matters, oversee the management of governance forums, act as the functional lead for counter fraud, manage the production of the Annual Report and Accounts and drive the Agency’s approach to transparency and assurance through the management of the official correspondence system.

Role Responsibilities:

• Leading the development, implementation and continuous improvement of the Agency’s governance, risk and assurance frameworks.
• Advising the Board and Executive team on complex governance issues, providing authoritative guidance on statutory obligations, government requirements and best practice.
• Serving as Board Secretary, overseeing the cyclical programme of Board and Committee meetings ensuring effective agendas, decision recording and forward planning. Identifying opportunities to improve Board effectiveness and embedding high-quality governance practices.
• Ensuring the Board operates within the principles of the Corporate governance code for central government departments.
• Leading on recruitment, training, and ongoing support for non-executive directors.
• Developing, implementing and continuously improving the Agency’s risk management framework and policies. Assessing and prioritising current and emerging risks, providing reports on risk exposures, trends and mitigation across the organisation.
• Planning and overseeing assurance activities to provide evidence of effective management of risk. This includes the annual self-assessment of compliance with functional standards expectations as well as assurance to the Chief Executive on the effectiveness of the internal control environment.
• Being the functional lead for counter fraud for the Agency with responsibility for developing and implementing the Counter Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Strategy and maintaining the corporate policy and response plan.
• Leading the annual production of the Annual Report and Accounts to ensure it is laid before Parliament in a timely manner and compliant with the Financial Reporting Manual.
• Building and maintaining influential relationships with senior stakeholders in the Agency, particularly with the Executive team and the Board.
• Developing a culture of continuous improvement and initiatives within governance processes, and leading by example in adopting new, innovative and technological practices.

About You:

• Substantial experience leading corporate governance functions in a government or public sector setting, including working with Boards, and senior executives on complex governance matters.
• Sound judgement and highly developed diplomacy skills with experience of working with sensitive and confidential information.
• Strong people leadership experience, able to foster a culture with a well-rounded knowledge of employee relations, resourcing, learning and development, policies and procedures and diversity and inclusion.
• An excellent communicator both in writing and in person who can calibrate style depending on the audience.
• Able to deliver at pace and manage several competing priorities.
• Highly collaborative with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to influence, persuade and communicate with senior stakeholders.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, and we welcome applications from candidates who wish to work flexibly, for example, part-time, term time or job share. 

GIAA has an expectation for all colleagues to attend their local workplace regularly and to attend Agency sites for key meetings. This role will also involve frequent travel to London to attend meetings.

Benefits of working for us

• Competitive salaries and in-year rewards
• Flexible working
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Discount on big brands
• Volunteering days
• Season Ticket Loan and Cycle to Work Schemes
• Free eyesight tests
• Family-friendly HR policies
• 25 days’ annual leave increasing by one day per year of service to 30 days after 5 years’ service.

For more information about the GIAA, role, salary, benefits, who to contact and how to apply, please follow the Apply link.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process, please tell us about this in your online application form, or speak to the recruitment team at .uk