Location
Newham Dockside / Hybrid working

Hours
Full time, 36 hours per week

Salary
£52,194 - £55,323 per annum

About the Role
Newham is one of London’s most ambitious and diverse boroughs, committed to ensuring that our schools and education settings have strong, effective governance that supports the very best outcomes for children and young people. We are seeking an experienced and confident School Governance & Assurance Lead to provide strategic leadership for school governance, accountability and assurance across Newham’s maintained schools and relevant education settings.

This key role within our Education Improvement and Outcomes service involves acting as the Council’s principal adviser on school governance and governance assurance. You will work closely with senior leaders, headteachers, governing boards, elected members and colleagues across Education and the wider Council.

You will lead the development and continuous improvement of our borough-wide governance assurance framework, ensuring effective arrangements are in place to identify and manage governance risk, monitor statutory compliance and provide senior leaders with clear and robust assurance.

The role includes leading governance policy and standards, providing expert advice and constructive professional challenge, and leading complex governance reviews and investigations where significant concerns or risks have been identified.

Working closely with School Improvement and wider Education colleagues, you will help embed strong governance across our education system, contributing to effective leadership, safeguarding, financial management and improved outcomes for children and young people.

This is an exciting opportunity to take a leading role in shaping and strengthening school governance and assurance across one of London’s most diverse boroughs.

Experience
Significant experience in governance, assurance, compliance, audit or risk management within education or another complex public sector organisation.

About you
Strong understanding of statutory responsibilities relating to school governance, safeguarding, finance and accountability.
Comfortable working with senior stakeholders in complex, sensitive or high-risk situations.
Ability to provide credible strategic advice, assurance and professional challenge.
Skilled in analysing complex information to identify governance, compliance and assurance risks.
Experienced in developing and implementing effective governance frameworks, policies and standards.
Proven ability to lead reviews and investigations and make clear, evidence-based recommendations.
Confident communicator with the ability to build effective relationships with senior leaders, headteachers, governing boards, elected members and external partners.
Capable of producing high-quality reports, policies and assurance documentation.
Excellent at managing competing priorities while maintaining attention to detail.
Proactive, solution-focused with excellent communication and influencing skills.
Ability to exercise sound professional judgement and discretion to ensure continuous improvement and strengthen governance.

Qualifications
Not explicitly stated, but relevant professional qualifications or equivalent experience in governance, assurance or related fields would be advantageous.