Be part of a community-focused Housing Association in South London as Governance Assurance & Policy Manager on a permanent basis.

Salary: £50,000 – £55,000
Reporting to: Director of Finance & Resources
Management Responsibility: 1 Direct Report

The opportunity

This is a key appointment for the organisation and an excellent opportunity for an experienced governance professional to take ownership of a broad and influential portfolio spanning Governance, Assurance, Risk, Policy, Regulatory Compliance, Data Protection and Information Governance.

Operating within an increasingly complex regulatory environment, our client is looking for someone who can provide both oversight and practical leadership — ensuring the organisation remains compliant, well-governed and prepared for regulatory change, while embedding strong governance and assurance practices throughout the business.

The successful candidate will work closely with the Director of Finance & Resources, Senior Leadership Team, Board, Committees and operational managers, providing advice, challenge and assurance across the organisation.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to influence how the organisation approaches risk, regulation, assurance and organisational accountability, while helping ensure that good governance translates into better operational decision-making and ultimately better outcomes for residents.

Core focus of the role

• As Governance, Assurance & Policy Manager, you will lead the development, implementation and continuous improvement of the organisation’s governance, compliance and assurance framework.
• You will provide expert advice to senior stakeholders on regulatory and statutory obligations and maintain oversight of changes across the social housing regulatory landscape.
• A significant part of the role will involve ensuring the organisation can evidence compliance — not simply that policies and frameworks exist.
• You will prepare and present reports to the Board, Committees and Senior Leadership Team, coordinate regulatory inspections and external reviews, and ensure the organisation is prepared to respond effectively to scrutiny from regulators, auditors and other external stakeholders.
• Governance & Regulatory Compliance
• You will take a lead role in ensuring the organisation operates within the appropriate legislative and regulatory frameworks.

Day-to-day of the role

• Leading and continuously improving the governance, compliance and assurance framework.
• Providing governance and regulatory advice to senior leadership, managers and colleagues.
• Monitoring compliance with relevant legislation and social housing regulatory requirements.
• Maintaining oversight of the Consumer Standards and Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs).
• Monitoring regulatory and legislative developments and assessing their impact on the organisation.
• Producing briefings and recommendations for senior leadership.
• Preparing governance and assurance reports for Board and Committee meetings.
• Coordinating regulatory inspections, external reviews and organisational assurance activity.
• Promoting accountability, transparency and continuous improvement throughout the organisation.
• Assurance & Audit

The successful candidate will develop and coordinate an annual assurance programme aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives, regulatory requirements and key risks.

You will undertake internal assurance reviews across operational, governance and control frameworks and coordinate both internal and external audit activity.

You will also monitor recommendations arising from audits and assurance reviews, ensuring actions are properly owned, implemented and reported.

The role will provide assurance across areas including:

Operational | Financial | Regulatory | Health & Safety | Information Governance | Cyber Risk

Risk Management

• You will lead the organisation’s approach to risk management and ensure risks are properly identified, assessed, controlled and escalated.
• This will include ownership and development of the Corporate Risk Register, while supporting managers to maintain effective operational and departmental risk registers.

You will:

• Facilitate risk assessments and risk workshops.
• Undertake organisational risk reviews.
• Identify emerging and escalating risks.
• Work with risk owners to establish effective mitigation.
• Provide regular risk reporting to senior leadership.
• Ensure risk informs corporate planning, operational decision-making and performance management.

The successful candidate therefore needs to be comfortable providing constructive challenge at a senior level, rather than simply administering a risk register.

Policy Management

• You will oversee the organisation’s Policy Framework and ensure policies, procedures and guidance remain current, compliant and operationally effective.
• You will coordinate policy development and review programmes, interpret regulatory and legislative changes and work with managers to translate these into practical organisational policies and procedures.
• Importantly, you will also monitor whether key policies are actually being implemented effectively and identify where further training, guidance or assurance is required.

Data Protection & Information Governance

This is a significant element of the position.

The successful candidate will act as the organisation’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) and lead on compliance with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act and wider information governance requirements.

Responsibilities will include:

• Acting as the primary point of contact for Data Protection and Information Governance matters.
• Managing Subject Access Requests (SARs).
• Managing Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and other data subject rights requests.
• Maintaining Information Governance policies and procedures.
• Reviewing privacy notices and data-sharing agreements.
• Overseeing Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs).
• Supporting Privacy by Design across the organisation.
• Investigating and managing data breaches.
• Ensuring appropriate escalation and reporting of breaches.
• Maintaining Records of Processing Activities (ROPAs).
• Maintaining information asset and governance records.
• Supporting effective records retention and secure disposal.
• Delivering Data Protection and Information Governance training.

You will work closely with IT, operational colleagues and external partners to ensure appropriate organisational and technical controls are in place to protect information.

Health & Safety Governance

The position also provides organisational oversight and assurance around Health & Safety compliance.

• Working alongside operational managers, you will help ensure responsibilities are clearly understood and that the organisation can demonstrate compliance with relevant legislation, regulation and approved codes of practice.
• This will include oversight of audits, inspections, compliance reviews, action plans, risk registers and performance reporting.
• You will also support organisational learning following incidents, accidents and near misses and help ensure corrective actions are properly implemented.

Corporate Planning, Performance & Insight

• Beyond traditional governance responsibilities, this position will contribute to the wider strategic direction of the organisation.
• You will coordinate and support the development and monitoring of the Corporate Plan and Operational Plan, ensuring organisational objectives align with regulatory requirements, risks and operational priorities.
• The position will also use internal and external intelligence — including housing sector information, demographic data and benchmarking — to identify emerging trends, risks and opportunities.
• You will turn that information into meaningful insight and recommendations for senior decision-makers.

Skills you need

We are particularly interested in speaking with candidates who have operated within Social Housing, Local Government, the wider Public Sector or another strongly regulated environment.

You are likely to have experience across several of the following areas:

Governance | Assurance | Policy | Risk | Regulatory Compliance | Audit | Data Protection | Information Governance

You should be able to demonstrate:

• Strong experience within governance, compliance, risk management or policy leadership.
• Experience working within a regulated environment.
• An understanding of the social housing regulatory landscape or the ability to operate effectively within a comparable regulatory environment.
• The ability to interpret legislation and regulation and translate this into practical organisational processes.
• Experience undertaking risk assessments, assurance reviews or compliance audits.
• Strong report-writing and analytical capability.
• Confidence working with senior leadership and governance structures.
• Strong stakeholder management skills.
• An understanding of Health & Safety governance.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• The confidence to challenge constructively and hold colleagues accountable for agreed actions.
• A proactive, solutions-focused approach to governance and compliance.

Experience within social housing would be highly advantageous, particularly where you have worked with housing regulation, Consumer Standards, TSMs or resident-focused services.

Why this is the role for you

This is an opportunity to take on a genuinely broad governance position where you can influence how an organisation approaches assurance, risk, regulation and accountability.

Rather than operating within one narrow governance specialism, you’ll have visibility across the organisation and the opportunity to work closely with senior leadership while helping shape the frameworks that underpin effective service delivery.

For someone who enjoys combining technical governance knowledge with practical organisational improvement, this could be a particularly interesting next step.

To apply

If your experience sits across Governance, Assurance, Risk, Policy, Compliance or Data Protection and you’d like to understand more about the position, we’d be very interested in speaking with you.

To apply for the Governance, Assurance & Policy Manager job, fill in the application form below. Your CV will be submitted to Ed Tree. Or view our dedicated SW9 recruitment portal for more information on the organisation an other roles available.