Senior Governance Manager

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) is an executive agency of Ministry of Justice. We receive over 40,000 applications a year for compensation, from people who have lost loved ones or have been injured as a result of violent crime. We know financial compensation can never fully redress what they have suffered. Nevertheless, what we do is an important part of providing justice for victims and we take pride that the compensation we pay helps people move forward with their lives.

Some of the material you will access may include upsetting personal accounts of harm inflicted by others. This could include sexual assault and violence against children. We recognise the personal impact this may have and we provide resilience training, to promote wellbeing.

We employ around 350 people and are based in Glasgow city centre, with excellent transport links. We are a small, engaged, productive workforce with a real sense of corporate community. We want to keep improving our services and the way we work to best serve the public, meet new challenges, deliver value for money and ensure CICA is a great place to work.

This position is based at Buchanan Wharf, 10 Clyde Place, Glasgow, G5 8AQ. We currently operate a hybrid working business model, where you will be expected to work 50% of your time in the office and the remainder at home.

The Role

The Senior Governance Manager plays a vital role within CICA, overseeing risk management, information assurance, fraud prevention and health and safety activities within the organisation to ensure effective decision making and compliance with statutory requirements.

The post holder reports into the Director of Corporate Services and represents their area at the Executive Management Committee (EMC), the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) and the CICA Board. You will lead a small team of nine, with direct line management responsibility for four people, overseeing workstreams covering data protection, information asset management, Subject Access Requests (SARs), Freedom of Information (FOI) and Health and Safety. Additionally, you will also be responsible for ensuring that CICA continues to develop its policies in these areas, co-ordinating the identification, assessment, management and monitoring of risk to embed a strong, proactive culture throughout the organisation.

As a member of the senior leadership team you will work collaboratively with different business functions across CICA, acting as a champion for best practice in information assurance and risk management.

Duties and responsibilities

• Lead the organisation’s approach to risk, fraud prevention and information assurance, providing expert advice as appropriate.

• Oversight of managing SAR and Freedom of Information requests within statutory timeframes.

• Continuously improve CICA’s risk management framework, including maintaining the strategic risk register and presenting at appropriate Boards, ensuring alignment with wider MoJ risk management and Orange Book requirements.

• Maintain CICA policy and processes on data protection and counter fraud in line with best practice and legislative requirements, including robust processes for incident management.

• Oversee compliance with relevant Health and Safety legislation and Business Continuity activities.

• Engage with senior leaders across the organisation to ensure a high level of understanding of the importance of good information asset management and security, advising on information risk and taking action to increase awareness as appropriate.

• Work closely with MoJ Data Protection Officer and the CICA Senior Information Risk Owner to manage risk, providing performance and compliance data, and undertaking information audits where required to effectively manage data governance.

• Managing and providing leadership within your area, contributing towards meeting CICA business objectives and KPIs and delivery of actions within the Business Plan.

Essential criteria

• Experience working in information assurance either in data protection, FOIs, SARs and/or related areas.

• Experience of utilising risk management frameworks and counter fraud protocols.

• Experience of Health and Safety and Business Continuity processes.

• Strong leadership/management skills developed through experience managing teams. 

• Excellent organisational skills and ability to prioritise in order to deliver successful business outcomes.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with an ability to explain complex information in a clear and simple way to a variety of audiences including senior stakeholders.

• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to develop effective working relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, offering constructive challenge across all organisational levels.

Desirable criteria

• Demonstrable previous experience obtained within a similar role at a similar level.

How to apply

The selection process for this vacancy will utilise Civil Service Success Profiles and will assess your Experience, Behaviours and Strengths.

Stage 1

Applicants should provide a Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words, which demonstrates evidence of the essential criteria for this role and of the behaviours listed below.

Stage 2

If successful at Stage 1, you will be invited to interview, which will incorporate a short presentation. You will be notified of the presentation topic in your invitation to interview. At the interview we will assess you against the behaviours listed below:

• Leadership

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

• Making Effective Decisions

At interview you will be asked a number of behaviour and strength-based questions.

Interviews are likely to take place in April at our office at 10 Clyde Place, Buchanan Wharf, Glasgow G5 8AQ.

Following the closing date, this job advertisement will no longer be available to view. You may wish to retain a copy for your records.

A reserve list will be created and will be valid for 12 months. If further vacancies arise for this or similar roles within the organisation, candidates may be appointed from the reserve list in order of merit.

We offer flexible working 7am - 7pm, Monday to Friday. However, we ask that candidates make themselves available to attend the office on a full-time, fixed hours basis (9am to 5pm) for the initial training period which takes up to 10 weeks. This is to ensure the best training and consolidation experience for new colleagues.

This role is offered on a full-time (37 hours per week) basis.

For queries about the role, please contact our Corporate Support Team by email Corporate.Support@cica.gov.uk.

Reasonable Adjustments

Please tell us if you have a disability when you apply, and we can offer reasonable adjustments to help with the selection process.