Grade: 13
Reporting to: Group Chief Financial and Group Chief Operating Officer
Dotted Line to: LSBU Board Chair, SBC Board Chair, Group CEO and Vice Chancellor
Line Management: Governance, Legal and Executive Office Teams
Executive Relationships: Vice-Chancellor & Group CEO; Group Executive Directors and senior leaders across LSBU Group.
Governance Relationships: Chair, LSBU Board; Chair, South Bank Colleges Board; Chair, South Bank Academies Board; Board and Committee Chairs across the Group.

Purpose of the post

The Group Director of Governance, Compliance & Legal Services provides strategic leadership for the Governance, Legal and Compliance Function and serves as the principal adviser to the Boards, Chairs, Vice-Chancellor and Executive Team on matters of governance, legal oversight, compliance, assurance, governance effectiveness and accountability, as a standing attendee at Executive Team meetings and attending other executive forums as required.

Operating across a complex multi-sector education group spanning higher education, further education and schools, the role is responsible for developing and maintaining governance arrangements that support effective decision-making, clear accountability and organisational resilience. The role fulfils the Company Secretary role for all members of the LSBU Group.

The Group Director of Governance, Compliance & Legal Services acts as a trusted adviser to both Boards and Executive leaders, providing independent judgement, constructive challenge and strategic oversight whilst ensuring that governance, legal and assurance activities operate as a coherent and effective function across LSBU Group.

The Group General Counsel and Director of Governance, Compliance & Legal Services is organisationally located within the CFO/COO function and line managed accordingly. Reflecting the nature of the role, they maintain regular direct access to the Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive and to the Chairs of LSBU Group’s governing bodies. The postholder has unfettered access to the Chair of the Board and relevant Committee Chairs and is empowered to raise governance concerns independently of executive management.

The role provides independent professional judgement on governance and Board effectiveness, alongside legal and assurance advice across the Group, and acts as a trusted adviser to executive and non-executive leaders.

Main Activities and Responsibilities

Governance Architecture and Development

• Lead the continuing development of governance arrangements across LSBU Group.
• Advise on governance architecture, committee structures, delegated authorities and organisational accountability.
• Support effective relationships between Group and entity governance arrangements.
• Promote governance maturity and governance effectiveness across the Group.
• Advise on governance implications arising from organisational growth, partnerships, acquisitions and structural change.

Leadership and Strategic Advice

• Act as principal governance and legal adviser to LSBU Group, including advising the Group CEO and Vice-Chancellor, Group Executive, Chairs and governing bodies on implications arising from areas such as organisational transformation, estates development, major contracts, market expansion, partnerships, acquisitions and new operating models.
• Provide trusted advice to Chairs, governing bodies, the Vice-Chancellor and Executive Team.
• Support Board effectiveness and high-quality decision-making.
• Provide independent judgement and constructive challenge on significant organisational issues, including major contracts and estates transformation.
• Maintain effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.

Governance Operations

• Lead governance support services across LSBU Group, including internal governance and the Executive Office, together with associated line management.
• Fulfil the Company Secretary responsibilities attached to the role across LSBU Group.
• Ensure effective planning and delivery of Board, Committee and Executive governance cycles.
• Ensure effective administrative support to the Board Chairs and Group Executive
• Oversee forward work programmes, agendas, governance timetables and decision tracking.
• Promote consistently high standards in governance papers, reporting and decision-making processes.
• Continually improve the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of governance services.

Legal, Assurance and Regulatory Oversight

• Oversee legal services across LSBU Group.
• Ensure effective and efficient management of internal and external legal provision, developing internal capability and ensuring proportionate use of external advisers.
• Provide strategic legal advice and oversight in relation to major contracts, estates matters, partnerships, transactions and disputes.
• Provide oversight of institutional arrangements for monitoring compliance with statutory, regulatory and contractual obligations. Specifically maintain compliance with the requirements of the Office for Students, Department for Education, Skills England, the Charity Commission, and relevant Company Law.
• Lead the management of the Group’s internal audit arrangements and support the effective operation of the Group Audit and Risk Committees.
• Maintain oversight of significant legal, regulatory and compliance risks.
• Coordinate assurance activity across governance, compliance and regulatory domains.
• Provide Boards and Executive with confidence that significant obligations and risks are identified and managed appropriately.

Organisational Capability and Service Effectiveness

• Lead the Governance, Legal and Assurance Function.
• Ensure appropriate capability, capacity and specialist expertise across the function.
• Establish service standards, performance measures and reporting arrangements.
• Promote technology-enabled and efficient approaches to governance and legal service delivery.
• Ensure resources are deployed effectively and focused on high-value activity.

Governance Culture

• Champion a culture of good governance across LSBU Group.
• Promote accountability, transparency and effective decision-making.
• Support leaders in understanding their governance responsibilities.
• Ensure governance remains proportionate, practical and aligned to organisational priorities.

Person specification / Selection criteria

Governance Leadership

• Demonstrable track record of advising Boards, governing bodies or equivalent corporate decision-making forums on complex governance, legal, regulatory or organisational matters in a highly regulated environment.
• Experience operating at senior level within a complex organisation with multiple stakeholders, accountability frameworks and governance requirements, including managing governance during organisational change.
• Experience working directly with Chairs, Chief Executives and Executive teams, providing advice, challenge and support on matters requiring judgement, influence and political awareness.
• Demonstrable experience of leading governance reviews, governance development or governance transformation activity.

Legal, Regulatory and Assurance Leadership

• Demonstrable experience of interpreting and applying legal, regulatory and compliance requirements in support of organisational strategy, decision-making and risk management.
• Experience leading or overseeing legal services and assurance activities, including the effective management of external legal advisers and the balancing of legal, regulatory and assurance requirements with organisational priorities and operational delivery.
• A qualified solicitor, barrister or equivalent legally qualified professional is a desirable but not an essential requirement of the role.

Leadership of Complex Professional Services Functions

• Demonstrable experience of leading multidisciplinary professional services functions comprising governance, legal, regulatory, assurance or related professional disciplines.
• Demonstrable experience of leading and developing multidisciplinary teams through change, building capability, confidence and a collaborative, service-focused culture.
• Experience establishing priorities, allocating resources and managing competing organisational demands within a complex environment.
• Experience developing and improving service capability, operating models and performance, including the management of specialist professionals, external advisers and outsourced service providers.

Governance Architecture and Organisational Development

• Demonstrable experience of designing, reviewing or developing governance arrangements, accountability frameworks or delegated authority structures within a complex organisation.
• Experience operating within multi-entity organisations, subsidiary structures or environments characterised by multiple governance, regulatory or stakeholder accountabilities.
• Experience advising on the governance implications of organisational growth, partnerships, restructuring, acquisitions, mergers or organisational transformation.

Essential Knowledge

• Corporate governance, board effectiveness and accountability frameworks.
• Company, charity and multi-entity governance arrangements.
• Governance, assurance, compliance and regulatory frameworks within complex organisations.

Desirable Knowledge

• Higher education, further education and/or academy governance.
• Public sector governance and accountability frameworks.
• Experience as Company Secretary or similar.

Personal Qualities

• Trusted Adviser
• Demonstrates integrity, credibility and sound professional judgement.
• Provides balanced, objective and independent advice.
• Operates with discretion and confidence in sensitive and complex situations.

Strategic Judgement

• Interprets governance, legal and regulatory issues within a wider organisational context.
• Balances accountability, assurance and compliance requirements with organisational effectiveness and strategic objectives.
• Translates complex governance, legal and regulatory requirements into clear, proportionate and practical advice that enables effective organisational decision-making.

Influence and Relationship Building

• Builds trusted and proactive relationships with Boards, Chairs, Executive leaders, colleagues across the Group and external stakeholders.
• Influences through expertise, judgement and credibility.
• Provides constructive challenge and supports effective decision-making, even where views differ.

LSBU Career Pathways and Behaviour Framework

LSBU has developed a range of Career Pathways for Professional Services Group (PSG) roles. They include 8 different “job families” of roles which share common characteristics and require broadly similar skills and competencies. Job families are a way of describing work across the organisation that can support career planning and development, and the pathways identify skills and competencies for different grades within each job family. The Career Pathways document can be found here.

This post falls within the Governance and Risk Family.

The PSG Career Pathways should be read alongside the LSBU Behaviour Framework as this describes the behaviours expected at each grade, and successful candidates should be able to demonstrate how they meet the core behaviours detailed. Your application should address how you meet the essential criteria, including providing us with evidence of those behaviours relevant to this level role (Executive and Senior Leaders grade 11 upwards), and you should be prepared to respond to behaviour focused interview questions.