Following the recent appointment of a Head of Legal, Risk and Assurance (HLRA), we are seeking someone to provide administrative support and ownership of certain areas to the HLRA and Clerk to the Governing Body. This is a new role within the organisation, and a great opportunity for a self-starter to contribute to the smooth running of this important aspect of the school.

The post holder will be comfortable engaging with internal and external stakeholders, including the School’s senior leadership, Governors, insurers, consultants etc. Attention to detail and organisational skills are essential for this role. This role will be line managed by the HLRA but will also provide support to the Clerk to the Governing Body.

Main Responsibilities:

Support to the Head of Legal, Risk and Assurance (HLRA)

• Maintaining the contracts database and filing relevant correspondence;
• Using the contracts database, provide reports on material contracts;
• Monitoring compliance with key dates, including statutory deadlines, contract and policy renewals etc. to ensure HLRA is aware of the need to review in good time;
• Assist the HLRA in establishing and maintaining a panel of solicitors;
• Assist with all legal compliance and other tasks to support the legal function, as required.

Risk Management

Supporting the HLRA with:

• Maintaining the central Risk Register and associated assurance framework;
• Liaising with risk owners to help them develop and maintain their departmental risk registers;
• Implementing and reviewing of mitigation actions;
• Reviewing around risk scoring and risk appetite;
• Reporting on organisational risks to the leadership teams and Governors;
• Developing a rolling schedule of auditing School, fundraising, commercial and operational procedures, practices, and documents to identify possible weaknesses;
• Legislative and policy compliance, including monitoring changes in legislation that may impact the School;
• Providing administration around internal audits conducted, reviewing findings with the leaders of the areas being reviewed and monitoring completion of action plans to address the findings;
• Assisting the HLRA with the Business Continuity framework, liaising with other teams to help ensure effective plans are in place to manage a crisis or compliance violation and to ensure appropriate improvement activity is identified;
• Assisting the development of an Incident Management and reporting framework.

Assisting the HLRA with:

• The annual insurance renewal process;
• Providing administration of ongoing insurance matters and claims, liaising with relevant staff, our broker and insurers;
• Liaising with staff to help ensure compliance with insurance requirements;
• Co-ordinating with external insurance partners as required.

Data Protection

Assisting the HLRA with data protection matters including:

• Responding to data subject right requests, including Subject Access, Erasure etc;
• Maintaining the data breach and Subject Access Request log;
• Responding to data protection queries, liaising with the external Data Protection Officer (DPO) as required;
• Assisting with ongoing legislative compliance and updates to internal policies;
• Ensuring that staff and Governors receive data protection training on a rolling schedule, in liaison with the external DPO.

Other tasks

• Providing administrative support on UKVI matters, as required;
• Maintaining a log of the School’s intellectual property (IP) and licenses, e.g. music licenses;
• Assisting with the review of policies under HLRA ownership;
• Providing diary management for the HLRA arranging and administrating meetings internal and external;
• Other assistance as the HLRA may reasonably require.

Support to Clerk to the Governing Body (GB)

The Clerk to the Governing Body is the governance professional of the school and has three key roles, to:

• Provide administrative support to the Governing Body: arranging meetings, writing minutes, keeping accurate and up to date records, supporting systems for the review of policies
• Support the development and performance of governors in their role, updating them on changes in legislation and policy, informing them of appropriate training and helping them understand their duties
• Offer advice to governors and the school on the correct governance procedures and how to improve governance

The Governing Body operates a number of Committees, working and oversight groups to progress detailed work in specific areas on behalf of the full Governing Body. The main Committees are Education, Audit, Risk & Compliance, Finance & General Purposes (with Sub-Committees Estates Strategy and Archives); Investments, Governance & Nominations, and Remuneration.

The Clerk works in close collaboration with the Head Master, Master and Bursar and COO to ensure there is a productive and efficient interaction between the executive and the Governing Body.

The Legal, Risk and Governance Officer will provide support to the Clerk in the following ways:

Providing administrative support for Board Committee and GB Meetings, including:

• Preparing, updating and issuing the annual meetings calendar;
• Issuing termly calendar invites for relevant meetings
• Arranging logistics for these meetings (e.g. venue, IT and catering);
• Collating and circulating papers on the governors’ portal, Board Intelligence (BI);
• Supporting the Clerk on the day of the meeting.

Arranging other meetings involving governors as required, including:

• Ad-hoc meetings including governor panels
• New governor induction and visits
• Governor and Chair’s dinners

Other responsibilities as required, including:

• Supporting the Clerk in the maintenance of governor records, working with HR to ensure compliance
• Keeping governors informed of School events and handling bookings, working with the school booking team and system
• Daily diary management – arranging and administrating meetings internal and external

Ideal Candidate:

Please refer to the below (attached) person specification.

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex or sexual orientation.

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Westminster School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Package Description:

Required for: November 2024

Location: Dean’s Yard, Westminster

Contract: Full-time, permanent

Hours of work: 09:00 – 17:00, Monday to Friday with an hour unpaid lunchbreak. We are willing to consider candidates who could work four days a week. The role will be based in Westminster although hybrid working can be discussed.

Salary: £35,000 - £37,000 per annum, dependent on experience

The deadline for applications is midday on Wednesday 16th October 2024. Interviews will follow shortly after the closing date.