Legal, Risk and Governance Officer

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.

Job Introduction

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

The 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.

About The School

Working at Westminster

Westminster School is a busy, purposeful and vibrant place to be and an excellent workplace. The community is made up of 750 pupils, 120 teaching staff and 108 support staff.

Westminster School is friendly and welcoming, and all newcomers quickly become part of the rhythm of life here.

There is a real sense of community here as, being a boarding school many members of staff and pupils live on site and the School’s premises are very much treated as a home away from home. School life starts before breakfast and continues way beyond the working day; as a result, there is always a lively atmosphere in and around School and always someone to share a tea and biscuit with in the Common Room. Support staff as much as teaching staff are encouraged to embrace the School’s day-to-day activities, whether that be attending an evening concert or a morning service in the Abbey.

At Westminster we will always select the best candidate for every position. We do know, however, that we can only truly choose the best person on every occasion if a broad and diverse pool of candidates see the job advertised and are encouraged to apply.

As such, we continue to work on how our job roles are encountered, and particularly welcome applications from groups who have traditionally been underrepresented here.

Westminster School is for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We hope you are encouraged to apply.

The School

Westminster School is a selective day and boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 and girls aged 16 to 18. There are approximately 360 boys in the Lower School (Years 9 to 11) and 400 boys and girls in the Upper School (Years 12 and 13). One quarter of the pupils board, and the School is structured and run as a boarding school, with an extended day and week and a strong House-based system of pastoral welfare, for boarding and day pupils alike.

Westminster is an ancient school, whose origins can be traced to a charity school established by the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Its continuous existence is certain from the early 14th century. Henry VIII personally ensured the School’s survival by statute and Elizabeth I, who confirmed royal patronage in 1560, is celebrated as the School’s foundress. Westminster is rare amongst long-established schools in remaining on its original site in the centre of London. Its proximity to Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and the use of the Abbey for its chapel, together with the stimulating diversity of the South Bank and West End, account in part for its special atmosphere and outlook.

The School is one of the foremost centres of academic excellence both in this country and internationally. Central to its academic ethos is the dialogue between teachers and their pupils, whether in the classroom or in tutorials, inspiring enjoyment of intellectual enquiry, debate and search for explanation and the development of skills of rational, independent thought well beyond any standard examination syllabus. The desired environment is happy, busy and purposeful; the pupils are intellectually, socially, ethically and politically engaged, with plenty of opportunities to develop initiatives and to articulate and defend their views, in line with the enduring values of the liberal tradition reflected in the School’s Charter. That tradition is fully committed also to the nurture of each pupil’s spiritual, moral, emotional and physical development and wellbeing – with a particular emphasis on drawing out individual talent wherever it lies - and to the preparation of young people for fulfilled private and public lives beyond School.