Planning and Assurance Support Officer

Grade C: £34,890 (National) or £40,746 (London – for London office based or homebased workers within the boundary of the M25). There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £600 per annum for those working from home. For part time roles – please note this will be pro rata.

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week or Part-time will be considered. Talk to us about compressed hours.

Contract Type: Secondment opportunity until 31 March 2027. This is for a fixed period as we work through our rebuilding activity.

Location: Home-based

Closing Date: Monday 3 August 2026 at 11.59pm

Proposed interview dates: 13/14 August

Make a difference

Every role at CQC helps us improve health and social care. If you’re looking for a role in the Policy & Strategy Directorate Support Team that offers real purpose, this could be for you. As a Planning & Assurance Support Officer, you will support senior leaders to deliver key programmes and priorities. You’ll help make sure plans stay on track, risks are managed, and decisions are supported with clear information — so we can deliver the best possible outcomes.

Picture this

In the last 12 months, in this role you could have:

• Led the planning and delivery of a directorate-wide business plan, helping teams track progress and respond quickly to risks or challenges.
• Supported the annual budget setting process, identifying cost pressures and helping shape decisions to use resources wisely.
• Delivered key assurance work by managing audits and improving how risks and performance are monitored across teams.

You’ll play a key role by:

• Keeping directorate plans up to date, monitoring performance, and sharing clear updates with senior leaders.
• Managing risk registers, helping teams spot issues early and take action to reduce them.
• Providing reliable management information, reports and briefings to support decision-making.
• Supporting governance processes, ensuring records and activities meet required standards.
• Coordinating and improving business processes, helping teams work more effectively together.

Show us what we’re looking for in your application:

• Experience managing plans, budgets or performance data and using this to support decisions and improvements.
• Experience presenting complex information clearly (such as reports, dashboards or briefings) to senior stakeholders.
• Experience working across teams to implement processes, manage risks or deliver business improvements.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

The Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 23.7% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this.

If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk.

Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.

We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any: Age, Sex, Gender identity or expression, Sexual orientation, Religion or belief, Ethnicity, Disability.

Values and vision

We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.

• Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
• Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
• Integrity – doing the right thing.
• Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI

AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

• AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
• Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
• Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
• Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.