Head of Governance, Risk and Assurance – AR in Surrey

The Head of Governance, Risk and Assurance provides independent, robust and credible oversight of the organisation’s governance, risk management and assurance arrangements. The role ensures Surrey Police has effective frameworks in place to identify, understand and manage strategic and operational risks, maintain accountability, demonstrate compliance and legitimacy, and continuously improve through learning from inspections, audits, reviews and incidents. Acting as the lead professional authority for Governance, Risk and Assurance, the postholder provides expert advice and constructive challenge to senior leaders, enabling informed decision-making and supporting organisational readiness for scrutiny, inspection and external assurance.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Risk Management
  • Lead and maintain the force-wide risk management framework, ensuring risks are identified, assessed, monitored, escalated and managed consistently.
  • Maintain strategic risk registers and ensure alignment between operational, departmental and organisational risks.
  • Provide advice to senior leaders on risk exposure, risk appetite and risk tolerance.
  • Identify emerging risks and ensure appropriate mitigation and ownership.
• Governance and Assurance
  • Design, develop and maintain effective governance and assurance frameworks across the organisation.
  • Ensure governance structures, boards, reporting mechanisms and decision-making processes provide appropriate oversight and accountability.
  • Lead assurance mapping activity, ensuring clear links between risks, controls, mitigations and evidence.
  • Coordinate assurance activity across internal functions and external partners to identify gaps and avoid duplication.
• Inspection, Audit and Regulatory Readiness
  • Act as the force lead for HMICFRS inspection coordination, evidence management and action tracking.
  • Lead the organisation’s response to inspection findings, recommendations and areas requiring improvement.
  • Maintain oversight of audit and inspection actions, ensuring ownership, progress monitoring and sustainable improvement.
  • Ensure the organisation remains prepared for external scrutiny and regulatory assessment.
• Organisational Learning and Continuous Improvement
  • Ensure learning from inspections, audits, serious incidents and reviews is captured, analysed and embedded.
  • Promote an open, learning-focused culture that encourages improvement rather than compliance-only behaviours.
  • Support leaders in understanding root causes and addressing systemic issues.
• Strategic Advice and Professional Leadership
  • Provide authoritative advice to the Director, Chief Officer Group and senior leaders on governance maturity, risk exposure and assurance confidence.
  • Provide constructive challenge where governance arrangements, controls or risk management approaches are ineffective.
  • Influence improvements across the organisation through evidence, analysis and professional credibility.
  • Promote strong governance, accountability and assurance capability across the force.

Key Measures of Success

• Effective force-wide risk management arrangements.
• Strong governance and assurance frameworks.
• Improved inspection and audit readiness.
• Timely delivery of improvement actions and recommendations.
• Increased organisational learning and continuous improvement.
• Trusted professional advice provided to senior leaders.
• Increased confidence, legitimacy and public trust.

Candidate Profile

• Essential Experience
  • Significant experience operating in a senior governance, risk, assurance, inspection or compliance leadership role.
  • Experience within policing, government, public sector or another highly regulated and complex organisation.
  • Proven experience advising senior executives and providing challenge on risk exposure, assurance confidence and organisational readiness.
  • Experience managing inspections, audits, regulatory reviews or external assurance processes.
  • Experience building effective relationships with regulators, auditors, oversight bodies or external partners.
  • Ability to operate independently, exercising sound professional judgement and discretion.
• Essential Knowledge
  • Strong understanding of governance, risk management and assurance frameworks.
  • Knowledge of strategic risk management, assurance models, risk appetite and organisational controls.
  • Understanding of public sector accountability arrangements and decision-making.
  • Knowledge of inspection and regulatory environments, including HMICFRS methodologies, audit standards and assurance mapping.
  • Understanding of the policing landscape, including the roles of Chief Constables, PCC/OPCC, HMICFRS and audit functions.
• Essential Skills
  • Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with the ability to identify systemic risks and assurance gaps.
  • Excellent influencing and communication skills, including the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively.
  • Ability to translate complex governance, risk and assurance issues into clear advice for senior decision-makers.
  • Strong judgement, resilience and independence when dealing with sensitive or contested issues.
  • Ability to design and implement organisation-wide frameworks and processes.
  • Credible leadership skills with the ability to build an assurance culture focused on learning and improvement.

Competencies

• We Are Emotionally Aware: Maintains resilience and composure under pressure. Understands operational and workforce impacts. Demonstrates emotional intelligence during scrutiny and change.
• We Take Ownership: Identifies and escalates risks appropriately. Holds others accountable for delivering improvements. Maintains professional independence.
• We Collaborate: Builds trusted relationships across operational and corporate functions. Works effectively with auditors, inspectors and external partners. Creates shared ownership while maintaining accountability.
• We Support and Inspire: Provides clarity and confidence to leaders. Encourages openness, learning and improvement. Communicates complex issues effectively.
• We Analyse Critically: Uses evidence to identify risks and improvement opportunities. Challenges assumptions and unsupported confidence. Distinguishes symptoms from root causes.
• We Are Innovative and Open Minded: Improves assurance approaches using best practice. Encourages reflective practice and continuous improvement. Develops modern approaches to governance and risk management.

Stakeholder Engagement

The postholder will regularly engage with internal stakeholders such as the Chief Officer Group, Directors, Operational Commanders, and Strategy, Governance and Performance teams, as well as external stakeholders including HMICFRS, internal and external auditors, and OPCC. The role requires significant influence without direct authority, relying on credibility, evidence and professional judgement to drive improvement.

Decision Making

The postholder has significant autonomy to develop and maintain governance, risk and assurance frameworks, identify and elevate risks and assurance concerns, determine assurance approaches and inspection coordination activity, and initiate reviews and improvement activity. Approval is required for major changes to strategic governance arrangements, risk appetite and acceptance of significant residual risks.