Senior Information Governance Officer

Main area Data Protection and Information Governance Grade NHS AfC: Band 6 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 213-CORP-8091718

Employer King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Denmark Hill Town London Salary £47,951 - £56,863 per annum inc HCA's Salary period Yearly Closing 09/08/2026 23:59

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£2.1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

Please note that this is an office-based position, meaning that you will need to work on site at King's College Hospital (SE5 9NY) multiple times per-week.

Additionally, the interviews will be face-to-face. This is non-negotiable and we will not be offering virtual interviews for this position.

Please note that we may close the position early if high volumes of applications are received.

The Senior Information Governance (IG) Officer will manage the IG Support Officers and will be responsible for overseeing the police requests process, ensuring that each request is acknowledged and responded to in a timely manner. The post-holder will be responsible for the co-ordination of all relevant policies and procedures and for recommending changes to ensure the maintenance of compliance with Data Protection legislation across the Trust.

Main duties of the job

See attached Job Description for all main duties.

• Act as the first point of contact for IG enquiries (some of which will be of a confidential nature), referring enquirers onward where appropriate.
• Provide guidance and advice to senior management across the Trust and their teams on a wide range of complex IG matters, and escalating as required, to enhance service delivery and patient care.
• Oversee and manage the process for police requests for information and provide support to teams who manage police requests.
• Manage the IG Support Officers to ensure that all police requests for information are responded to in line with legislative requirements and in a timely manner.
• Take a solution-focused approach to IG, encouraging a culture of identifying opportunities and designing systems and services in a way that complies with Data Protection legislation – ensuring that the implementation of the service is achieved in a practical and supportive way.

Working for our organisation

The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King’s to another level.

We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.

King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The main Information Governance responsibilities for the role are listed below. Please see the attached Job Description document for a full list of responsibilities including for line managers and other responsibilities across the Trust.

• Act as the first point of contact for IG enquiries (some of which will be of a confidential nature), referring enquirers onward where appropriate.
• Provide guidance and advice to senior management across the Trust and their teams on a wide range of complex IG matters, and escalating as required, to enhance service delivery and patient care.
• Manage the process for police requests for information and provide support to teams who manage police requests.
• Manage the IG Support Officers to ensure that all police requests for information are responded to in line with legislative requirements and in a timely manner.
• Assist with and co-ordinate the production, collation and systematic returns and recording of evidence to support compliance with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit.
• Support key investigations into reported IG-related incidents, creating and presenting written reports for the Information Governance Steering Group as required. This includes evaluating reported incidents and helping to gather relevant information as part of investigations.
• Promote and raise staff awareness of IG by working with other team members to plan, organise and deliver training programmes to staff at all levels of the organisation. This may include staff induction and mandatory training (face to face, e-learning and ad hoc).
• Create and maintain dashboards and performance reports against key performance indicators, evidencing IG compliance and progress. Highlight any issues to the IG Managers.
• Ensure policies, procedures and learning materials are updated and maintained.
• Manage the Trust’s data sharing register and flag expired agreements to Trust leads for updating.
• Plan, coordinate, and conduct IG audits (spot checks) of clinical and corporate departments across all Trust sites and provide written feedback to Service Managers that details the issues found and improvement actions required.
• Provide support and advice on Subject Access Requests (SARs) and FoI-related queries to the SARs and FoI teams as required.
• Co-ordinate IG risk assessments and reviews, including Data Protection Impact Assessments for new and existing systems/processes that involve the processing of personal data. Organise meetings for project stakeholders as appropriate.
• Support the collection and collation of information for Data Flow mapping and Asset Registers, such as offering training and support to Information Asset Owners and Administrators as directed by the IG Service Manager.
• Work to a high level of accuracy, autonomously and without direct supervision, but still report and be accountable to management.
• Make recommendations regarding the maintenance of the IG web pages on the intranet and public website.
• Deputise for the IG Managers when required to provide advice and support for projects. This includes attending meetings on behalf of the IG team as required.
• Identify opportunities for sharing wider learning with staff and deliver these learnings where appropriate.
• Undertake other grade-appropriate tasks determined by the IG Managers, such as projects supporting the development of IG across King’s.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

• Knowledge of key legislation and national guidance, including UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018 and Freedom of Information Act 2000.
• Degree or professional qualification in Information Governance (IG) or a related field

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience of interpreting and applying IG legislation and standards in areas such as Confidentiality, Records Management, Data Sharing, and Privacy.
• Experience of building effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Experience of managing staff
• Experience of undertaking audits
• Knowledge of Information Security Principles

Skills and Competencies

• Strong verbal communication, including the ability to explain complex information clearly to a range of audiences and in an engaging way.
• Excellent written communication, including the ability to analyse complex information and present it concisely.
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and work independently.
• Ability to undertake thematic analyses of risks and incidents.
• A good understanding and experience of working for the NHS.

IMPORTANT

• Check your email account regularly as this is how we will communicate with you
• If you delete the job from any of your accounts, you may be prevented from accessing further communications
• Please provide email addresses for referees where possible
• All staff have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and for ensuring they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.
• Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. You are advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

AI tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can support you as you complete your application. For example, they can check for spelling or grammar errors, or help you to decide what to include. They shouldn’t however replace your own responses or be used to write the application for you.

Relying too much on AI can negatively impact your chances of success because automatically generated answers:

• might not be specific or relevant enough to address the criteria in the recruitment profile
• often seem generic and not personalised enough – an AI response won’t show your unique voice and perspective
• could misrepresent information about you, such as your qualifications, skills and experience

We monitor applications for any behaviour that could create an unfair advantage, and we check all references carefully. You are likely to be tested on your experience at interview, so be honest and make sure all the information in your application is correct.

King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Annual Reports and Other Corporate Publications

King's Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre Website

King's College Hospital is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.