Head of Legal and Governance in Rochdale

We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Legal and Governance to join our team. Reporting to the Director of Governance, the Head of Legal and Governance is responsible for a multidisciplinary team made up of Executive Assistants along with Legal and Governance professionals. This role is responsible for the overall leadership and direction of our Legal and Governance function delivering the Governance Framework across the organisation, ensuring compliance to the National Federation of Housing Code of Governance, the RSH Standards and associated company obligations.

This is a senior role within RBH and one that ensures we provide effective assurance to our Board, meet our legal requirements and support excellent business practices. It also ensures that our governance is built upon the needs and views of our customers so that we provide excellent services that improve lives in line with our corporate strategy.

The head of service is also required to provide comprehensive legal advice to the Executive and Senior Leadership team on a wide range of complex housing related issues. And to undertake a small caseload of complex cases, ensuring all legal resources and external legal spend is managed appropriately.

As a leader in RBH, the Head of Service works collaboratively across the organisation, building strong relationships with colleagues. Externally the role is a strong RBH Ambassador, building meaningful and productive connections with a range of partners. As a visible and engaging leader, the role ensures strong leadership throughout the service area, setting clear direction, with a focus on high performance, identifying areas for improvement and development and celebrating success.

What are we looking for?

• An excellent understanding of corporate governance in complex organisations.
• Possess a high standard of data and information literacy with excellent attention to detail with the ability to produce documents and minutes of meetings to a high standard.
• A comprehensive understanding of the legal standards and practice in the UK.
• The capability to find innovative solutions to complex problems and to adapt and prioritise deadlines with competing tasks in a fast-paced environment.
• Skilled in the analysis of complex legal documents and proficient in dealing with large amounts of information distilling down to the key salient facts.
• The experience and expertise to act as the senior solicitor within RBH with the ability to provide advice on complex housing related issues across RBH.
• Ability to exercise expert judgement in managing a small portfolio of complex tenancy cases, ensuring timely progression, robust case oversight, and effective resolution in line with organisational standards and statutory requirements.
• Establishes, upholds, and continuously improves organisational standards across all Legal and Governance functions, providing leadership to ensure robust compliance, ethical practice, and excellence in RBH's governance framework.
• An understanding of the regulatory regimes affecting the housing sector e.g. Regulatory of Social Housing, Financial Conduct Authority, Companies House, Solicitors Regulation Authority etc.

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Limited (RBH) is the UK's first tenant and employee co-owned mutual housing society, with over 12,000 homes throughout the local area. As we've refocused our strategy back to our core housing role, we've taken the opportunity to work with our customers and colleagues to review and modernise the values that motivate us and will underpin everything we do. Our mutuality is focused on bringing genuine voice and influence to our customers and our colleagues in how we deliver our services.

Our values:

• Putting People First: We listen with empathy, respond with compassion, and make it easy for our customers to access our services.
• Doing What We Say: We earn trust through honesty, integrity, caring and keeping our promises.
• Working As One: We embrace our mutuality and work together to deliver great outcomes for the people living in our homes and communities.
• Delivering Quality: We invest wisely in our people and make it easy for them to deliver services and create places that our customers are proud to call home.
• Open & Transparent: We are curious, embrace diverse ways of thinking and seek feedback to help us improve.