Quality Assurance Manager in Ashford

This is an opportunity to join an ambitious charity supporting adults with learning disabilities. In this part-time Quality Assurance Manager position you will play a pivotal role in safeguarding quality and driving continuous improvement across CQC-regulated services and a public-facing rural visitor attraction, while enjoying a high degree of flexibility in how your time is organised.

Reporting directly to the CEO, you will act as the charity’s internal expert on Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards and its own Quality Assurance Framework, ensuring services are safe, effective and person-centred. You will build on an established approach to CQC audits and extend it into areas that have not previously been within scope, such as HR, their on-site visitor attraction / farm and other central functions. The organisation is investing in automating aspects of audit and reporting, and you will have the opportunity to help shape and adopt these tools to strengthen assurance and insight.

• Lead the internal quality assurance and compliance framework across CQC-regulated services, the visitor attraction and central functions.
• Design and deliver a risk-based internal audit programme, including scoped audits, sample testing (for example, HR right-to-work checks) and thematic reviews.
• Monitor compliance with CQC fundamental standards, health and safety, safeguarding and internal policies, escalating significant issues and supporting services to address them.
• Track and report on quality performance indicators, providing concise, insightful reports to the CEO, Directors and Board committees on quality, risk and progress against improvement plans.
• Oversee policy and procedure governance, including scheduling, liaison with policy owners, coordination of approvals and management of document control.
• Act as Data Protection Lead, overseeing GDPR compliance, data breaches and Subject Access Requests (previous experience in this area is not required).
• Support the production of key organisational reports, including quality and governance contributions to the annual report.
• Champion continuous improvement and support strategic projects that strengthen quality, governance and efficiency, including the use of automation and digital tools.

• Substantial experience in quality assurance and/or compliance within a health, social care or charity setting, with in-depth knowledge of CQC regulations and quality standards.
• Proven experience of planning and delivering audits, interpreting findings and developing credible improvement plans in partnership with operational colleagues.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to work with qualitative and quantitative data, identify trends and present information clearly for senior audiences.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a track record of producing high-quality reports and assurance papers.
• Highly organised, able to manage multiple streams of work and deadlines independently within a part-time schedule.
• Collaborative and pragmatic, able to build trusted relationships with busy senior leaders and to influence without direct line authority.
• Full driving licence and access to a vehicle, with the ability to travel between sites in East Kent.

Why Join Us? Our client's organisation is built on acceptance, respect, and inclusion—where everyone feels that they belong and can make a meaningful contribution. They believe in creating a supportive, high-performance culture that empowers both their teams and the people they support. We’d be delighted if you tick all our boxes, but we also believe it’s just as important we tick all of yours. If you think you have most of what we’re looking for but not everything, go ahead and apply—we’d still love to hear from you.

Note: We reserve the right to close the application process early should a suitable candidate be appointed, and encourage early applications.