Head of Audit & Regulation

Job description

Job responsibilities

Head of Audit and Regulation

As Head of Audit and Regulation, youll be responsible for advancing Exemplar Health Cares approach to regulatory compliance, quality assurance and inspection readiness - ensuring the organisation is not only compliant but demonstrably among the best in the sector.

The role leads the evolution of Exemplar Health Cares quality assurance approach from episodic inspection preparation, to a continuous, intelligence led system that anticipates regulatory risk, identifies emerging quality themes early, and drives sustained improvement.

Youll be an expert in health and social care regulation, highly engaging, self-motivated and credible, with the ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into practical, proportionate and effective assurance across complex services.

While youll report to the Clinical Director, and be independent of the operational line, youll also work closely and collaboratively with the Managing Directors and Business Development Director to drive effective internal regulation.

Regulatory assurance and compliance leadership

Provide expert leadership on regulatory compliance across all external frameworks relevant to Exemplar Health Care, including CQC and associated statutory requirements.

Act as the subject matter expert in health and social care regulation, maintaining deep and current knowledge of regulatory expectations, inspection methodology and emerging regulatory risk.

Lead the development and delivery of a robust, intelligence driven regulatory assurance framework that provides continuous insight into compliance, quality and risk at home, regional and national level.

Ensure Exemplar Health Care is consistently inspection ready, with clear evidence of compliance, learning and improvement thats embedded in everyday practice.

Provide expert advice and guidance to Regional Director of Operations and senior leaders on regulatory risk, inspection preparation, enforcement activity and regulatory correspondence.

Deputise for the Clinical Director as required, representing the organisation with credibility and authority.

Quality assurance framework and intelligence

Own and continuously refine our quality assurance framework to be outstanding, ensuring it is aligned to regulatory expectations, clinical governance priorities and strategy.

Ensure assurance activity is purposeful, proportionate and outcome focused, moving beyond checklist compliance to meaningful evaluation of quality, safety and lived experience.

Develop and oversee a national quality intelligence approach, triangulating audit findings, inspection outcomes, incidents, complaints, safeguarding, workforce indicators and service user feedback.

Identify emerging themes, systemic risk and unwarranted variation, and translate these into clear organisational priorities and targeted improvement actions.

Provide high quality written and verbal regulatory intelligence to the Clinical Director, supporting confident decision making and prioritisation.

Lead and oversee regulatory style inspections, audits and deep dive reviews, ensuring they are well planned, evidence based and consistently applied.

Ensure inspection activity drives learning and improvement, with clear ownership of actions, follow up and assurance of completion.

Support and challenge operational teams where quality concerns are identified, ensuring improvement plans are robust, realistic and delivered.

Ensure root cause analysis and learning from regulatory failure, enforcement action or serious concerns is timely, rigorous and translated into system level improvement.

Work collaboratively with quality, clinical and operational colleagues to ensure learning from regulatory intelligence informs training, policy development, pathway design and practice improvement.

Contribute to the development and review of policies, procedures, quality tools and guidance, ensuring they remain current, usable and aligned to regulatory expectations.

Support the introduction of new initiatives that improve service user quality of life, safety and experience, ensuring regulatory implications are understood and managed.

Maintain a strong understanding of national quality challenges, sector trends and stakeholder expectations to ensure Exemplar remains ahead of regulatory and quality developments.

Liaise confidently and constructively with regulators, safeguarding partners, local authorities, commissioners, Healthwatch and other stakeholders as required.

Support the organisations response to regulatory engagement, inspection outcomes and follow up activity, ensuring responses are accurate, transparent and credible.

Represent Exemplar Health Care professionally in regulatory and quality forums where appropriate.

Lead, coach and develop colleagues within the regulatory assurance function, setting clear expectations and building capability, confidence and consistency.

Promote a culture of curiosity, professionalism and accountability within assurance activity.

Work collaboratively across the organisation to strengthen shared ownership of quality and compliance.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Were seeking a senior leader with a Masters degree or equivalent experience, substantial experience inspecting, regulating or improving health or social care services, and a proven track record of leading quality improvement across complex, multi-site environments.
• Registration as a healthcare professional is desirable but not essential.
• From the moment you join us, youll be given the right support and youll continue to learn on the job during your career with us.
• Induction
• Our welcome induction covers everything, from mandatory and statutory training to the things you need to know about the home/team youll be part of.
• Youll have training in key areas such as moving and handling, safeguarding, person-centred care, and infection prevention and control.
• Ongoing learning
• Youll have regular supervisions and performance development reviews with your manager.
• Together, well celebrate your achievements, address any issues, and look at your progress and career aspirations.
• Youll be given plenty of opportunities to learn more and advance your career, if you wish.
• We ask that you:
• attend and complete your induction
• take part in all planned training we offer, both eLearning and face-to-face
• continue to learn on the job, especially during your first few months with us
• go to your supervisions and performance development reviews when your manager invites you
• commit to learning and keep your skills and knowledge up to date.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Exemplar Healthcare Services Limited

Address

Exemplar Health Care Support Centre

17 Europa View

Sheffield

S9 1XH

Employer's website

https://www.exemplarhc.com/careers (Opens in a new tab)