Formed in 2018, RFL Property Services is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and has embarked on a journey of transformational change in the way estate services are delivered within the NHS anddeliver a ground-breaking operating model for services that overcome traditional organisational boundaries and align across the ICS and Provider Alliance for North Central London.
The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, our “parent” Trust, is one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the UK, delivering care through our 4 main hospital sites, North Middlesex, Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free.
The Opportunity
We are looking for a highly experienced and results-focused Head of Regulatory and Compliance to join RFLPS during the exciting period of business growth.
The purpose of the role is to provide independent assurance to RFLPS and RFL Group by auditing, testing and challenging compliance with statutory, clinical and non-clinical regulatory requirements within estates and facilities operations managed by RFLPS.
This is fundamentally an assurance and audit role rather than an estates and facilities operations role. The successful candidate does not need an estates background: strong candidates may come from internal audit, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, risk management or forensic auditing backgrounds, provided they bring rigour, scepticism and evidential discipline the role demands.
Key Responsibilities
Reporting directly to Managing Director, you will be responsible for:
- Providing independent assurance to RFLPS and RFL Group by auditing, testing and challenging compliance with statutory, clinical and non-clinical regulatory requirements within estates and facilities operations managed by RFLPS.
- Ensuring that RFLPS's teams understand, meet and can provide evidence to compliance with the full range of statutory, regulatory and customer requirements that apply to the healthcare estate
- Building and leading a regulatory and compliance assurance framework that goes beyond conventional estates compliance monitoring.
- Designing, implementing and managing of an independent audit framework that tests documented compliance against the reality of physical execution on site – triangulating qualitative and quantitative evidence to establish and defend “one truth” about the true state of regulatory compliance across the estate within the RFL Group.
- Maintaining a rolling programme of statutory audits and inspections (including fire safety, water hygiene, medical equipment and electrical safety) and tracking remedial actions through to verified closure.
- Managing the forward pipeline of external regulatory and accreditation activity (including CQC, HSE, HTA, MHRA and JAG) and producing evidence-based assurance reports for the Managing Director and RFLPS Board.
The Ideal Candidate
To excel in this role, you will need:
- Qualifications: Educated to master’s degree level in a relevant discipline or equivalent significant professional experience. Professional qualification and/or membership of a relevant body in audit, compliance, quality, risk or health and safety (e.g. CQI/IRCA, IIA, ICA, NEBOSH Diploma / IOSH Chartered Member). A formal lead auditor qualification (e.g. ISO 9001, 45001 or 19011) is desirable.
- Experience: Substantial senior-level multi-disciplined experience leading audit, assurance, regulatory compliance, quality or risk functions in a complex, safety-critical or highly regulated environment.
- Stakeholder Management: Experience of managing relationships with external regulators, inspectors or accreditation bodies and preparing organisations for external scrutiny
- Leadership: A positive and inclusive approach to leadership is a must have, with a genuine passion for delivering outstanding business outcomes with integrity.
- Skills and Rigour: Strong analytical skills to triangulate documentary, quantitative and physical evidence into an independent judgement, combined with professional scepticism, evidential discipline and excellent written and verbal communication skills, including credibility at Board level.
- Flexibility: Willingness to work flexibly across all RFL Group sites, including undertaking physical site inspections.
What We Offer
- Salary: £87,466 – £99,982 per annum, depending on experience with opportunities for growth and development
- Annual Leave: 25 days annual leave plus public holidays
- Pension: NEST Pension Scheme
- Car leasing scheme via salary sacrifice.
- Wellbeing Benefits: A comprehensive range of discounted lifestyle and well-being benefits.
Our Culture
Our purpose is investing in the future of health and our mission is to become the trusted partner of choice for designing, building and transforming innovative, sustainable, community-focused healthcare estates.
We value and celebrate diversity, equity, inclusion and equal opportunity. We strive to create an inclusive culture where everyone can truly be themselves at work and feel valued, recognised and empowered. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and protected characteristics, and those who are interested in flexible working arrangements. We commit to providing any reasonable adjustments required.
For more information about this opportunity, please contact Kelly Liu, Head of People at rf-tr.rflpsrecruitment@nhs.net