Job Description
Role details
The Head of Corporate Services reports to the Chief Executive and is responsible for the organisation’s corporate services including Finance, HR, IT, Facilities Management, Audit & Risk, Business Planning and Governance. The role also oversees the organisation’s licensing function.
This is an exciting time to join the SGSA as we begin to implement our new strategy. The successful applicant will need to adapt the organisation’s corporate services to respond to the new direction, leading a small HQ team through a period of change.
The role holder manages a team of 3 HQ staff.
The successful applicant’s responsibilities will include:
• Management of the SGSA’s finances including the preparation of budgets and production the organisation’s annual report and accounts;
• Leadership and management of 3 HQ staff who have individual responsibility for: the annual licensing processes; management of the SGSA’s IT systems and equipment including its website; routine finance work; and, responding to correspondence, FOI requests, Parliamentary Questions and information requests from Government;
• HR – including responsibility for all leavers and joiners processes, payroll management, recruitment, training and development;
• Facilities management of the SGSA’s small HQ office;
• Corporate Governance, including maintaining the organisation’s risk register, leading on business continuity and acting as the Secretary to the Audit & Risk Committee;
• Leading the organisation’s business planning activity and overseeing monitoring of KPIs and Board reporting;
• Working with the SGSA’s policy lead to implement a new approach to licensing including a move to digital applications.
• Building and managing relationships with the organisation’s key corporate stakeholders including internal audit, the NAO and DCMS finance, Logica CGI and MyCSP;
• Membership of the organisation’s Executive Team, which has responsibility for leading the organisation and delivering the new strategy; and,
• Other activities and responsibilities to support the Chief Executive lead the organisation as it implements its new strategy.
Skills and experiences
The following skills and experience are essential:
• Experience in a corporate services role;
• Excellent financial skills including a high level of numeracy;
• A demonstrable high level of organisational and managerial skill;
• Strong motivational, leadership and management skills;
• Proven and effective change management skills;
• Strong and effective communication and stakeholder management skills;
• A high degree of self-motivation and a positive, proactive approach to contributing as part of a team.
In addition, it would be desirable for to have any of the following:
• Experience of Government financial management systems;
• HR experience;
• Risk management experience.
Applicants to do not need to have technical expertise or a background in safety at sports grounds but an interest in football and/or sport in general would be helpful.
About the SGSA
The SGSA (formerly the Football Licensing Authority)_is the UK Government’s expert body on spectator safety at sports grounds and our purpose is to ensure that all spectators can enjoy watching sport in safety. We write guidance including the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (“the Green Guide”) and carry out a range of statutory functions in relation to football in England and Wales and advisory functions in relation to other sports both within the UK and internationally. Our core statutory functions are set out in the Football Spectators Act 1989 and the Sports Grounds Safety Authority Act 2011. We have an important statutory responsibility to regulate local authorities in their oversight of safety at the 92 football clubs in the Premier League and the Football League, and at Wembley and the Principality Stadium. We issue licences to those 94 stadia that enforce the Government’s all-seater policy.
The UK’s expertise on sports ground safety is respected globally. Our core guidance document, the Green Guide, is used internationally by stadia designers, architects and others working in sport safety and is considered to set the standard in safety at sports grounds.
The SGSA is a small arms’ length body of around 20 people with an annual budget of around £1million. We have a London HQ at Blackfriars and other staff working nationally from home.
Current context
In 2011 the Sports Grounds Safety Authority Act enabled us to provide advice to sports other than football, and to countries around the world. Over the last five years we have expanded our work with other sports in the UK and explored international opportunities working with countries including Australia, Uruguay and Brazil on projects to provide advice on safety at sports grounds whilst continuing to perform our regulatory role in the UK.
In December 2015 the Government published its Sport Strategy. The strategy highlighted the social benefits of watching as well as participating in sport, and emphasised the importance of ensuring this can be done in safety. The strategy also explained that it would support the SGSA to use its world-class expertise to generate income, and facilitate a role for the SGSA on ensuring sports grounds can reach the right standards for disabled access.
On 1st February 2016 we published a new organisational strategy. This new strategy reflects the Government’s aspiration for us to generate income including take a more commercial approach to providing our advisory services to off-set the organisation’s costs and reduce the grant-in-aid funding we receive. The strategy is clear that in becoming more commercial we will not compromise our core values of integrity and independence, which are an important organisational strength. We will be a non-profit organisation, generating income which is reinvested in our front line services.
How to apply
If you would like to discuss the role in more detail, please contact Guy Longhorn at guy.longhorn@sgsamail.org.uk or on 07860 756 399.
Please provide:
• Your CV detailing relevant experience; and
• A two-page statement of suitability for the role, setting out how you meet the skills and competencies set out above. It should also explain why you are interested in the role.
Responses should be submitted to Guy at the email address above by 3 February 2017.
Sifted candidates will be invited to an informal discussion with the Chief Executive and a formal interview.
Other terms and conditions
Civil Service, analogous with those of staff at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Hours of work: 36 hours per week not including meal breaks
Annual leave provision: 25 days plus public and privilege days
Pension arrangements: Civil Service Pension Scheme