Head of Quality, Compliance & Continuous Improvement
The Kent Autistic Trust
Location: Kent & Medway (multi-site)
Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer
Working Pattern: Multi site and HO
Salary: £55- 60k per annum
Lead Quality. Drive Improvement. Shape the Future
The Kent Autistic Trust is one of the South East's leading autism charities, providing high-quality support and opportunities for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
Following a restructure we are seeking an experienced and inspirational leader to join our Senior Leadership Team as Head of Quality, Compliance & Continuous Improvement.
This is a newly evolved strategic role at the heart of our organisation. Working alongside the Chief Executive Officer, Department Heads you will lead our approach to care quality, regulatory compliance, quality assurance and organisational learning, helping to ensure our services remain safe, effective, person-centred and continuously improving.
About the Role
Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, you will provide strategic leadership for quality, compliance and continuous improvement across the Trust.
You will champion a culture of excellence, accountability and learning, ensuring that insights gained from audits, inspections, incidents, safeguarding activity, complaints, performance data and stakeholder feedback are translated into meaningful improvements for the people we support.
This role sits alongside and works in partnership with our Heads of Operations and Head of HR & IT. Together, you will help drive service quality, strengthen governance, improve organisational performance and support our ambition to achieve and sustain outstanding services.
As the Trust's lead for quality and compliance assurance, you will:
- Lead and develop the Trust's Quality and Compliance Framework.
- Drive organisational continuous improvement and learning.
- Lead inspection readiness and regulatory assurance activity.
- Provide oversight of medication governance, support planning quality and care documentation standards.
- Analyse quality, compliance and performance trends to identify risks and opportunities, including complaints and compliments, analyse staff feedback and stakeholders feedback.
- Develop meaningful dashboards, assurance reporting and quality intelligence and review the care management systems with SMT.
- Lead on H&S compliance audits and provide H&S and Fleet oversight.
- Support and challenge operational leaders to deliver high-quality outcomes.
- Coordinate organisational learning arising from audits, incidents, safeguarding activity, complaints and inspections.
- Oversee external specialist quality, compliance or inspection-support resources where required.
- Act as the safeguarding lead for the organisation.
- Be part of the senior on call rota.
- Provide assurance and insight to the CEO, Senior Leadership Team and Board.
What You'll Bring
We are looking for an experienced senior leader with a strong background in quality, compliance, governance, assurance or service improvement within a regulated care environment.
You will be able to combine strategic thinking with a practical understanding of service delivery and will be confident influencing and working collaboratively across multiple functions and stakeholders.
You will have:
- Significant experience of quality assurance, compliance, governance or service improvement leadership.
- Strong knowledge of CQC regulations, adult social care legislation and safeguarding requirements.
- Experience supporting organisations through inspections, audits and regulatory reviews.
- Experience of analysing data and performance information to drive improvement.
- Experience of developing quality systems, assurance frameworks and governance arrangements.
- Experience of leading H&S oversight and compliance of multi sites.
- Excellent leadership, influencing and relationship-building skills.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Experience of producing reports and presenting information to senior leaders or Boards.
- A genuine passion for improving outcomes for autistic people and people with learning disabilities.
Why Join KAT?
This is a unique opportunity to shape quality, compliance and continuous improvement across a respected and ambitious charity.
Working as part of a collaborative Senior Leadership Team, you will have the opportunity to influence organisational strategy, strengthen governance, drive innovation and make a lasting impact on the quality of services delivered across the Trust.
At The Kent Autistic Trust, autistic people are at the heart of everything we do. We are values-driven, ambitious and committed to helping people live rich, fulfilling and meaningful lives.
Ready to Make a Difference?
If you are passionate about quality, compliance and continuous improvement and are looking for an opportunity to influence change at a strategic level, we would love to hear from you.
Apply today and help shape the future of quality and excellence at The Kent Autistic Trust.
Please Note
- We are unable to accept applications via recruitment agencies for this role.
- We are unable to accept applications from those requiring sponsorship visas.
- Employment is subject to an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory references.
- A copy of our Privacy Notice is available on our website.
