Head of Corporate Secretariat and Legal

Working as a partnership, both Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust have a shared vision for excellence in care for our patients and communities; with a set of strategic aims underpinning how we will achieve this.

The single corporate service is delivered across both organisation. You may be based at either IWT or PHU and individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites. For leaders managing staff across multi-site locations, you will need to be visible and provide in person leadership. The arrangements and frequency will be agreed locally.

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday)

Grade: Band 8c

Base: Across site working, between Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth and St Mary's Hospital, Isle of Wight.

We are seeking an exceptional and highly experienced senior governance leader to join our Corporate Governance Directorate as Head of Corporate Secretariat and Legal.

This is a significant Group-level leadership appointment with responsibility for two distinct but closely connected portfolios: the Board Secretariat and Healthcare Legal Services functions serving both Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

Reporting directly to the Group Director of Corporate Governance, you will be a senior member of the Corporate Governance Directorate leadership team and will provide authoritative advice to the Boards, Executive teams and senior leaders across both organisations. You will also deputise for the Group Director of Corporate Governance on corporate governance and legal matters when required.

The role

• You will provide strategic and operational leadership to the teams responsible for:
• delivering an effective and high-quality Board and committee secretariat;
• maintaining and continuously improving the Group’s corporate governance framework;
• managing the annual business cycles of the Boards, their committees and Executive teams;
• supporting Board effectiveness, development and succession planning;
• overseeing healthcare legal services, including litigation, coronial inquests, Court of Protection matters and general legal advisory work;
• ensuring effective oversight and supervision of lawyers, paralegals and case managers;
• managing legal-service performance, risk, external representation and reporting arrangements; and
• providing expert, proportionate and pragmatic advice on complex, sensitive and potentially contentious governance and legal matters.
• This is a broad and demanding portfolio requiring an individual who can operate credibly with Board members and senior executives while providing visible, effective leadership to specialist governance and legal teams.
• You will need to balance strategic leadership with a detailed understanding of the systems, controls and professional standards required to deliver high-quality Board governance and healthcare legal services across two statutory NHS organisations.

About you

To succeed in this role, you will already be operating in a substantive senior corporate governance, company secretariat or comparable leadership position within a large, complex and highly regulated organisation.

You must be able to demonstrate

significant senior-level experience of leading corporate governance or Board secretariat services;

substantial knowledge of NHS governance structures, statutory responsibilities and regulatory requirements;

direct experience of overseeing a legal-services function or supervising legal professionals and complex legal casework;

experience of advising Boards, Executive Directors, Non-Executive Directors and other senior stakeholders;

leadership of multidisciplinary specialist teams at a senior level;

the ability to interpret complex legal, regulatory and governance requirements and translate them into practical organisational arrangements;

experience of leading complex governance programmes, service improvements or strategic initiatives;

excellent judgement, political awareness and the ability to influence confidently where issues are sensitive or contested; and

the ability to produce and present complex, high-quality reports and advice at Board level.

A relevant Master’s degree, or equivalent senior-level experience, together with a corporate governance qualification or demonstrable equivalent expertise, is essential.

A legal qualification, chartered governance qualification and experience of healthcare, coronial or Court of Protection law would be advantageous. However, all applicants must demonstrate credible senior-level experience of providing oversight of legal services and supervising legal professionals.

This role is unlikely to be suitable for candidates whose experience has been limited primarily to committee administration, meeting coordination or governance support without wider strategic leadership responsibility and direct exposure to legal-services oversight.

Working across the Group

As part of our Single Corporate Service, the role operates across Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

A visible leadership presence will be required across both organisations. The successful candidate must therefore be able to work regularly across our sites in Portsmouth and on the Isle of Wight, with a significant proportion of the role undertaken on site. Individual working arrangements will be agreed with the Group Director of Corporate Governance.

This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the leadership, governance and assurance of two major NHS organisations.

Working alongside Board members, Executive Directors and senior leaders, you will help shape governance best practice, strengthen organisational assurance and ensure that the Group has effective, responsive and professionally led corporate secretariat and legal-services functions.

If you are an accomplished, strategic and collaborative senior leader with the confidence and credibility to operate at Board level, and the experience to lead both a complex corporate governance portfolio and a specialist healthcare legal-services function, we would welcome your application.

Along with your CV, please also provide a supporting statement. As part of your supporting statement, please provide clear examples demonstrating:

your personal experience of advising Boards, Executive Directors and Non-Executive Directors on complex corporate governance matters;

a significant governance framework, programme or service improvement that you have led at organisational level;

your experience of overseeing a legal-services function, supervising legal professionals or managing complex healthcare legal matters

For further details, please see enclosed Job Description

Essential

Masters’ degree in relevant subject (or equivalent level).

Corporate governance qualification (or equivalent experience).

Desirable

Qualified practising Solicitor/Barrister/Legal Executive.

Chartered Secretariat qualification.

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience working in a senior role in corporate governance.
• Knowledge and experience associated with NHS specific provisions, structures and social care policies.
• Experience of oversight and supervision of junior lawyers.
• Line management responsibilities at a senior level.
• Team Management.
• Excellent organisational and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Expert in influencing, negotiating and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to analyse and interpret data and information at an advanced level.
• Ability to write complex reports at a senior level, including Board level.
• Strategic skills and experience of application, to support with design and implementation of strategy and strategic initiatives.

Desirable

Expertise in one or more legal disciplines.

Experience in healthcare law, coronial law and court of protection proceedings.

Knowledge

Essential

Extensive knowledge and experience of the application of corporate governance and law in a practical setting.

Desirable

Expert knowledge of systems and processes relating to the management of the Coronial process, litigation and claims management.

Expert awareness and application of Data protection and confidentiality, Human Rights Act, Mental Health Act and Health and Safety Law.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

For more information, please see our People and OD Strategy 2026

Smoke Free Policy

All of our hospitals operate a strict no smoking policy. Smoking cigarettes or tobacco products is not allowed on any of the grounds or in any of the buildings run by us. This applies to patients, staff, carers and visitors to Trust premises.

Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone we care for and, by making sure that our NHS services are smoke-free, we benefit the health of people who use our services as well as the health of the people who work for us.