Head of Governance and Performance (SCS PB1)

Job summary

Why this role matters

The Home Office is one of the largest and most complex departments in government, responsible for delivering priorities including border security, migration, policing and homeland security. The Department's work directly affects the safety, security and prosperity of the United Kingdom.

Against this backdrop, this is a high-profile senior leadership role working at the heart the Department, with a view across the full breadth of the Home Office's work. The postholder will play a central role in ensuring that Ministers, the Permanent Secretary and Directors General have the insight, assurance, and governance needed to make informed decisions, manage risk, and maintain grip on performance and delivery across the Home Office's agenda.

The successful candidate will lead a multidisciplinary team, build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, including Ministers, Exco and Non-Executive Directors.

The role requires excellent judgement, resilience, political awareness and the confidence to operate across a complex organisational landscape, with the opportunity to shape how the Department assesses performance, responds to risk, and strengthens governance at the highest levels.

Job description

Key Accountabilities:

• Leading a team of c.15-20 (covering governance, planning, corporate reporting & analysis), fostering a high-performing and supportive culture. Alongside this, act as a core member of the Performance, Risk, Assurance & Governance directorate’s senior leadership team.
• Lead the Home Office Performance System, which consists of monthly performance stocktakes between the Permanent Secretary and Director Generals, and regular reporting to Executive Committee, Departmental Board and Ministers.
• Lead projects to deliver insight across Home Office performance, risk, compliance and value for money position to support senior decision-making.
• Continuously improve the cross departmental performance system, including through application of digital technology.
• Provide excellent support to the Department’s Non-Executive Directors (NEDs), including recruitment, induction and ongoing engagement.
• Lead the operation of the Department’s core governance forums, including:
• Ensuring the Departmental Board, chaired by the Home Secretary, functions effectively.
• Supporting the Executive Committee, chaired by the Permanent Secretary, to be an effective forum for collective leadership and decision-making.
• Supporting the Audit, Risk, and Assurance Committee to provide oversight and assurance across the department.
• Overseeing the effective operation of Investment and People Committees.
• Lead key audit reviews of performance and governance arrangements across the department.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate:

• Leadership - Proven senior leadership experience, including the ability to set a clear direction, lead through others and build the capability, confidence and resilience of a multidisciplinary team.
• Strong judgement and decision-making - with the ability to operate confidently in a complex, high-profile and politically sensitive environment.
• Influencing skills - Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building skills, with the authority, credibility and emotional intelligence to engage effectively with very senior stakeholders, including Ministers, the Permanent Secretary, Director Generals, Non-Executive Directors and external partners.
• Delivery - Strong record of leading delivery projects across organisational boundaries for senior stakeholders in a complex political environment.
• Analytical skills - Excellent analytical capability and confidence working with specialist disciplines, including performance, finance, risk, compliance, audit and assurance.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of audit and assurance work, and management of senior governance forums.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Home Office contributes

£24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online by 23:55hrs on 16th September 2026.

You will be asked to provide:

• A CV – (2 pages max) setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role. Please provide reasons for any gaps within the last two years.​​
• A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) providing examples of how your experience meets the essential criteria.​​ This is your opportunity to give examples and show how your skills and experience fit the job requirements.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

• This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration
• is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them
• to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through

building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above.

This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions.

• Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and
• conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your
• personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any
• absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you

to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) .

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the

Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window)

and the

Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available.

You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : SCSRecruitment@homeoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : SCSRecruitment@homeoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint you should contact SCSRecruitment@homeoffice.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Home Office you can contact the

Civil Service Commission.

Complaints should be sent in writing to:

Civil Service Commission, Room G8, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.

• Attachments
• Head of Governance and Performance - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1987kB)
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