Interim Senior Governance Specialist (Local Government)

Duration: 3 months initially

Working Pattern: Predominantly remote (occasional on-site attendance, inc. IT kit collection)

Start: ASAP

We're supporting a local authority through a period of significant organisational change and are seeking an experienced Senior Governance Specialist to provide high-level capacity, expertise and stability within the corporate legal and governance function.

Working closely with the Monitoring Officer and senior leadership team, this role will play a critical part in strengthening core governance and democratic services, improving consistency, and embedding evidence-based best practice.

This is a targeted, outcomes-focused interim assignment designed to help the organisation get "into shape" for its next phase of service improvement.

In this senior advisory and delivery-focused role, you will:

• Support the development of modern, best-practice governance models and ways of working.
• Input into consultation materials, job descriptions and alignment of governance budgets.
• Contribute to a corporately agreed funding model for governance-related services.

Provide senior professional input across a wide range of governance functions, including:

• Report clearance processes
• Constitutional review, updates and maintenance
• Corporate governance matters, including work related to devolution
• Responding to internal governance queries and advice requests
• Attending selected officer-level meetings to provide governance oversight and free up senior capacity

Review, correct and improve approaches across:

• Councillor services
• Committee services
• Information governance

Helping bring consistency, robustness and best practice to how these functions operate.

We're looking for someone who brings:

• Significant senior governance experience within a UK local authority
• Strong working knowledge of corporate, constitutional and democratic governance
• Experience shaping, advising on or delivering best practice models in a public sector setting
• Confidence operating at senior officer level, with a pragmatic, solutions-focused approach
• Ability to work independently and at pace within a changing environment

This role is ideal for an experienced governance professional who thrives in transformation settings and can quickly add value.

If you're an experienced local government governance professional and available for an immediate or short-notice interim assignment, please get in touch with Sophie Clarke at Reed (Norwich)