Assurance and Standards Manager - Portfolio Office

Care Quality Commission; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 39,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

A public health regulator is seeking an Assurance and Standards Manager to ensure the effective delivery of projects that enhance community care. This role involves working with diverse teams to ensure compliance with best practices and drive continuous improvement. You will also provide coaching and support, leveraging your strategic project experience. Competitive salary and benefits offered, including a homeworking allowance.

Benefits

Annual leave starting at 27 days

Training and development opportunities

Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts

NHS pension scheme

Qualifications

• Experience of delivering complex strategic projects and/or programmes.
• Good knowledge of a range of programme/project methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Assure the achievability of projects.
• Provide coaching for project managers.
• Ensure project delivery standards are met.

Skills

Delivering complex strategic projects

Assuring complex projects

Programme/project methodologies

Job description

Grade B - £39,784 (National) or £45,456 (London - for London office based or home-based workers within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £581 per annum for those working from home. Please note for part time roles – this will be pro rata

Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week. Talk to us about compressed hours, however we do require a minimum of 32 hours per week.

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Home-based with some travel required.

Closing date: Wednesday 19 November 2025 at 11.59pm

Make a difference

Everyrole at CQC contributes to our mission, ifyou’re looking for a new role in Performance and Delivery that gives a true sense of meaning and purpose thenyou’ve found it! In this role you'll make a difference - everything you do will contribute to ensuring that people in the community receive safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care.

Picture this

In the last year as an Assurance and Standards Manager, you might have:

• Conducted work to assure the achievability of projects to meet their objectives and benefits.
• Ensured the right project and programme delivery standards are set out for delivery teams.
• Provided coaching for our project managers.
• Reviewed trends in lessons learned and used those to drive continuous improvement actions.

The role

You’ll be key in helping us deliver our work. In this role, you’ll:

• Join a small, high performing team of change professionals, working across the organisation to drive priorities and standards of programme and project delivery.
• Work closely with a professional community across the organisation delivering all types of change in a recently transformed digital service-based environment.
• Provide the assurance and independent assessment of projects and programmes within the portfolio to ensure that they are on track to meet the objectives and benefits.
• Ensure that our standards and working practices are fit for purpose, aligned with industry best practice, and evolve as the needs of the organisation evolve.

Show us

We’ll be looking for the following skills, knowledge and experience in your application form:

• Experience of delivering complex strategic projects and/or programmes that contain a significant element of business change and digital transformation.
• Experience of assuring complex projects and programmes, in line with Government and industry guidelines and best practice.
• Good knowledge of a wide range of programme/project methodologies and demonstrable experience of applying them appropriately in different contexts (e.g., PRINCE 2, AGILE).

Compliance

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Your application will be completely anonymous. Please see information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether or not you are shortlisted.

You can read the full details of the role in Job Description. If you’d like an informal chat about the role contact – Ian Hampshire, Portfolio Assurance Lead; [e-mail]. For general enquiries, please email [e-mail].

The Benefits

We offer a wide range of benefits, including:

• Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Training and development opportunities.
• Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
• NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
• Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see benefits page for the full list.

Equity for all

We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.

We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact [e-mail]. Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See ED&I page for more about this. We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:

• Age
• Sex
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Religion or belief
• Ethnicity
• Disability

Values and vision

We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.

Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.

Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.

Integrity – doing the right thing.

Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.

We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.

A Note on AI

AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:

• AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
• Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
• Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
• Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.