HR Compliance Advisor

Abacus Care & Support; Letchworth; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Abacus Care & Support in Letchworth seeks an HR Compliance & Audit Lead to own sponsor licence compliance and right-to-work monitoring, ensuring audit-ready HR evidence across services.

You will drive safer recruitment onboarding, maintain personnel file integrity, and support HRIS/Sona data accuracy with regular reporting to the Board. Excellent attention to detail and CIPD Level 5+ are required.

Qualifications

• Experience in a highly regulated care environment.
• Knowledge of sponsor licence processes.
• Experience with audit readiness and documentation.
• Strong attention to detail and process discipline.

Responsibilities

• Own sponsor licence compliance and right-to-work monitoring.
• Lead CQC audit readiness across HR evidence (training, supervisions, appraisals).
• Maintain personnel file compliance and audit readiness across services.
• Oversee safer recruitment onboarding, ensuring references, DBS and checks are complete.
• Ensure HRIS data integrity and rostering compliance.
• Coordinate cyclical regulatory reporting (IFS/STAN+).
• Provide Board with regular compliance status reporting.

Skills

Sponsor licence

Right-to-work

CQC readiness

HRIS Sona

Safer recruitment

Driver records

Regulatory reporting

Attention to detail

Education

CIPD Level 5+

Tools

Sona

Job description

Location: Letchworth, 5 days per week on-site, with travel to services as required

Salary: £30,000-£35,000 with flexibility depending on experience

Role Purpose

Abacus Care & Support provides supported living for adults with learning disabilities, autism, acquired brain injury, complex needs and related conditions, through a team of around 100 care staff working across multiple services. This role owns HR compliance and audit readiness across the organisation, with primary responsibility for right-to-work and sponsor licence compliance, personnel file and supervision-notes compliance, CQC audit readiness, HRIS/Sona data accuracy, safer recruitment onboarding, driver records and cyclical regulatory reporting (including IFS and STAN+ local authority surveys), working closely with Registered Managers to ensure a consistently auditable HR function.

Key Responsibilities

Right to Work & Sponsor Licence Compliance

• Own sponsor licence compliance and act as the organisation's day-to-day contact for Home Office sponsor duties, including right-to-work monitoring, reporting obligations and salary compliance for sponsored staff.
• Monitor and maintain right-to-work documentation for all staff, ensuring records are current, accurate and audit-ready.

CQC Audit & File Compliance

• Lead CQC audit and inspection readiness for all HR-owned evidence: training compliance, supervisions, appraisals and probation reviews.
• Establish a reliable, auditable probation review process and clear any current backlog.
• Monitor and support compliance of supervision completion across all services, ensuring supervision notes are properly recorded, stored and retrievable for audit and inspection purposes.
• Maintain personnel file compliance, ensuring documentation is complete, current and inspection-ready across all services.
• Support the ongoing maintenance of HR policies, ensuring they remain legally compliant and are consistently applied and evidenced.

Safer Recruitment & Onboarding

• Own the handover from Recruitment to onboarding, ensuring every new starter's file evidences compliance with safer recruitment standards (references, DBS, right to work, qualifications and other pre-employment checks) before they begin work.
• Work alongside Talent Acquisition to ensure new starters move smoothly from offer through to a compliant, well-documented induction.

Driver Records

• Ensure all staff driver records, licence checks, insurance and any relevant endorsements are accurate, current and evidenced, with a reliable process for periodic re-checking.

HRIS & Systems Compliance

• Own the HR side of Sona: data integrity, compliance workflows and alerts (expiring certifications, right-to-work documents), and rostering-related HR data.
• Support the accuracy and compliance of the wider HRIS, ensuring employee records are complete, consistent and correctly maintained.

Cyclical & Regulatory Reporting

• Ensure compliance with annual/cyclical local authority requirements such as IFS and STAN+ surveys, coordinating data collection and timely, accurate submission.
• Provide the Board with regular, clear reporting on compliance status and audit readiness.

Person Specification

• Working knowledge of, or demonstrable ability to quickly get on top of, sponsor licence compliance and right-to-work monitoring for visa-sponsored staff.
• Experience operating in an audited, highly regulated, people-intensive environment such as care, health, NHS or a comparable regulated sector, given the volume of CQC and audit-related paperwork.
• Working knowledge of, or demonstrable ability to quickly get on top of, safer recruitment standards and pre-employment vetting requirements.
• Strong attention to detail and process discipline; comfortable owning auditable, evidence-based systems and accurate HRIS/system data.
• CIPD Level 5 or above (or equivalent experience).
• Direct experience using Sona or a comparable care-sector rostering/workforce platform.
• Experience with local authority cyclical reporting requirements (e.g. IFS, STAN+ or equivalent surveys).
• Experience clearing compliance backlogs or building compliance processes from scratch in a function that needs stabilising.

We are committed to an inclusive recruitment process and are happy to make reasonable adjustments at any stage. If you require any support, such as flexible interview timings due to additional needs, or personal commitments, please let our Talent Acquisition team know.

Join Abacus Care & Support and be part of a team that is committed to making a genuine difference, supporting people to live independently, confidently and with purpose.