Knowledge and Information Management Officer

Office for Students; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 44,000 - 46,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to enhancing higher education for all students. As a Knowledge and Information Management Officer, you'll play a crucial role in ensuring compliance with information governance and data protection laws. This position offers a unique opportunity to work collaboratively within a supportive team, contributing to the development of policies and procedures that improve knowledge management across the organization. With a commitment to professional development and flexible working arrangements, this role is perfect for those looking to make a meaningful impact in the public sector.

Benefits

Civil Service pension scheme

25 days annual leave plus public holidays

Comprehensive learning and development opportunities

Flexible working arrangements

Qualifications

• Experience in a KIM or information rights role is essential.
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence outcomes.
• Ability to manage workload effectively amidst competing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Support the OfS in information governance and management.
• Ensure compliance with data protection and information rights legislation.
• Develop training material for knowledge management techniques.

Skills

Information Governance

Data Protection

Communication Skills

Knowledge Management

Organizational Skills

Education

Practitioner’s Certificate in Information Management

Tools

SharePoint

Job description

Knowledge and Information Management Officer

Bristol

£4 4,102 – £45,231 Plus generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England – we regulate higher education on behalf of all students. Our mission is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

The Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) Team supports the OfS in complying with information law obligations under the F reedom of I nformation Act 2000 , Environmental Information Regulations 2004, Public Records Act 1958, the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018. This is an exciting time to join our supportive and collaborative team in a role where you can make a positive impact to improve KIM for colleagues across the organisation.

About the role:

Working within the Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) team, the post holder will:

• contribute to ensuring that the Office for Students (OfS) has robust information governance and management, policies and supporting procedures in place.

• work with the team to ensure the management of information is in accordance with legislation and internal policies.

• work on the improvement of the management of knowledge across the organisation, and help ensure the OfS complies with Information Rights and Data Protection legislation.

Key areas of responsibility

Delivery of the work of the KIM team

• Ensuring the Head of Knowledge and Information Management ’s work on the information management and governance programme is supported.

• Delivering activities underpinning the Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) strategy, including Freedom of Information, Data Protection, and Records Management.

• Supporting the delivery of the OfS’s functions and strategy and the outcomes and objectives in the OfS’s business plan.

• Contributing to the development and roll-out of organisation wide KIM training.

• Providing the team with a flexible resource across all knowledge and information management functions, and able to pick up issues and casework and work at pace.

• Working closely with colleagues to align knowledge and information management policies and processes with ongoing developments across the organisation.

• Developing resources to raise awareness of knowledge management techniques, to enable business areas to implement methods for knowledge sharing.

• Delivery of objectives in a way which models the OfS’s values and behaviours.

Delivery of information rights compliance

Working with colleagues, ensure all information access requests are managed and responded to in accordance with legislation and internal policies and procedures, including proactively:

• Liaising with colleagues in other areas of the organisation to perform relevant searches to identify information held.

• Advising on options for response, including consideration of exemptions, prejudice and public interest arguments.

• Drafting responses and obtaining approval from the appropriate decision maker.

• Ensuring that responses are sent within legislative deadlines.

• Saving all relevant documentation within request case files and updating case monitoring logs.

• Working in partnership with colleagues across the OfS, to ensure that the OfS’s publication scheme is reviewed and updated.

• Providing advice and guidance to staff on information rights, issues, risks, legislative, regulatory matters and latest developments in the field.

Delivery of information governance activities

Working on the response to information security incidents and personal data breaches, this will involve:

• Ensuring that opportunities for lessons learned are identified .

• Mitigating actions to reduce the likelihood of reoccurrence are agreed with business areas and recorded.

• For personal breaches, liaising with the DP, business area and decision maker to make recommendations.

• Saving all relevant documentation within request case files and updating case monitoring logs.

• Advising colleagues of the compliance level required and the steps in this process.

• Feeding into production of management and reporting data.

• Providing advice and guidance to staff on information security issues, risks, legislative requirements, and latest developments in the field.

Delivery of core data protection activities

Supporting the organisation’s DPO, contribute to the management of personal data, data protection impact assessments, data access requests and the rights of data subjects in accordance with legislative requirements. This will involve:

• Providing advice to Information Asset Owners and other business leads on data protection compliance issues, including explaining legislative requirements in a clear and understandable manner for example, privacy notices or DPIAs.

• Monitoring and managing the data protection inbox.

• Identifying risks and agreeing mitigations with the business.

• Sharing good practice, lessons learned and risks with the KIM Team including identifying improved ways of working.

• Ensuring the implementation and monitoring of privacy by design and default is supported.

• Being responsible for the ongoing maintenance of the organisation’s ROPA and Information Asset Register, including updating of assets and processing activities where needed.

• Developing training material to raise awareness of good practice within data protection.

Continuing professional development

Undertakes continuing professional development in information governance and records management, and other relevant legislation.

About you

The successful candidate will have the following key skills:

Essential

• Experience of working within a KIM or information rights role and / or suitably qualified e.g. Practitioner’s Certificate.

• Ability to manage workload effectively when facing competing priorities.

• Strong communication skills, including ability to influence outcomes and communicate specialist knowledge clearly to non-specialists.

• Ability to reach reliable judgements on the basis of complex and sometimes imperfect information.

• Experience creating new and imaginative approaches to work-related issues, considering lessons learned.

Desirable

• Experience of managing information within a SharePoint environment.

• Awareness and understanding of the connections between various legislation and the implications for information governance within the OfS.

• Demonstrable understanding of how information rights and information management should operate in the context of the public sector.

Application process

The OfS currently uses a set of ‘enablers’ to evaluate candidate strengths. This is your opportunity to expand on what you have achieved in your career by describing what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. It is here you should use detailed examples to explain how you meet all the requirements of the job description.

We are looking for how you made your own contribution to a scenario, why you made that contribution and what was the outcome. Assertions without evidence will, in contrast, make it difficult to evaluate your skills and how you apply them.

The enablers for this role are:

Knowledge and Learning

• Ability to proactively and independently gain knowledge of areas that the Knowledge Management and Information Governance team has direct responsibility / oversight including information rights, data protection and intellectual property.

• Ability to assimilate a variety of information sources and explain these to non-specialists.

• Able to work comfortably with high levels of complexity and elements of ambiguity, including the ability to deal with technical issues.

• Able to demonstrate precision and attention to detail.

Planning

• Excellent organisational skills including the ability to proactively manage own workload, resolve competing demands, support colleagues working on the details and cope with changing priorities in a flexible and proactive way.

• Ability to analyse issues and break them down into their component parts. Make systematic and rational judgements based on relevant information and evidence.

• Ability to plan and oversee the organisation, scheduling and evaluation of policies, processes, procedures and regular monitoring.

• Successfully adapt to changing demands and conditions.

Communications

• Able to write succinctly and logically, analysing complex information and arguments in a way which is readily and quickly understood using appropriate grammar , style and language, ensuring written communications (in a variety of forms) meet readers’ needs.

• Good presentation and facilitation skills, including the ability to vary style to suit a wide range of audiences.

• Ability to negotiate optimum outcomes and secure understanding with a variety of colleagues.

Relationships

• Interact with others in a sensitive and effective way.

• Maintain effective work behaviour in the face of setbacks or pressure.

• A confident, assertive and co-operative style with an ability to deal effectively with people at all levels.

• Able to build positive working relationships with colleagues recognising the diversity of others.

Working for us

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two days in a typical week.

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part time working, apply to this role.

In addition, our Total Reward Framework offers a range of benefits to suit your way of life. These include comprehensive learning and development, annual leave starting at 25 days’ per year (plus public holidays), access to the highly regarded Civil Service pension scheme and a variety of health benefits.

Closing date for applications: 09:00 Monday 19 May

Interviews: Thursday 29 May