Head of Governance, Legal and Communications
Closing Date: 01/10/2026
Category
local government
Contract Type
Full Time, Permanent
Salary
£53,460 - £56,687
Location
Hybrid/Isles of Scilly
Role Summary & Benefits
Council of the Isles of Scilly
The Council of the Isles of Scilly is seeking an experienced and highly capable Head of Governance, Legal and Communications to play a pivotal role at the heart of the organisation. The Council is open to combining this role with the statutory role of the monitoring officer for the an appropriately qualified and experienced applicant which would be reflected in an enhanced salary offer.
Reporting to the Chief Executive, this is a senior, front-line leadership role with responsibility for the Council’s governance, legal advice, corporate communications, democratic services, information governance and performance arrangements. You will work closely with Members, the Senior Leadership Team and external partners, providing high-quality advice, constructive challenge and assurance in a politically sensitive and high-profile environment.
This role is critical to ensuring the Council meets its statutory obligations, maintains strong governance arrangements, and delivers effective corporate leadership across a diverse and complex portfolio.
Key responsibilities include:
Providing or commissioning high-quality legal advice across the organisation
Leading corporate governance, democratic services and member support
Overseeing corporate performance, risk management and business continuity
Leading corporate communications, complaints handling and FOI processes
Acting as Senior Information Risk Owner and overseeing information governance
Supporting elections, registration services and constitutional arrangements
Developing and monitoring the Council’s corporate plan and service plans
Managing budgets, contracts and external partnerships
Representing the Council with stakeholders, partners, the media and the community
The role involves significant autonomy, decision-making responsibility and the need to balance competing priorities, often under pressure and within tight statutory timescales.
Monitoring Officer flexibility
The Council recognises the challenges of recruitment in specialist governance and legal roles and is therefore open to combining this post with the Council’s statutory Monitoring Officer function, where an applicant is appropriately qualified and experienced to undertake that role.
Appointment to the Monitoring Officer role is not automatic and will be subject to:
The successful candidate meeting the statutory and professional requirements
A clear assessment of skills, experience and organisational need
Where the Monitoring Officer role is formally assigned, this will attract a separate and appropriate salary uplift, in addition to the substantive Grade 8 salary for the Head of Governance, Legal and Communications role.
Applicants who do not meet the requirements for the Monitoring Officer role are encouraged to apply and will be considered solely for the substantive post at the advertised grade.
About you
You will bring:
A strong legal background with significant local authority governance experience
Proven experience of operating at a senior level in a politically sensitive environment
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Experience of corporate governance, policy development and performance management
The credibility and confidence to advise Members, senior officers and partners
A collaborative leadership style and strong personal integrity
A legal qualification and experience of local government law, elections, registration or democratic services would be advantageous, as would experience of working at senior management level within a complex organisation.
Why join us?
This is a rare opportunity to take on a senior leadership role with real influence, shaping governance, assurance and corporate leadership for a unique island authority. You will work closely with Members and senior leaders, make a tangible difference to how the Council operates, and help safeguard public trust and confidence.
Benefits include
A generous holiday entitlement starting at 27 days pro rata per annum plus bank holidays
Cycle to work scheme
Defined benefit pension scheme
Active Scilly Gym discounts
Retail discounts as part of an employee benefits scheme
Training and development opportunities
For a confidential discussion or more information, please contact Human Resources on humanresources@scilly.gov.uk
To Apply: Please visit https://scilly.gov.uk/jobs/head-governance-legal-and-communications andcomplete an application form by following the link on the right hand side and return to humanresources@scilly.gov.uk
Key Responsibilities
HEAD OF LEGAL
• Strategic Legal Advice: To triage all legal advice requests from the Council and either directly provide legal advice to elected members, the Chief Executive, and senior officers on complex issues across areas like property, litigation, planning, employment, and child protection law or provide a professional brief for external legal support and commission the advice.
• Ensuring the Council complies with statutory requirements and to work with the Chief Executive to ensure timely, governance, internal audit and anti-fraud advice is given to Members and Officers as appropriate.
• Governance & Compliance: Ensure the council complies with statutory duties, regulations, and internal policies.
• Support the Monitoring Officer with the development of policy and procedure to ensure the effective and timely governance of the Authority.
COMMUNICATIONS, COMPLAINTS AND PRESS
• Corporate communications (internal and external)
• Develop, deliver and manage corporate communications, including press, PR, consultation, engagement and digital activity;
• Manage, maintain and develop the Council’s website and social media accounts;
• Manage the Council’s Corporate complaints and Freedom of Information request management
• Dealing with high level casework within a challenging and fluid environment where precedents are limited. To work closely alongside the Council’s Chief Executive and senior leadership team escalating issues/matters of risk, or where no case precedent exists.
• Represent the Council at a high level, including to:
o National and local media
o Members of the community
o Local politicians
o Staff across the local authority
o Senior executives of partner organisations
• Clearly communicate with internal and external stakeholders, including complex or unpopular decisions in accordance with Council communication lines based on credible and defendable rationale.
GOVERNANCE
• Corporate Governance including the provision of a register of all Constitutional documents and Council Policies that is maintained and monitored ensuring all documents are reviewed and kept up to date
• Corporate plan development and monitoring
• Ensure Business continuity is in place across the Council
• Production of high quality, timely briefing and reports for committees, Senior Leadership Team and Councillors, assimilating intelligence and data from a range of sources to produce clear, concise information with clear recommendations where appropriate.
• Ensure committee reports are of a consistent and sufficient standard in relation to accuracy, style, intelligibility and evidence and are referred to appropriate and relevant officers for final sign off
• Ensure consistent and regularly updated departmental service plans are in place and reported annually to members
• Member support including supporting Committee meetings and reporting
• Act as the corporate client for IT services delivered by Cornwall Council under the collaboration agreement
• Assimilating and analysing information/intelligence from a range of sources. This may involve seeking advice from internal/external specialists and the presentation of a reasoned case to the Chief Executive and senior leadership team.
• The post holder will be required to attend committee and meetings as required during normal and outside operating hours.
COUNCIL POLICY
• Provide expert knowledge/intelligence to inform the development of Council level policies and procedures, management briefings and policy development.
• Ensure that the Council has a register of all policies and monitor that register to ensure that all policies are reviewed regularly and kept up to date and relevant
INFORMATION GOVERNANCE
• The post holder will be the Council’s Senior Information Risk Owner.
• Information governance including the maintenance of the authority’s information asset register.
• Support the Data Protection Officer in securing an effective and compliant data management that meets the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act
• Manage submissions to the Information Commissioner’s Office and Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office in collaboration with the Data Protection Officer.
• Ensure the proper handling of subject access requests in consultation with the Data Protection Officer.
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
• Set and reinforce clear standards for managing performance.
• Non-financial performance management & Risk Management
• Ensure that reports and performance information including financial information is presented to Senior Leadership Team.
LEADERSHIP AND DEPARTMENTAL MANAGEMENT
• Lead and Manage the Corporate and Democratic Service, including Registration, Elections.
• Engender effective relationships within the team in order to maximise individual contributions towards the effective delivery of business functions, through the provision of clear directions, mentoring, supporting and motivating staff.
• Monitoring of the budget allocated to the democratic and corporate service area, including the management of external contracts/service level agreements.
• Recommendations and, within agreed delegated authorities, decisions are required which are not bound by formal procedures and may include those relating to project performance and risk management.
• Responsible for decision making on a broad variety of matters, ensuring that in making decisions a range of options are explored and that risks and resource implications are taken full account of. Providing evidence to back up decisions.
• Balancing of competing priorities arising from the delivery of a diverse and sensitive work area. This will include:
o The resolution of project specific issues which enable the service to meet its performance objectives.
o Identifying and mitigating risk at project or portfolio level arising from performance, compliance, finance or capacity.
o Identifying the appropriate mechanism to translate the corporate communication strategy, committee processes, performance management and information governance across the Authority.
o To monitor and handle in the most appropriate manner corporate and other complaints, and to task the Senior Leadership Team, Senior Officers, and other Officers with the resolution of complaints.
• Commissioning support to ensure services and functions are maintained during periods of staff absence or to manage change.
• Work extended hours during periods of high demand, particularly during elections.
• Seeking out creative and practical options to resolve issues, within the regulatory constraints of public service and brokering solutions to cross unit working, to ensure balance of workloads.
This role requires a high degree of autonomy and accountability.
