About the job

Job summary

Housing is a priority area for Welsh Government.

The regulation team carry out the regulation function on behalf of the Welsh Ministers with the main purpose to protect tenants and significant public investment in the housing association sector in Wales. Effective regulation also ensures the sector remains attractive to private investors whose funding supplements grant for the development of new social housing in Wales.  

Job description

Senior Regulation Managers have responsibility for the regulation of a portfolio of Housing Associations in a dynamic and challenging operating environment. They lead a team undertaking regulatory assessments of each association to ensure they are complying with the statutory regulatory standards and are well governed, delivering high quality services to tenants and are financially viable. Senior Regulation Managers also directly manage Registered Social Landlords (RSL) which are higher risk/more complex and/or those where there may be significant regulatory concerns.

The role requires the ability to develop effective working relationships with Boards, Chief Executives and senior staff, maintaining oversight of regulatory performance. This includes assessing governance including culture, behaviour and leadership at board and executive level. It requires the analysis of complex information and the ability to manage difficult conversations in relation to poor performance and improvement expectations either individually, or as part of a team.  

Senior Regulation Managers currently report to the Head of Regulation.

Person specification

What the organisation will expect:

• You will be responsible for managing defined areas of work using your specialist knowledge or experience to exercise sound judgement when interpreting complex or conflicting information weighing up all evidence to produce innovative solutions to problems.
• You will be adaptable, flexible, open to, and accepting of change affecting you and your area of work and deal with that change efficiently and professionally.
• You will show political awareness and an understanding of the political landscape when considering the impact of your decision and work on the wider business area and when formulating proposals for Senior Managers and Ministers. 

What your team will expect:

• You may be required to manage a team setting clear direction on achieving their objectives.
• You will support team members in their work such as complex areas of work; work allocation and prioritisation; performance management; training and development; mentoring and coaching.
• You will value diversity and inclusion, creating an environment where individuals feel safe to challenge, share ideas and express concerns adopting an inclusive leadership style.
• You will be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining systems or processes ensuring excellence or value for money. 

What key stakeholders will expect:

• You will take the lead in creating, building and maintaining constructive relationships at all levels.
• You will be able to tailor and adapt your communication style (written and oral) to advise, guide, influence and persuade internal and external stakeholders as appropriate.

Main Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the Head of Regulation, Regulation Managers and Senior Financial Analysts to regulate the performance of Housing Associations against the Welsh Government’s Regulatory Standards and Framework.
• Lead on the assessment of regulatory performance of a portfolio of housing associations against the Welsh Government’s regulatory standards and regulatory framework and the resulting regulatory judgement which provides assurance on regulatory performance (governance, tenant services and financial viability) to Ministers, tenants, funders, internal colleagues and other stakeholders.
• Directly manage a portfolio of RSLs which are higher risk/more complex and/or those where there may be significant regulatory concerns and support the Head of Regulation in analysing options on appropriate regulatory responses including undertaking risk analysis of the impacts of case management strategies on funding/funders.
• Undertake, in liaison with Senior Financial Analysts, reviews of the financial viability and resilience of RSLs in Wales through the analysis of management accounts, business plans and treasury arrangements.
• To establish and deliver an annual plan setting out the Regulatory Judgement programme to reflect a dynamic and changing external operating environment.
• Working with regulation managers, develop and maintain constructive, co regulatory working relationships with the portfolio of Housing Associations tailored to the individual organisations to ensure the required level of regulatory oversight is in place proportional to the risks presented. Regulatory Oversight frequently requires attendance at Board meetings and other events which are out of normal working hours.
• Liaise with sector stakeholders including tenant representative organisations and funders and to professionally represent the Housing Regulation Team and the Welsh Government to the social housing sector and its key partners.
• Working with colleagues, respond to relevant requests for Ministerial Briefings, correspondence and diary cases etc.
• Lead and line manage Management Band 2 (Band D) officers responsible for Regulation Team activity, ensuring they are supported and able to access training and development opportunities.
• Lead the quality assurance process to approve provisional judgements for each Housing Association in the team’s portfolio.
• Develop funding and commercial knowledge to maximise the financial understanding of the team to ensure an effective risk based approach to regulation.
• To contribute to reviews, research, policy development and independent assurance activities in conjunction with the strategy and policy team to improve the regulatory function in Wales.
• The role involves working at other organisations offices and out of normal office working hours, including evenings, will be required from time to time.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

• A presentation on Making effective decisions will be required at stage 2.  More information will be provided in the invitations to that stage

Number of Stages:	2 stage process
Stage 1	Application Form
Stage 2	Interview

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.