This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in supporting County FAs to achieve and maintain high standards of governance. You'll lead the implementation and ongoing development of The FA's Code of Governance for County FAs, working collaboratively with County FAs, Sport England and other stakeholders to assess compliance, provide practical support and help organisations continually improve.
You'll also help evolve governance standards across the wider grassroots game, developing resources, training and new approaches that support strong, inclusive and effective organisations, including emerging standards such as the League Code of Governance and the ‘A Game for All' Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Standard.
This role will be contractually Wembley based, with the expectation to be on site two days a week at Wembley, usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when not travelling to meet County FA colleagues.
Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete a video interview and will be notified at the end of November. In person interviews will be held at Wembley Stadium on the 16th December, with a final stage held on line on the 18th December.
What will you be doing?
Establish, execute and manage implementation of The FA's Code of Governance for County FAs (Code) compliance framework and support the County FA network to achieve and maintain Code compliance:
- Assess County FAs to ensure compliance with version 3.0 of the Code by 30th June 2028 and beyond in line with requirements.
- Support County FAs to ensure full compliance with version 3.0 of the Code by 30th June 2028 and continued compliance beyond.
- Introduce and manage a robust “ongoing compliance” mechanism to ensure that once County FAs become compliant, they remain compliant, and that risks are identified and reported back to ensure proactive action can be undertaken.
- Provide diligent, forensic, robust inspection of evidence and, in doing so, ensure that full compliance with all requirements is met prior to sign off.
- Ensure County FAs are robustly challenged in the sign off process to ensure there are no grey areas and that compromises are not made, unless on an exceptional basis and agreed with the Head of Operations.
- Ensure a simple, efficient process and system is in place to gather evidence, test that evidence, and that maintains that evidence as updated and current.
- Protect the County FA network from “paper compliance” – where compliance appears achieved on paper but the requirements are not being met in practice.
- Demonstrate impact of the Code.
- Develop and implement an ongoing programme of training and education for County FA colleagues.
- Report monthly on Code adoption progress, including Board diversity measures.
- Meet with Boards, Chairs and Executive County FA staff as required to provide clarity on requirements and to support adoption and maintenance of the Code.
- Seek opportunities to help County FAs achieve greater diversity on Boards and in their Executive teams.
- Establish and maintain a County FA Code of Governance risk register.
Contribute to the evolution of the Code:
- Contribute to the evolution of the Code to ensure it continues to act as a gold standard for Sport in England, working with Sport England to ensure it remains a proxy for Tier 3 of their Code for Sports Governance.
- Maintain relationships and communications with the Sport England Governance team to ensure proxy status is retained and protected.
- To be an advocate of the Code with Sport England and other external bodies.
Ensure resources, assets, training evolved to support the Code:
- Source internal and external funding and create and execute a Governance training & education programme for County FAs.
- Develop and signpost high quality assets to help County FAs meet the requirement and to achieve best practice.
- Continually review these assets to ensure they are cutting edge and an exemplar for other sports.
- Provide regular Governance surgeries to the network.
- Deliver Governance Conference's where required.
Lead on the cascading of Code of Governance standards within grassroots football:
- Promote the Code internally and externally so that its potential and its impact are understood and to build governance advocacy.
- Lead on assessing the pilot League Code of Governance programme.
- Evolve the League Code to become a key initiative to drive robust Governance in Leagues.
- Establish a training and education Governance programme for leagues.
- Seek opportunities to adapt the Code for application by grassroots clubs.
Support the development of new Operating Standards and associated compliance processes:
- Support the development of other County FA Operating Standards that assist County FAs to comply with the Code including the ‘A Game for All' Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Standard and to be developed Customer Service Standard.
- Support and, where appropriate, lead on the development and implementation of compliance framework(s) that enable County FAs to meet the requirements of other Operating Standards.
- Execute additional tasks as required to meet the FA's changing priorities.
- Comply with all company policies and procedures to ensure that the highest standards of health, safety, and well-being can be maintained.
- As part of the FA's commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
What are we looking for?
Essential for the role:
- Experience of Sports Development.
- Experience of working with Boards of Directors.
- Applied knowledge of sports governance and Companies Act.
- Applied knowledge of project management and planning.
- Ability to work flexibly and sometimes unsociable hours.
- Diplomacy and the ability to deal appropriately with confidential information.
Beneficial to have:
- Knowledge of the structure and organisations within football.
- Experience in a legal role.
- IT skills including word processing, database work and PowerPoint presentations.
What's in it for you?
We are committed to ensuring everyone can flourish in their roles. To achieve this, we have unique office spaces under the arch of the iconic Wembley National Stadium, which is the home of English Football. We are also delighted to offer a world-class, Elite Performance Centre, St. George's Park in Staffordshire, which is an exceptional setting to develop and inspire high-performing England teams and leaders.
We pride ourselves on offering a competitive salary as well as great opportunities to develop and grow in your role. But that is not all; we also have a range of exciting benefits, some of which can be found below:
- Access to event day tickets at Wembley Stadium, alongside a host of regular internal events throughout the season, encourages you to connect and learn with your colleagues and look after your mental health and well-being.
- Free, nutritious lunches at Wembley Stadium and St. George's Park.
- Private medical cover funded by The FA.
- A contributory pension scheme.
- An additional 'Thank You' day's leave, volunteering days, as well as 25 days of annual leave (based on a full-time, permanent contract)
- A hybrid working model which offers greater flexibility.
For more information on what it is like to work at The FA, please visit our FA Careers page, https://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/careers
Currently, we are working within a hybrid working model whereby the expectation is to work from your contractual location for part of the week, and as and when required by the team. The remaining days can be worked remotely. We will continue to monitor this model, and it may be adjusted in future if deemed necessary. The contractual location of this role can be found on the FA Careers page.
We are a diverse workplace, aspiring to represent football across the country. The Football Association actively promotes inclusion and diversity, encouraging you to be the best version of yourself at work.
We welcome applications from everyone and are proud to be an equal opportunities employer. If you have any particular requirements in respect of the recruitment or interview process, please mention this during your application.
As part of the FA's commitment to ensuring a safe environment for everyone in football, every employee will be required to complete a DBS check. The level of the check required will be based on the activity of the specific job role and in line with legislation and government guidance.
