Canterbury Oast Trust · Woodchurch / Hybrid · Part-time (15 hours per week)

A flexible part-time Quality Assurance Manager role with a purpose-driven charity.

This is an opportunity to join COT, an ambitious charity supporting adults with learning disabilities, as a Quality Assurance Manager. You’ll lead and further develop our quality, compliance and governance framework across a diverse portfolio of CQC-regulated services and our public-facing Rare Breeds Centre. This is an opportunity to use your experience in quality and regulation to make a broad impact in a values-led organisation.

Reporting to the CEO, you will act as the internal lead for quality assurance, designing and delivering an audit and monitoring programme that provides assurance to senior leaders and the Board that services are safe, effective and person-centred. You will extend our established CQC quality framework into new areas such as HR, the farm and other central functions, agreeing clear standards with leaders and undertaking sample testing and thematic audits (for example, right-to-work checks, training compliance and record-keeping).

You will turn evidence into action by analysing findings, identifying themes and risks, and working with colleagues to implement practical improvement plans and track progress. Alongside this, you will oversee policy governance to ensure COT has an up-to-date, coherent and well-controlled set of policies and procedures, coordinating review cycles, liaising with policy owners and ensuring robust document control from approval to publication.

This is a part-time role (15 hours per week) with genuine flexibility about how your time is organised across the month, provided key audits, reports and deadlines are delivered. It is well suited to an experienced quality or compliance professional from a CQC-regulated setting who is looking to broaden into wider organisational assurance, policy governance and data protection while maintaining a balanced working pattern.

Key responsibilities

• Leading COT’s quality assurance and compliance framework across Residential, Supported Living, Life Skills, the Rare Breeds Centre and central functions.
• Designing and delivering a risk-based internal audit programme, including scoped audits, sample testing and thematic reviews, with high-quality written reports and improvement plans.
• Monitoring compliance with CQC fundamental standards, health and safety, safeguarding and internal policies, escalating significant risks and contributing to “no surprises” external inspections.
• Tracking and reporting key quality indicators (such as audit outcomes, incidents and feedback) and presenting clear dashboards and narrative for senior stakeholders and Board committees.
• Overseeing policy governance, including scheduling and coordination with policy owners of policy reviews, and document control.
• Act as Data Protection Lead (DPO) – training will be provided if you don’t have previous experience in this area
• Supporting the production of the annual report and other key organisational reports, gathering input from Directors and Area Leads and shaping quality and compliance content.
• Championing continuous improvement, including exploring and adopting new tools (such as AI-enabled automation) that make assurance activities more efficient and insightful.

About you

• Experienced in quality assurance and/or compliance in a health, social care or charity environment, with a strong understanding of CQC expectations and quality standards.
• Skilled in planning and conducting audits, analysing findings and turning them into clear, pragmatic improvement plans with measurable outcomes.
• Confident communicator with excellent written reporting skills, able to present complex information clearly to busy senior leaders and Board members.
• Highly organised and systematic, able to manage a forward programme of audits, policy reviews and reporting deadlines across multiple services and sites.
• Collaborative and influential, with the interpersonal skills to secure input and follow-through from colleagues while maintaining constructive relationships.
• Comfortable using digital tools for audit, reporting and data analysis, and open to learning and adopting new technologies.
• Holds a full driving licence and has access to a car, with the ability to travel to sites across East Kent including Woodchurch, Ashford and New Romney.

Why Join Us?

COT is built on acceptance, respect, and inclusion—where everyone feels that they belong and can make a meaningful contribution. We believe in creating a supportive, high-performance culture that empowers both our teams and the people we support.

We’d be delighted if you tick off all our boxes, but we also believe it’s just as important we tick all of yours. If you think you have most of what we’re looking for but not everything, go ahead and apply. We’d still love to hear from you!

Canterbury Oast Trust is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.