Somerset House
Governance Manager
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Application Deadline: 27 September 2026
Department: Executive
Location: London
Compensation: £41,000 - £45,000 / year
Description
We are looking for someone to join our fantastic team at Somerset House Trust. As the home of cultural innovators, the Trust connects creativity and the arts with the broader society.
This role will ensure the organisation runs smoothly by supporting the Chief Operating Officer, who is also the Company Secretary. The post holder will support the Trust in running boards, compliance and governance processes. They will also be responsible for ensuring that projects and other commitments are delivered on time and in full.
Somerset House pursues a ‘Step Inside, Think Outside’ spirit and is born from the creative community we nurture - the experience and perspectives we host across background, age, race, and stage, and the intersections and crossovers we encourage.
What we are looking for:
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Shape and manage the end-to-end board/committee preparation and follow-up process
- Schedule all board and committee meetings at least 1 year in advance (this currently includes a Board of Trustees and its two sub-committees)
- Manage the board meeting runway – maintain forward agenda plans, develop agendas, manage review and preparation meetings, manage pipeline for all papers ensuring sufficient time for review and editing
- Ensure meetings run smoothly for all attendees – hosting, facilities, equipment etc
- Minute meetings, issuing drafts to Chairs within 1 week
- Maintain the actions log and ensure delivery on track between meetings
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Proactively lead in progressing projects and continuous improvement in governance
- Ensure board and committee terms of reference and delegation frameworks are up to date
- Identify and act on opportunities to improve board and governance effectiveness, running periodic reviews
- Deliver agreed improvement projects, working with external advisors where necessary
- Prepare board papers on governance matters
- Manage the risk register process, ensuring registers up to date and that actions are being delivered
- Manage the policy register, ensuring necessary policies in place and reviewed to schedule
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Anticipate and provide Trustee administration and support needs
- Manage Trustee administration and processes for appointments and terms ending
- Ensure all new Trustees are appropriately inducted
- Ensure Trustee training is up to date and maintain awareness of changes in compliance regime
- Administer all statutory submissions to Companies House and Charities Commission
- Maintain filing of all papers – including library of core documents (primary admin for Board Effect software)
- Support board and committee chairs or working groups to deliver projects or other work as required
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Where the role allows, work with the COO team to improve efficiency and effectiveness across the Trust
- Progress work or projects on behalf of the COO
- Support with standardising progress reporting
- Support with insurance claims, largely overseen by the Finance Director & COO
For a full list of the job responsibilities, please see the job pack.
Skills, knowledge & expertise required for the role:
- Professional governance and / or Company Secretarial experience, with knowledge and practical understanding of Company Law, Charity Law, and effective governance processes
- Managing the runway for board meetings to ensure desired outcomes achieved
- Leading on governance reviews and projects (with support from external experts as required)
- Preparing accurate and meaningful minutes with clear actions and minimal changes to drafts
- Ideally previous experience as an EA and / or in managing insurance
- Proactive and extremely organised – ability to plan ahead and take initiative to progress work and meet deadlines
- Effective & efficient communicator – plans and progress clearly communicated face to face and in writing, comfortable dealing with busy Trustees
- Experience in Microsoft Excel, Word and Powerpoint – able to produce and edit complex files and board packs to a high standard, with attention to detail
- Effective collaborator – team player who can work well and communicate with people across the organisation
- Can see the bigger picture and make join-ups across organisation to feed into work planning
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Benefits to working at Somerset House
Mental Health & Wellbeing
- Access to our external Employee Assistance Programme (CiC) for free 24/7 confidential advice and support, including up to 6 free counselling sessions per year where needed
- Mental health support and guidance from our in-house trained Mental Health First Aiders
- Hybrid working based on having 3 days in the office per week (pro rata if part-time)
- Contribution towards eye tests and glasses
- Trust life insurance scheme
Holiday
- Enhanced annual leave – 25 days plus bank holidays (pro rata)
- Birthday leave - additional day leave
- Celebration day - to celebrate anything of your choice
Other Leave
- Sick leave – 20 days full pay, followed by 20 days half pay (pro rata & following 3 months service)
- Emergency dependent care – option to use 25% of paid sick leave for emergency care of a dependent (pro rata & following 3 months service)
- Enhanced maternity pay
Pension
- 8% employer pension contributions, no employee contribution required*
- Option for salary sacrifice
- Interest-free loans
- Season ticket loan
- Cycle to Work scheme
Discounts, offers and free stuff
- The list is endless and includes tickets to Somerset House events and entrance to other London Heritage sites
- Discounts in Somerset House cafes and restaurants
- Discounts with various high street retailers and restaurants
- Discount to local leisure centres
*following 3 months employment
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