Position:Advisor Governance

Children’s WorkerNo

Location:National Office

Business Unit:Organisational Planning, Performance and Governance

Group:Insights and Investment

Reporting to:Manager Strategy and Governance

Issue Date:May 2018

Delegated Authority:Nil

Staff Responsibility:Nil

Our Role

The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) is the lead agency for the social sector. We help the Government to set priorities across the sector, co-ordinate the actions of other social sector agencies and track changes in the social wellbeing of New Zealanders.

The Ministry provides policy advice, and delivers social services and assistance to children and young people, working age people, older people, and families, whānau and communities. We work directly with New Zealanders of all ages to improve their social wellbeing.

We serve over a million people, working out of more than 250 centres around the country. It is likely that every New Zealander will come into contact with the Ministry at some point in their life.

Our work, together with our social sector partners, is essential to achieving a sustainable and prosperous future, where all New Zealanders are able to take responsibility for themselves, be successful in their lives and participate in their communities.

Our Purpose

We help New Zealanders to help themselves to be safe, strong and independent.

Ko ta mātou he whakamana tangata kia tū haumaru, kia tū kaha, kia tū motuhake.

Our Principles

MSD people: All own what we all do | Take responsibility for what we do | Understand our role in the big picture, who can help us and who we can help | Navigate through ambiguity and the opportunity it brings to create better ways of doing things | Act with integrity, courage and transparency | Celebrate our achievements and those of our clients

PositionDescriptionApprovedBy:

______
Deputy Chief Executive,Insights and Investment
Date: ……/……/……
Group:
The Insights and Investment group combines the Ministry’s insights and analytics, strategy, strategic insights and investment and actuarial functions. The main role of this group is to help decide and manage our social investment portfolio to deliver the best value for New Zealand. We need to focus on the right things, delivered in the right way. We need to be confident that we are generating results and using learning to make adjustments in what we do.
The Insights and Investment group supports better decisions by driving strong insights and analytics. More specifically it:
  • curates the Ministry’s data, so that MSD and others in the system have relevant, accurate, accessible data
  • produces high value insights and tools to support a range of strategic and operational decisions and focus areas, so that decision-making on strategy, investment, policy, service design and operations is informed by relevant and robust evidence and analysis
  • advises on what mix of interventions is likely to work best for whom and where the priorities lie, so that investments across the system are aligned, targeted and designed in a way that will make the biggest difference
  • leads and advises on the Ministry’s strategies, priorities, investment portfolio and overall performance, so that the Ministry’s work is aligned with its strategy and integrated well across groups
  • analyses and models liability across the Ministry’s services and clients, so that services for clients are effectively targeted to minimise vulnerability and liability.
Business Unit:
Organisational Planning, Performance and Governanceprovides important services to the Chief Executive, the Leadership Team and the Ministers in relation to organisational strategic planning and decision making, governance and budget processes. This includes accountability and planning processes that relate to the Ministry as an organisation, and performance advice and monitoring undertaken on behalf of the Minister. We also provide leadership, facilitate and manage the Ministry’s integrated business planning processes.
Keyfunctionsof the Organisational Planning, Performance and Governancegroup include to:
  • Support the Leadership Team to develop an organisational strategy and play a leadership role in the implementation of the strategy
  • Understand organisational priorities, and support the decision making process to allocate resources aligned with these priorities Provide leadership and manage the development of the Ministry’s main accountability documents and processes
  • Provide leadership, develop and coordinate the Ministry’s performance reporting processes
  • Provide advice on performance measures and outcomes, and monitor and measure organisational performance and impact
  • Provide leadership and manage the Ministry’s Governance framework and build Ministrygovernance capability
  • Carry out monitoring of crown entities and provide advice on appointments that are the responsibility of the Ministry
Our key clients are our Ministers, the Ministry’s Leadership Team, the Ministry’s Governance Committees and the Deputy Chief Executive of Insights and Investment.
The Team
The Strategy and Governance Team manage the operation of the Ministry’s governance arrangements, providing operational support to the Ministry’s Governance Committees and Leadership Team, identifying improvements to the governance system and processes, and making connections between Governance Committees and the Leadership Team to ensure the Ministry’s governance system is effective.
Additionally the Team is responsible for coordinating Ministry entries for corporate awards and recognition.
The team also includes a strategy function to help the Ministry to develop and strengthen its strategic planning processesto ensure the Ministry meets the accountability requirements and Ministerial and Government expectations. We do this by:
  • providing technical and thought leadership and advice to the Leadership Team in the setting of organisational strategy
  • coordinatingand leading the Ministry’s integrated strategy, budgeting and planning cycle, including contributing to the annual Ministerial Budget process
Purpose of the Position:
The Advisor Governance provides advice and support to the Leadership Team and the Manager Strategy and Governance on governance related matters.
The Advisor Governance will support other members of the team to make connections between the Leadership Team and Governance Committees and support the Ministry’s governance system to help achieve organisational outcomes. This includes identifying enhancements to the system as and when appropriate and maintaining oversight of other governance groups across the organisation.
This role will also be responsible for the agenda setting, facilitation, quality assurance, and distribution of papers and will attend meetings to capture decisions made and action points.

Working Relationships

Internal:

  • The Ministry’s Leadership Team
  • Deputy Chief Executives
  • General Managers, GM Advisors and Ministry staff

External:

  • Ministers’ Offices
  • External Committee members
  • External agency managers and staff

Key Accountabilities:

Key Result Area / Accountabilities
Relationship Management /
  • Builds and maintains strong working relationships with relevant teams across the Ministry to enable the provision of governance related advice
  • Builds and maintains strong working relationships with stakeholders to ensure governance processes are followed in order to achieve overall governance capability
  • Contributes to building the strong reputation of the Organisational Planning, Performance and Governance group across the Ministry

Governance /
  • Assists with managing the Ministry’s governance framework to ensure that the Ministry’s governance committees run smoothly
  • Provides secretariat support and pro-active management of allLeadership Team, Risk & Auditand governance committee meetings
  • Supports the Leadership Team’s information flow to ensure they have what they need to make robust strategic and operational decisions to run the Ministry
  • Manages information flow standards and quality of cross-Ministry contributions
  • Supports the organisation of Leadership Team strategy days
  • Sets agendas and provides facilitation, quality assurance and distribution of governance related meetings
  • Attends governance related meetings to capture decisions made and action points

Quality Assurance /
  • Provides a quality assurance support role in respect of papers coming before the Leadership Team, Risk & Audit and the governance committees
  • Implements robust protocols and ensures guidance material is readily accessible to those preparing papers for any of the governance committees and the Leadership Team
  • Reviews papers on behalf of committees to ensure they meet committee requirements and have information for the committees to make informed decisions
  • Works with staff across the Ministry to build capability in the preparation of committee papers and the overall governance process
  • Works with key stakeholders, such as the Chair and committee members to ensure requirements for papers are fully understood and issues for discussion are clearly identified

Continuous Improvement /
  • Assists with improving governance processes and systems within the Ministry
  • Supports evaluations of governance committees to ensure their effectiveness and efficiency

Team Support and Individual Performance /
  • Functions as part of a highly effective team of advisors and planning professionals who have the strategic and professional skills to support the Ministry and lead organisation-wide initiatives
  • Actively manages and plans own work programme
  • Supports and provides input as required to the team and/or business unit plan

Project Management /
  • Supports the Manager Strategy and Governance in their management of key Governance projects
  • Supports the award entries for the Ministry of Social Development
  • Supports the Manager Strategy and Governance with projects as requested

Technical/Professional Knowledge and Experience
  • Tertiary qualification in a relevant discipline or equivalent operational experience is desirable
  • Experience in issue analysis and report writing
  • Knowledge of government processes (ministerial and Cabinet roles, Parliamentary processes, budget and public sector management systems)
  • Project management skills
  • Familiarity with basic computer software and tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Attributes/Success Factors
  • Sound analytical skills – clarity of thinking, defines problems well, gathers all necessary information and produces thorough, objective and methodologically sound advice
  • Excellent communication skills – expresses ideas effectively in all medium especially written and oral. Adapts style to intended audience
  • Good relationship management skills – works effectively with all internal and external stakeholders to accomplish organisational goals
  • Excellent interpersonal skills – uses appropriate style and methods to articulate the Ministry’s position and strategy on issues with accuracy and persuasion
  • Results oriented – is motivated, persistent and delivers, takes actions to achieve goals, anticipates and deals with potential issues
  • Demonstrated commitment to developing and maintaining skills and knowledge
  • Proven credibility, integrity and professionalism – demonstrates these characteristics at all times
  • Strong work ethic – shows conscientiousness, drive and determination in all situations
  • Demonstrates a pragmatic, adaptable, open-minded, reflective and forward thinking style, is committed to learning and extending self and continuously seeks opportunities for different and innovative approaches to work
Other Requirements
  • Willing to travel to fulfil job requirements

Advisor Governance / 1