The National Youth Agency is looking for a Programme Governance Lead.
Programme Governance Lead
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full-time - 37 hours per week
Salary: £55,000 - £65,000 per annum (dependent on experience and qualifications)
Location: Home-based in England with occasional travel for meetings, workshops, and team activities. Head Office is in Leicester.
What we do
As the national body for youth work, the NYA has a dual function. We are the professional statutory and regulatory body (PSRB) responsible for qualifications, quality standards, and safeguarding for youth work and services in England. In line with our charity mission and aims, we also champion youth work through research, advocacy, campaigns, and programmes.
We work in partnership and believe in collaborative leadership, listening to youth workers and the youth work sector so that we can understand their needs and respond to the challenges they face. We are ambitious for youth work and for young people and integrate youth voice and influence across our work
About the Role
We are looking for Programme Governance Lead to manage and oversee the successful delivery of all programmes/projects within the Programmes Directorate by establishing and leading consistent governance and assurance. The postholder will strengthen programme governance, reporting and risk management ensuring programmes are delivered by agreed methodologies and in a consistent manner.
Key Responsibilities
As our Programme Governance Lead, you will:
- Define, implement and maintain an agreed methodology for programme/project lifecycle governance.
- Chair programme/project boards and ensuring decisions, and actions are documented and actioned.
- Identify risks, issues and dependencies which are not captured by Programme Portfolio Leads. Ensure consistent risk management across projects and programmes. Proactively identify cross-programme/project risks and issues (including those not visible to project/programme leads), implement mitigations, and escalate risks/issues to the Director of Programmes and COO as required. Assess programme/project risks against the NYA risk register and update the register accordingly.
- Produce and present monthly programme governance reports at the Directorate Programme Board, providing clear portfolio-level insight (milestones, deliverables, RAG status, KPIs, benefits, and financial/resource assumptions) to enable effective senior decision-making and assurance.
- Design and run governance routines (e.g., project start-up, weekly/monthly reviews, decision logs, change control) and support high-quality papers and actions for directorate governance forums; ensure timely escalation of material risks, issues and decisions to the COO.
- Support teams to evidence compliance with funder/contractual requirements; ensure appropriate documentation, approvals and version control are in place and accessible.
- Implement and maintain a robust lessons-learned process (during and post-delivery) and ensure findings are integrated into future programmes/projects through updated standards, templates, training and assurance checkpoints.
Why Work for NYA?
- NYA operates as a people-focused organisation, prioritising the well-being and needs of its employees.
- NYA offers an exceptional flexible working approach which encourages our team to balance professional responsibilities with their personal life.
- A remote based team, spread across England, fostering inclusivity and diverse talent. Despite geographical distances between team members, NYA maintains a highly motivated and connected team through the optimisation of digital tools.
- NYA is committed to supporting the continual personal and professional development of our team and helping them achieve their ambitions.
- We provide 25 days leave plus 8 days, life assurance scheme, 5% employer pension contribution and a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme via Spectrum.life with unlimited specialist support available to all NYA employees.
Closing date: 23:59 Friday 3rd July 2026.
N.B. We would encourage you to apply as soon as possible as we may close the vacancy early if we receive a sufficient number of suitable applications.
Interviews: W/C 13th July OR W/C 20th July
Interested?
If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.
The National Youth Agency is an equal opportunities employer.
At NYA our inclusive culture means that we embrace individual differences and understand that we need a diverse team to achieve our organisations mission.
We wish to recruit candidates from all backgrounds to ensure our team reflects the rich diversity of the communities we serve. We encourage applications from anyone regardless of disability, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, socio-economic background and political beliefs but we particularly welcome applications from global majority candidates and those from other minoritised ethnic groups in the UK as they are currently underrepresented in our team.
Please note: We use AI detector software, so applications or CV’s with high levels of AI generated content may be disregarded. We understand that AI tools can offer support to candidates who have learning differences, which is why we will accept applications with some AI assistance.
No agencies please.
Registered Charity 
21 - 50
Thank you!
Company Description
Marie Curie is the UK’s leading end-of-life charity. We are the largest non-NHS provider of end-of-life care in the UK, the only provider across all 4 nations, delivering community nursing and hospice care across the country, while providing information and support on all aspects of dying, death, and bereavement. Our leading research pushes the boundaries of what we know about good end-of-life, and our campaigns fight for a world where everyone gets to have the best possible quality of life while living with an illness, they’re likely to die from.
Team and role overview
At Marie Curie, our Case for Support team plays a vital role in the delivery of our strategy and supporting fundraising growth, by creating compelling cases for support and innovative propositions for our highest-value campaigns. Working alongside passionate, purpose-driven professionals, you’ll help us maximize impact and create meaningful connections with our supporters.
As a Case for Support Lead, you will be instrumental in developing impactful narratives that resonate with our supporters and drive our mission forward. Your work will provide essential, up-to-date information about our clinical services, research and policy work. This will support all fundraising teams to build accurate and inspiring fundraising campaigns. By identifying funding opportunities and crafting tailored cases for support, you’ll ensure that our high-value fundraising teams continue to achieve transformational impact.
What you will be doing:
- Create compelling case for support narratives about all aspects of Marie Curie’s work, articulating the need, solution, and impact for various audiences.
- Collaborate with service, policy, and research teams to gain a deep understanding of their work and goals, gathering insights to support funding applications and campaigns.
- Work closely with high-value income streams, supporting Trusts & Foundations, Philanthropy and Corporate teams by coordinating with internal stakeholders to develop compelling propositions.
- Provide all fundraising teams with accurate, self-service information, including writing narratives and interpreting data.
- Delivery of online Discovery Sessions with fundraising teams to improve their understanding of our cause.
What we are looking for:
- Proven experience in fundraising, service delivery, cause-led communications, or evaluation work.
- Creative thinker with an independent, autonomous approach to work.
- Strong communication skills to inspire others and positively influence opinions, with the ability to gain respect at all levels and drive practical, meaningful change.
- Skilled at understanding and interpreting complex information and data and articulating it in a compelling way, both in writing and verbally.
- Excellent people skills with a proven ability to integrate quickly into complex organizations.
- Financial literacy with experience in interpreting budget information.
Please see the full job description
Additional Information
Application & Interview Process
- As part of your online application, you will be asked for a CV and supplementary details. Please review both the advert and job description and outline your most relevant skills, experience and knowledge for the role.
- Close date for applications but may close early: 2nd July 2026
- Interviews due to take place 9th and 13th July2026
** Important we encourage you to apply early as we may close the job advert sooner after receiving a sufficient number of suitable applications**.
Salary: £36,900 to £39,900
Contract:Permanent Full-Time 35 hours per week
Based: Remote based within the United Kingdom, occasional travel may be required travel costs covered
Benefits you’ll LOVE:
- Flexible working. We’re happy to discuss flexible working at the interview stage.
- 25 days annual leave (exclusive of Bank Holidays)
- Marie Curie Group Personal Pension Scheme (we will match your contribution up to 7.5%)
- Loan schemes for bikes; computers and season tickets
- Continuous professional development opportunities.
- Industry-leading training programmes
- Wellbeing and Employee Assistance Programmes
- Enhanced bereavement, family friendly and sickness benefits
- Access to Blue Light Card membership
- Subsidised Eye Care
At Marie Curie, our values are central to everything we do. They guide how we care for people, how we work together, and how we make decisions every day. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe for everyone — staff and volunteers alike — supportive, inclusive and rewarding. We take stringent steps to ensure that anyone who joins our organisation are suitable for their roles and are committed to safeguarding all our people from harm. We actively consider our impact on the planet, embedding sustainability into everyday decisions to create a lasting, positive difference for the individuals we care for and the world we share.
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to thrive and fulfil their potential. Marie Curie is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, recognising both the social justice imperative and the strength a diverse workforce brings. We actively encourage applications from people of all cultures, perspectives and lived experiences.
We are happy to make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process. If you require any support, please contact us at .
Every application we receive is personally reviewed by a member of our Talent Acquisition team, and in return, we ask that your application authentically reflects you — your experience, perspective and voice.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.