Quality Manager

**The organisation**:
The Uniting Church in Australia (the Church) is a large uniquely Australian Christian denomination in Australia with heritage from historical reformed evangelical denominations. In Queensland, the Uniting Church has around 250 congregations and has early childhood, schools, colleges and large community services (such as UnitingCare Queensland and Wesley Mission Queensland).

The Uniting Church is multicultural, committed to reconciliation with First Peoples, calls for reconciliation across its communities and aims to use its people and property resources wisely and in the furtherance of God’s mission in the world.

**Position purpose**:
The purpose of this role is to drive strategic initiatives to advance quality, compliance, and regulatory adherence across all UEL services. This role is pivotal in ensuring that all service types adhere to the National Quality Framework through the strategic development, implementation, and ongoing refinement of policies, controls, and processes.

**Key responsibilities**:

- Lead the development and implementation of compliance frameworks for Uniting Early Learning (Childcare, FDC, OSHC, In-Home Care) that align and support organisational strategy.
- Liaise with the Department of Education (Childcare, FDC and OSHC) and In-Home Care Agency as an Authorised Officer, on behalf of the Approved Provider (The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.)) in relation to notification and complaints under the NQF.
- Work in partnership with the UEL management team to support and advise on compliance requirements before, during and after Assessment and Rating visits.
- Oversee compliance and quality initiatives across the UEL portfolio to support future mergers/acquisitions, ensuring these are in line with regulatory, quality and compliance requirements.
- Work in partnership with the Corporate Governance Manager and Synod Property Officer to support the notifications to the Department regarding changes to information about the approved provider.
- Oversee the development and maintenance of policies required under the Regulations and other UEL operational policies, ensuring the Synod wide Policy Framework (A/1.1) is applied to the approval and review of policies, and implementing a process for identifying improvements/regular review.
- Analyse business processes and operations for compliance alignment and operational efficiency against regulatory and other frameworks, implementing strategic improvements.
- Establish effective and efficient processes for receiving and responding to complaints and work with respective internal teams to ensure enquiries, complaints and breaches are closed out appropriately and corrective actions and improvement plans are implemented.
- Direct the creation and management of compliance registers and audit schedules to ensure all areas meet compliance standards, and compliance obligation owners and business units are able to identify obligations and appropriate controls.
- Prepare compliance reports to a standard that could be submitted to the Department of Education or another regulated authority.
- Champion the development and implementation of compliance-related training programs to enhance organisational knowledge and practices.
- Provide strategic advice and support for complex compliance inquiries, notifications, and investigations. At the direction of your manager, support services in an Area Manager capacity to support high levels of communication and service delivery across all service types.
- Model the values of the Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod in day-to-day work including in interactions with managers, lay staff, ministry agents, clients and stakeholders.
- Identify and develop strategies to provide internal and external client focused customer service including identifying improvements to policy, process and the work environment.
- Work within the Code of Conduct and other policies and procedures of the Uniting Church in Australia, Queensland Synod and the provisions of the Workplace Health and Safety and other relevant legislation including the COVID-19 Vaccination policy/procedure, reporting hazards/incidents, support for injured workers and full participation in return to work plans.

**Reporting relationship and delegations**:

- This position reports to: General Manager - Uniting Early Learning.
- This position’s direct reports: Compliance Specialists, Training Specialist (UEL), Education Specialist

Qualifications:

- Bachelor of Early Childhood, Diploma or equivalent as approved by ACECQA
- Qualification in auditing or compliance (desirable, not essential)

Experience and skills:

- Demonstrated extensive experience in auditing, compliance and/or risk assurance
- Previous demonstrated experience in developing compliance and or policy framework
- Previous demonstrated experience in complaint handling and investigations
- Working knowledge of the ISO 19600 Compliance.
- Knowledge or previous