Emma Wood

Senior leadership role responsible for leading statutory compliance and assurance across a complex 48-site estate, collaborating with Regional Operational Delivery Directors to embed a proactive, risk-based approach to safety and compliance

• Designed, implemented, and now manage the technical (Fire, Asbestos, Electrical systems etc) operational assurance framework ensuring statutory planned maintenance is carried out and effective supporting a safe, compliant prison estate.
• Analyse compliance performance data to identify risks and trends, to support commercial and supply chain decisions to improve operational effectiveness.
• Facilitate continuous improvement initiatives, encouraging innovation and excellence in operations, in line with business priorities.
• Engaged with stakeholders through regular updates and reports, maintaining transparency and building strong relationships. Including the Health and Safety committee, and the Risk and Assurance committee at Executive level.
• Investigate issues impacting organisational compliance and service delivery to understand root causes, prepare detailed reports and recommend corrective actions.
• Foster strong relationships with key stakeholders, including suppliers and clients, to support business objectives.
• Active member of the operational and business senior leadership team.

Head of Operational Support responsibilties

• Responsible for assisting in the smooth running of operations. Coordinates and links the corporate teams to the operational teams for anything from communications to project delivery, as well as providing data and insight to operational leaders.
• Prepared detailed reports on departmental performances, providing actionable insights for continuous improvement.
• Investigate issues impacting operations and service delivery to understand root causes, prepare reports, and recommend corrective actions.
• Engaged with customers to better understand needs and deliver excellent service. Including managing and running the customer survey, and strategy.
• Modelled business processes to identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
• Oversaw the work of administrative staff supporting operations and facilitated key cross-functional collaboration, including the organisation of international conferences, logistics, scheduling, and participant engagement, enhancing brand visibility.
• Developed comprehensive briefing materials for executive presentations, ensuring clarity and conciseness in all communications.

The Operations Manager role, focused on supporting Army Operations, meant that working at pace was the default and consistently delivering high standards was a must. Main responsibilities were.

• Provided support to very senior management, ensuring enabling functions were delivered to support operational outputs.
• Ensuring security procedures were up to date and robust, identifying risks, and implementing new management systems to ensure classified information was secure.
• Project manager for a complex infrastructure change (classified IT) to support business development.
• Project support for a time-sensitive information management project which sought to simplify how the Field Army communicated and captured data.
• Monitored staff performance and developed improvement plans.
• Management and development of the HR team to ensure potential is maximised.

A senior HR operational leader with a strong focus on governance, compliance, and organisational assurance, ensuring that people processes consistently align with regulatory requirements, policy standards, and organisational risk frameworks.

• Provided senior leadership with informed guidance on complex employee relations matters, ensuring all decisions aligned with internal governance frameworks, employment legislation, and best-practice compliance standards. Acted as an independent adviser to ensure fair, consistent, and timely case resolution.
• Served as a subject matter expert on key compliance-linked HR processes, including performance appraisal governance, diversity and inclusion obligations, organisational change controls, and payroll accuracy. Ensured all processes adhered to regulatory requirements and internal audit expectations.
• Led and developed a large operational HR team, embedding a culture of compliance, operational excellence, and continuous improvement. Implemented robust quality assurance measures to ensure consistent application of HR policy and adherence to statutory obligations.