Job ID: 1143

Closing Date: 1st July 2025

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Overview

Data Connect and the Secure Data Services are joint services  within the Research and Innovation IT team. Together they support and enable researchers in getting access to NHS and social care data safely and securely for academic research projects. They are strategically important services in the University that enable research that will directly impact on the quality and length of people’s lives.

The University  is a partner in the Yorkshire and Humber Secure Data Environment network which aims to ensure all sensitive data used for research stays within secure research environments to protect patient confidentiality and privacy.

As one of three delivery partners for the Y&H SDE, The University of Sheffield, via the Data Connect and the Secure Data Services (sitting within Research & Innovation IT) supports researchers by improving access to health and social care data for research projects on its accredited platform.

The Health Information Governance Manager will ensure the governance for health (and sensitive) data research for projects across the University and the wider Yorkshire & Humber region. They will support the evaluation of data requests against agreed Information Governance processes, ensure that data access and egress controls are in place and appropriate, protect patient privacy and comply with regulations. They will also work with wider partners across the North of England to support a federated governance approach across the region

We are looking for an experienced Information Governance professional, with knowledge of NHS research ethics protocols. Experience working in a secure data environment or trusted research environment or in an NHS data information management role is preferred. This role is an exciting opportunity to make  a significant contribution in advancing secure data infrastructure and federation across Yorkshire & Humber as well as wider partners across the North of England.

Main duties and responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of this role are delivering a federated Information Governance approach to the Yorkshire & Humber delivery partners, specific Information Governance support to South Yorkshire (University of Sheffield and the ICB), and a federated partnership across the North East North Cumbria SDE and North West SDE partnership. The duties of the role are:

• Managing the delivery of information and data governance processes for Data Connect’s partnership projects.
• Coordinating the delivery of improvements to the health information and data governance processes used in Data Connect.
• Submitting a section 251 CAG/REC research ethics database application for the Yorkshire & Humber SDE.
• Secure research ethics to use new and novel technologies to de-identify images and unstructured data for the Yorkshire & Humber SDE.
• Support the delivery of the Yorkshire & Humber SDE Information Governance Working Group across the partners.
• Engagement with partner groups such as the NHS Data for R&D Information Governance Working Group, reporting on Y&H developments.
• Plan and deliver governance-related projects, communicating timescales and deliverables to partners.
• Line management of the team members working on specific health information governance improvement projects.
• Provide progress updates to the Yorkshire & Humber Senior Leadership Team.
• Provide specialist advice, guidance and support to researchers regarding legal, ethical and other compliance requirements for research in the public benefit.
• Ensure Y&H SDE maintains legal and ethical compliance with the Secure Data Environments programme, proactively identifying areas of improvement and risk-based approach to solutions.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

We are a research university with a global reputation for excellence. Our ideas and expertise change the world for the better, making a real difference to society. We know that when people come together with different views, approaches and insights it can lead to richer, more creative and innovative teaching and research and the highest levels of student experience. Our University Vision (www.sheffield.ac.uk/vision) outlines our commitment to building a diverse community of staff and students that recognises and values the abilities, backgrounds, beliefs and ways of living for everyone.