Strategy Support Office

Director: Dr Caroline Robson 

The Strategy Support Office provides a hub for strategy-focussed activity and insight at the university and the key areas of our work include:

Strategy 2030

We support the development of strategy and its translation into priorities, plans and targets across the institution and we report progress against it to a range of audiences, including the university’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and the Board of Governors. The university’s mission and strategy and supporting plans can be found on the Mission and Strategy webpage.

Insight

We join the dots between institutional priorities and the external landscape and undertake analysis to inform the direction of travel. We review a wide range of internal and sector performance data and provide intelligence to support strategic decisions.

Business Continuity

We are responsible for policy and practice relating to Business Continuity Management (BCM). We support the Incident Management Team (IMT) in ensuring that the university runs smoothly in the context of disruptions such as the pandemic and work with departments across the institution on their local resilience plans. The University’s business continuity management policy can be found in the Policy Centre.

Risk Management

We also oversee the University’s risk management process, designed to ensure that risks to delivery of the strategy are mitigated or controlled. We support regular updates to the institutional risk register, and work with staff across the University on risk management at a local level. The University’s risk management policy, process and risk appetite statement are approved by the Board of Governors, and can be found in the Policy Centre, along with introductory briefing slides and the Terms of Reference and Membership for the Risk Management Group. The latter meets three times per year and is designed to support the development of a positive risk culture across the University.

Given the nature of our activity, we work with a wide range of staff across the university and much of our work is undertaken in partnership with other Professional Service areas and/or key staff in all Faculties.

For further information on the Strategy Support Office’s work, please contact Caroline Robson, Director, Strategy Support Office.