Job Title: Head of Insurance and Claims Services
Salary: The starting salary is £62,310, which includes allowances totalling £3,009 allowance.
The salary is broken down as £59,301 basic salary, which will increase annually until you reach the top of the scale £72,254. Plus, a location allowance of £2,009 and a non-pensionable allowance of £1,000.
Location: Kilburn, Westminster
Job Purpose:
To lead the strategic and operational delivery of the MPS’s insurance and liability claims function, ensuring services meet legal, regulatory, and performance requirements.
The role manages internal indemnity advice and external insurance provision, shaping key policy decisions, overseeing supplier performance, and ensuring financial and reputational risk is effectively mitigated.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience:
Knowledge
- Expert understanding of insurance, indemnity, and claims handling practices in a public sector or regulated context.
- Strong awareness of the New Met for London plan and how operational risk translates to insurance and indemnity exposure.
- In-depth knowledge of relevant legal, regulatory, and procurement frameworks.
- Familiarity with performance and contract management systems in complex operational environments.
Skills
- Leadership of multi-disciplinary insurance and claims teams in a high-volume, regulated environment.
- Relationship management across senior stakeholders, external suppliers, and internal business users.
- Ability to interpret complex legislation and apply it to real-time operational scenarios.
- Capability to drive continuous improvement through digital systems, process reengineering, and data insight.
- Supplier and contract management, including negotiation and performance challenge.
Experience
- Proven experience leading insurance and claims operations in a public or corporate environment.
- Successful track record of managing outsourced providers and achieving measurable performance improvement.
- Experience influencing internal policy and strategy in risk, indemnity, or insurance contexts.
- Broad operational leadership background with evidence of delivering cost savings and service transformation.
Communications and Working Relationships:
- MOPAC– Regular engagement to support development and delivery of MPS insurance strategy.
- Internal Stakeholders– Daily interaction with operational teams across MPS to provide insurance, indemnity and claims advice; responsible for managing escalations and setting service expectations.
- Procurement– Regular collaboration to advise on insurance clauses in high-value contracts.
- Legal Services– Liaison for complex claims, litigation, or indemnity queries requiring legal input.
- External Suppliers– Contract and performance management of brokers, insurers and third-party claims administrators.
- Public/MPs– Occasional representation of the MPS in relation to complex or high-profile claims.
Key Result Areas:
- Shape and advise on MPS-wide insurance and indemnity policy, including self-insurance thresholds, in line with operational priorities and risk appetite.
- Lead the design, annual renewal, and re-tendering of the MPS insurance programme, ensuring cost efficiency and strategic alignment.
- Manage the end-to-end delivery of non-litigated liability and motor claims, driving performance against MoJ timelines and minimising outlay from the Compensation Fund.
- Provide expert insurance and indemnity advice across the MPS, ensuring requests are handled promptly and risks are appropriately transferred or retained.
- Monitor and drive performance of external suppliers (brokers, insurers, TPAs), ensuring quality of service and contractual value are maintained.
- Ensure Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and legal queries related to insurance and claims are managed in line with statutory obligations.
- Lead service improvement initiatives across the insurance and claims functions through lean methodologies, digital innovation, and operational redesign.
- Establish and maintain effective control systems and KPIs to manage performance, risk exposure, and budget outcomes, reporting progress against strategic goal.
Scope for Impact:
- Delegated authority to approve insurance procurement and claims settlements up to £25,000.
- Shapes MPS policy on indemnity practices and self-insurance thresholds.
- Manages technical interpretation of legislation, supporting legal teams where required.
- Oversees supplier performance to protect approximately £75M of financial exposure and ensure efficient claims management.
- Leads risk and performance reporting to inform operational and financial decisions across the organisation.
- Ensures compliance with MoJ claims portal rules, FOI legislation and Lexcel accreditation standards.
Dimensions
- Annual Insurance Budget: £4 million
- Claims Processed Annually: ~3,500 (non-litigated)
- Indemnity/Insurance Advice Requests: ~4,000
- Team Size: ~20 staff (direct and indirect)
- Financial Exposure Managed: £75 million
- Systems: LiveActs2 and future claims/risk platforms
How to apply
To begin your career at the Met, please click the "apply button “. The application process requires a comprehensive CV, a Personal Statement, and an online application form. In your Personal Statement, you should explain your interest in the position and illustrate how your skills and experiences make you a suitable candidate. Please note that you should not submit two copies of your CV, and ensure that your documents are saved in either PDF or Word format, clearly labelled as CV and Personal Statement.
Completed applications must be submitted by 23:55 on 13th April 2026.
Once received, your application will be reviewed against eligibility criteria, following this, your application will be reviewed by the hiring manager. The application review for this vacancy will commence 1 week after the vacancy has closed.
Following application review, successful candidates will be invited to interview. Face 2 face Interviews are expected to take place during the week commencing 27 April 2026 either at New Scotland Yard or Kilburn Police Station.
