About the Job Role

The Health, Safety and Wellbeing Service (HSWS) has responsibility for the provision of competent advice and support and to all Directorates across the Royal Borough of Greenwich including schools in meeting their statutory duties and responsibilities with respect to all aspects of health safety and wellbeing relating to employees and others that may be affected by the activities of the Council.

As part of the Council’s commitment to provide high quality and efficient services, we are looking to recruit an experienced health and safety professional with excellent knowledge and practical experience of H&S issues within a Corporate and schools environment.

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual that has the ability to work independently and also as part of a team to work proactively with our Directorates and Schools that subscribe to the Council’s Health Safety and Wellbeing Service (HSWS).

The role will provide competent and effective advice and support Directorates and Schools in meeting their H&S legislative responsibilities (including Department for Education (DfE) guidance & standards for schools), the Councils policies and procedures, and our HSWS strategy, whilst also promoting a process of continuous improvement. 

About you

• Hold a NEBOSH Certificate / NVQ Level 4 or 5 in Occupational Health and Safety Practice or an equivalent qualification.
• Excellent knowledge of all legislation, ACOP’s, British Standards and a good working knowledge of premises statutory compliance.  
• Technical Membership (TechIOSH) of IOSH as a minimum,
• Committed to ongoing professional CPD and to undertake required relevant training.
• Substantial experience as operating in a lead H&S role for an organisation with comparable complexity (preferably with experience within Children’s Services/Schools).
• Good verbal/written communication and customer service skills, and the ability to engage at all levels and influence key stakeholders within the service.
• Possess good problem-solving and analytical skills and the ability to confidently advise on a wide range of complex H&S issues.
• Good time management skills and can prioritise and organise their workload to meet service demands and deliver a high-quality service against agreed KPI, targets and timescales.
• Proficient IT skills for the use of Microsoft products and experience of analysing H&S data and producing H&S performance reports that provide clear trend analysis and on other activities.

Key Responsibilities

The main duties of the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Advisor will be to:

• Support the delivery of the objectives and targets set out in the Corporate Health & Safety Plan and the HSWS Work Plan. Report on the progress of the implementation plans for designated Directorates and contribute to the review of its objectives and priorities.
• Provide advice, guidance and support to Directorates/Schools management in meeting their H&S legislative responsibilities, and the interpretation and implementation of the Council’s health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) policies and procedures.
• Attend Directorate management team meetings, HSW working groups and consultation meetings (including various HSW committees) to provide advice and support on all aspects of HSW.
• Work closely with Directorate/schools management (i.e., Heads of Service, Head Persons etc.) to support the development and implementation of HSW action plans that address the key risks for their service, whilst also promoting a process of continuous HSW improvement.  To also assist with the regular monitoring of progress and reviews.
• Develop an annual H&S auditing programme of the Directorate and School’s H&S arrangements with the delivery of completed audit reports within agreed timescales. 
• To manage and review accidents reports and also provide support and guidance to the Directorate and Schools on the investigation of accidents, incidents and near miss events, taking the lead on the investigation of accidents that are RIDDOR, and any other areas of non-compliance that have significant H&S implications as required by the HSWS management.
• Prepare management reports for business management teams (including various committees) on H&S performance and key activities.
• Assist in the development and ongoing management of the Corporate H&S management system, software systems and intranet, ensuring that up all systems are managed effectively and are kept up to date.

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Thomas Kennedy;    thomas.kennedy@royalgreenwich.gov.uk  07548 823720  

If you require any assistance in viewing or accessing this opportunity, please contact recruitment@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or call 020-8921-8977

Diversity Statement: Royal Borough of Greenwich values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this. We therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community.

High Volume Applications: Royal Borough of Greenwich reserves the right to close any vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date should there be a high volume of applications received.

Advert Close: All vacancies close at midnight unless otherwise stated

Internal to External: This opportunity has recently been advertised as an opportunity for current RBG employees (internal only advertising). Applications received during the internal advertising period have been considered and processed. If you were interviewed for this position via an application to this job advertisement during the internal advertising period, any further application will not be shortlisted.

How Applications are Scored: Each application is scored according to how well the supporting statement addresses each point on the Person Specification for the role. Candidates will be short-listed for interview on the extent to which they meet the specific points within the Person Specification. The Person Specification is supplied with the job advert. When completing your application, please use the supporting statement section to tell us how you meet each of the points on the Person Specification. We need to have this information in order to consider your application. If you have a disability and are unable to meet some of the job requirements specifically because of your disability, please address this in your application. If you meet all the other criteria, you will be shortlisted and we will explore jointly with you if there are ways in which the job can be changed to enable you to meet the requirements.

Interview Arrangements: During this time, our priority for all of our recruitment activity is to make sure our applicants, hiring departments and new starters are informed, safe and supported. Careful and thorough consideration will be given to interview arrangements and for any essential in-person recruitment, we will ensure this is held in a suitable, secure setting with additional arrangements to ensure any current safety requirements are fully adhered to.

Salary: Salaries advertised are for a standard working week of 35 hours unless otherwise stated. Please use this 'Salary Calculator to help you calculate a pro rata salary.

Our Staff Values: Our Staff Values are important to us. Candidates will be continuously assessed against our staff values throughout the recruitment process. Where candidates demonstrate views and behaviours that do not meet the standards of our staff values, we reserve the right to reject their application/ registration.