HEAD OF HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELLBEING

Employer: London Borough Of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO11 £66,978 to £70,572

Location: Waltham Forest Town Hall, Forest Road, Walthamstow, London, E17 4JF

Contract: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full Time

Hours: 36 hours per week.

DBS Check: No

Closing Date: 24/03/2023 at 23:55

Reference: DCEX/23/229581

Driven by our sense of the place and community, Waltham Forest continues to grow and prosper. Waltham Forest is London’s first Borough of Culture and 2019 MJ Council of the Year. Our opportunities are real: a new university campus, £300 million new shopping centre, 10,000 new homes over the next ten years, re-invigorating a much-loved 950-seat theatre and a new hospital at Whipps Cross.

We are looking for a leader who brings expertise in safety and wellbeing, who can help us continue to build an inclusive, safe and healthy working environment for employees. You will be the key adviser to senior managers, leading a team of professionals who ensure managers are given professional support and assure or change the Council in undertaking its responsibilities.

You will influence across all areas, including working with colleagues in building management to ensure our corporate properties and schools are well maintained, safe and comfortable for all of our users, including public buildings libraries, museums and galleries that are safe and welcoming for our residents to visit.

We are also developing a pro-active approach to new ways of working and wellbeing across the council and supporting staff in areas such as mental health.

The team you will lead aims to offer best advice, tools and systems to focus on our most important resource – our staff to maintain and improve their health and wellbeing, whilst supporting managers to effectively control hazards and the operational risks created.

About the role

The Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing is a leader of a team who will be the council’s subject matter expert for health, safety and wellbeing. This will include responsibility for the council’s health, safety and wellbeing policies and guidance, training, inspection and investigation, along with leading support for any enforcement visits by the HSE/London Fire Brigade.

As the lead on the development and maintenance of the council’s health, safety and wellbeing strategy you will be responsible for ensuring the council is up to date with current legislation and sharing best practice across directorates.

You will be responsible for the performance and delivery of the annual health, safety and wellbeing business plan, managing the Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programmes, managing a team of two advisers, a health and wellbeing officer, an assistant adviser and an apprenticeship adviser.

You will be able to shape improvement programmes, such as occupational health and employee assistance, a new 3 year wellbeing strategy and improving learning opportunities.

About you

You will need to be someone who finds pragmatic solutions, maximises value for the council and has a fantastic customer focus.

As an expert in your field, you will have up to date knowledge of all the statutory requirements in a broad range of areas including building related safety, people safety, behavioural safety and wellbeing. You will be able to train a range of stakeholders on the continual improvement of the health, safety and wellbeing management system.

You will have experience reporting to and influencing senior leaders. You will be able to demonstrate continual improvement of health, safety and wellbeing management in a large complex organisation and develop the team to drive improvement and innovation

Specific skills, experience and qualifications

• Key experience of working in complex and busy site operations in a council or similar public facing organisation
• Experience of delivering programme of continual improvement, including upskilling key stakeholders
• Commitment to equality diversity and inclusion across all activity.
• Excellent organisational, logistics and leadership skills
• Ability to manage and motivate team
• Proven experience in building and managing relationships with key partners
• Ability to work to deadlines and keep calm under pressure
• Behaves with integrity and honesty and acts confidentially where required
• Outstanding communication abilities, with the ability to work collaboratively across the directorates/council
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to establish trust and confidence at all levels and externally
• NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Safety & Health; or NVQ Level 4/5 in Occupational Health & Safety Practice, or similar
• Graduate Member of the Institute of Occupational Health and working towards chartered membership
• Chartered/Fellow Membership of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (desirable)
• CFPA Diploma in Fire Prevention; or NEBOSH National Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management, or similar (desirable)
• Health & Safety Lead Auditor qualification (desirable)
• Wellbeing / Mental Health / Stress Management qualification (desirable)
• Ability to influence and negotiate with internal partners and clients (desirable)
• Solid knowledge of performance reporting and financial budget processes (desirable)
• Knowledge of Waltham Forest (desirable)
• Experience of operating in a political environment (desirable)

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.