Head of Building Safety Compliance

Job Description

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: PO12 £79,119 - £85,677

Contract Type: Full Time/Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 06/04/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 2037

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

Head of Building Safety and Compliance leads the strategic and operational safety of the council’s housing stock comprising approximately 12,000 homes. The role involves managing a multi-disciplinary team of six people.

Key responsibilities include developing and implementing building safety strategies, policies and procedures, leading on compliance across the "Big Six" areas (fire safety, asbestos, gas, electrical, lifts, and water hygiene), alongside compliance with Awaab's Law (relating to damp and mould hazards), and overall Building Safety across higher-risk buildings within the housing stock. This includes maintaining accurate records of safety data and evidence of compliance (the “Golden Thread”), communicating with residents on safety issues fostering a culture of safety, monitoring safety of high-risk buildings, and ensuring compliance with Building Safety Regulator requirements.

The postholder will provide dynamic, strategic and operational leadership, coordinating with other service areas across the Housing service, to ensure safety and compliance is embedded and managed consistently within the housing service, as well as with the corporate health and safety team.

The postholder will have strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to lead teams, influence, and manage change effectively. Strong interpersonal skills are required to engage with residents, stakeholders and regulatory bodies. In addition, strong understanding of building systems, structural and fire safety is required, together with the ability for data-driven decision making and risk management.

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Key Duties:

Act as the delegated accountable and responsible person for building safety, property compliance, and resident engagement.

Provide strategic Health and Safety leadership to ensure the council's housing stock complies with relevant legislation, including the Fire Safety Order and Building Safety Act.

Take overall responsibility for adherence to policies governing Fire, Lifts, Asbestos, Gas, Electrical, and Legionella safety to keep residents and buildings secure.

Oversee the team's production of monthly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and provide regular compliance performance reports.

Attend and report on health and safety matters to the Council's Audit, Scrutiny, and Corporate Health and Safety committee.

Review maintenance contractors' compliance, investigate accidents and near misses, and maintain accurate information databases.

Lead the Housing Service Compliance Group and Building Safety groups.

Manage an annual budget of £1M.

Supervise six direct reports

Lead project teams consisting of both internal staff and external contractors or consultants.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Possess relevant experience in the field, ideally alongside a relevant professional qualification.

Demonstrate proficiency in managing compliance across various safety regulations, including building, fire, lift, asbestos, gas, electrical, and legionella.

Show strong operational leadership skills and the ability to execute projects effectively.

Possess expertise in commercial management, covering contract negotiation, cost control, and ensuring value for money.

Exhibit excellent communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder engagement skills for managing tenant relations and collaborating with partners.

Have strong political awareness to navigate the council's environment and work effectively with elected officials.

Be capable of swift emergency response and possess data analysis skills to monitor operational performance.

Be familiar with utilising property management software such as True Compliance and tools to streamline processes.

Understand how to conduct database audits and maintain information in adherence to GDPR legislation.

Be willing to participate in an Out of Hours Service duty rota as required.

Be available to occasionally work from other locations as needed.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;

Satisfactory declaration of interest;

Standard DBS

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

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.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Valdrin Rexha (AD - Strategic Asset Management & Compliance at Valdrin.Rexha@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.