Health and Safety Manager

Do you have experience of overseeing other health and safety practitioners and want the opportunity to develop your line management skills?

Are you an experienced qualified Health and Safety professional, who has worked in a large or complex organisation, dealing with vehicle, equipment, waste, chemical, and site operational hazards?

Are you excited about applying research skills and providing advice and guidance on diverse and significant hazards?

If so, we would like to hear from you

At Brighton & Hove City Council we are making great progress on improving our Health, Safety, and Wellbeing approaches, through our team of committed practitioners.

We are looking to recruit a motivated individual to our team, who wants to contribute to our continual improvement journey and provide direct advice and guidance to the council’s City Operations directorate, which includes environmental services, parks, leisure facilities and events.

Contract type: This role is permanent.

There is full information about the role below and associated job description but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Mark Flynn, Health Safety and Wellbeing Service Manager, at mark.flynn@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

About the role

As a Health and Safety Manager, you will be part of the City Operations directorate to influence change, protect communities and lead safety improvements across some of the city’s most essential services.

You will be working closely and inclusively with the Environmental Services department while being part of the council's wider multi-disciplinary Health, Safety, Wellbeing, Facilities and Buildings Service to provide expert advice and guidance. You will support the implementation of effective risk controls, carry out audits and assurance activities, develop policies and reports, and deliver training to colleagues across the organisation.

Your main base will be Hollingdean Depot, home to a wide range of operational services including:

• Refuse and recycling collections
• Street cleaning
• Graffiti removal
• Fly-tipping response
• Public toilets
• Environmental enforcement

You'll also work with a diverse range of teams across the city, including Parks and Arboriculture services at Stanmer Park, Seafront operations, and colleagues within the corporate Health, Safety and Wellbeing team based at Hove Town Hall.

This is an opportunity to influence how health, safety and wellbeing is delivered across a large and diverse directorate and support the different service managers meet their legal requirement for general health and safety or building management matters as well as their specific statutory obligations, such as waste operator licensing, pesticide/herbicide use, or HGV driving.

Working with stakeholders at every level, from frontline teams to senior leaders, you'll have the opportunity to drive positive change, influence decision-making, and help shape inclusive and equitable approaches to health, safety and wellbeing that reflect the diverse needs of our workforce and communities.

As a Health, Safety, and Wellbeing manager you will:

• give independent professional advice
• lead on larger or more complex Health, Safety, and Wellbeing matters
• manage junior health and safety practitioners and your own time and workloads to match the job demands.

Being part of a larger corporate service, you will have access to other health and safety professionals, as well as subject matter experts in fire safety, water safety, asbestos, premises management, site security, and contract management and so you can draw on their knowledge and experience, as well as working with them to help with your professional development and awareness.

Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, female or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.

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