Interim Health & Safety Advisor - Facilities & Environmental Services

Reference no: Cheshire E 5225141

Pay rate: £25.94 per hour PAYE

Role Length:  This opening assignment is for 2-3 months

Hybrid role

Car driver with valid license and insurance or ability to travel throughout the Borough

The key focus of this role is to undertake visits to schools and academies, providing the advice and guidance to schools as part of a bought back service, which are followed up with feedback reports. To provide comprehensive technical and professional advice and assistance to Headteachers, Managers and Governors on health and safety issues in accordance with the requirements of the services available as part of the Cheshire East Services for Schools (ChESS), available to maintained schools and Academies.

The successful candidate will need to be able to travel across the Cheshire East area. Initial induction to this role will be face to face within Sandbach and Crewe Cheshire. The role will require travel to school locations within Cheshire East and occasional visits outside the Cheshire East border. Work can then be undertaken from home or the workplace, with attendance in the workplace for meetings as required.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide comprehensive advice and guidance to local authority maintained and Academy schools as part of the traded health and safety management provision. This will include site inspections and the production of a report detailing the findings on the school’s compliance with relevant legislation and recommendations/action plans detailing improvements where required. It will also include cover ad-hoc requests for advice and guidance, support in relation to the investigation and management of serious accidents/incidents and support for the use of the accident and reporting software which can be purchased as part of the traded service.
• Develop and revise generic health and safety policies and model risk assessments suitable for local authority maintained and Academy schools, to be used, once adapted, within school settings. Provide support to schools as part of the traded service to ensure policies, procedures and arrangements support safe systems of work and effective control of health and safety risks.
• Support the effective discharge of the Council’s responsibilities for health and safety in relation to local authority maintained and Academy schools by producing management update reports to the local authority’s Director of Education, ensuring escalation of matters of concern or significant noncompliance, identifying remedial actions and monitoring implementation progress. This includes periodic inspection of maintained schools who do not purchase the traded services.
• Produce and maintain records on visits, inspections, requests for assistance, newsletters and guidance notes to ensure compliance with the ChESS School’s Health and Safety Service provision for Maintained and Academy schools.
• Supervise the staff allocated to assist in the delivery of the Chess School’s Health and Safety Service provision for Maintained and Academy schools.
• Commission, prepare, deliver and evaluate training programmes for local authority maintained and Academy schools on Health and Safety issues, including risk assessment and specialist skills training, to ensure staff are competent to deal with Health and Safety matters and comply with relevant legislation and policy.
• Maintain and update financial records in line with Council and Directorate requirements and provide monthly reports to the Health and Safety Manager to ensure budget management control.
• Liaise and support other teams in the organisation to ensure that the Council’s buildings and schools are being managed effectively in accordance with good practice and legislation.

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria:

Qualifications:

• IOSH Safety Tech Level membership.
• NEBOSHH General Certificate.
• NEBOSH Diploma.
• Chartered Membership of the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety desirable.

Experience:

• Experience of providing Health and Safety advice in large and complex organisations.
• Experience of planning, prioritising and organising resources and workloads.
• Experience of completing Health and Safety inspections and writing inspection reports and action plans.
• Experience of working in an education setting and the public sector desirable.
• Supervisory experience - 2 years desirable.
• Experience of providing training on health and safety to a wide range of staff desirable.
• Experience in drafting, developing and implementing guidance, policies, procedures, arrangements and safe systems of working.

Knowledge:

• Technical Health and Safety knowledge; ability to interpret Health and Safety legislation and data to be able to give recommendations and advice, and to make such information understandable to non-technical staff and stakeholders.
• Accident investigation knowledge, including root cause analysis.
• Understanding and knowledge of education establishments.

Skills:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Proven ability to work under pressure and ensure deadlines are met.
• Ability to analyse situations and identify effective solutions.
• Strong interpersonal skills, demonstrating the ability to work with colleagues at all levels across an organisation.
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of the wider team.
• Flexible approach to work.
• Willingness and ability to travel throughout the borough.
• Strong IT skills using Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite).

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD.

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application.

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF.

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.