HSW Advisor

At Brighton & Hove City Council we are making great progress on improving our Health, Safety, and Wellbeing approaches, through our team of committed advisors. We are looking to recruit a similarly motivate individual to our corporate team, who want to contribute to our continual improvement journey and provide advice and guidance to varied and complex council services.

In this role you can directly influence staff and managers actions, help drive a positive safety culture, and make a visible impact across frontline services. This is your opportunity to play a significant role in shaping how safety is managed across council directorates, supporting services operate in different environments, such as waste collection, schools. care homes, housing, and parks.

Do you:

• Have experience of working as a Health and Safety professional in large or complex organisations dealing with a variety of work types and hazards
• Like researching different topics and providing tailored advice and pragmatic guidance on diverse hazards
• Enjoy carrying out and leading on inspections and audits and providing written action plans
• Have the ability to work alone and as part of a larger team of professionals
• Have new ideas and proven approaches to improve Health and Safety management
• Enjoy analysing safety performance and accident data, to identify trends, focus activity, make recommendations for improvement, and produce reports for senior managers
• Want the opportunity to develop your Health, Safety, and Wellbeing experience and to develop into team management roles.

For an informal discussion, please contact vanessa.archer@brighton-hove.gov.uk and copy mark.flynn@brighton-hove.gov.uk to arrange a call back.

About the role

You will be working as part of a combined multi-disciplinary Health, Safety, Wellbeing, Facilities and Buildings Service, providing advice and guidance, carrying out assurance activities, developing written information, and delivering training to council staff.

Our team works across the council and as such you will have the ability to contribute the continual improvement of Health, Safety, and Wellbeing management controls in different services, including care homes, schools, nurseries, waste collection, parks, arboriculture, housing, enforcement officers, and repairs and maintenance teams.

This role will work with a range of stakeholders from front-line operational workers to corporate directors and you will have great potential to influence change. Our advisors need to be able to give independent professional advice and to be able to work on larger or more complex Health, Safety, and Wellbeing matters. You will also need to be able to manage your own time and workloads to match the job demands.

You will work alongside six other Health, Safety, and Wellbeing advisors and four junior Health, Safety, and Wellbeing officers, and you will have the opportunity to take on additional line management or coaching roles within this team, and the potential to develop into more senior roles.

Being part of a larger service, you will also work closely with subject matter experts in fire safety, water safety, asbestos, premises management, site security, and contract management and can draw on their knowledge and experience, as well as working with them to help with your professional development and knowledge.

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, male 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.

In return for your skills and hard work, we offer:

• a flexible working week of 37 hours per week (Mon-Fri)
• a central office base with the opportunity for hybrid working
• training to help with professional development
• the support of an experienced team of professionals
• paid annual leave and pension scheme

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).

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.

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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