Official Veterinarian

Job summary

Want to be at the forefront of safeguarding Scotland’s food standards?

The Official Veterinarian (OV) role is one of the key front-line operational roles within the FSS.

The core work for the OV is the delivery of Official Controls related to Products of Animal Origin (POAO) in FSS approved premises within Scotland (Red and White meat slaughterhouses, Cutting Plants and Game handling establishments (GHE’s)).

The FSS OV is the technical lead for field teams in all aspects related to verification of the Food Business Operator’s (FBO) compliance with all relevant legislation as stated in the FSS Scottish Manual for Official Controls (SMOC).

It is expected, depending of the requirement of the business, that OVs will also obtain the qualifications required to certify exports of POAO.

For more information on the role and FSS please click here.

Job description

Inspection tasks
• Conducting Ante Mortem Inspection (AMI) of animals for slaughter and making decisions based on the fitness of animals. In particular, to determine if there has been any sign that welfare has been compromised
• Assessment of Food Chain Information (FCI)
• Verification of animal welfare compliance
• Conducting Post Morten Inspection (PMI)
• Verification of compliance with Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) and Animal By-product (ABP) requirements
• Health Marking

Verification tasks
• Verification of slaughter hygiene standards
• Verification of FBO compliance with microbiological criteria
• Verification of FBO traceability systems
• Verification of food safety management systems & HACCP based procedures
• Pre-operational sanitation verification of production areas

Action following controls
• Collection and communication of Inspection results
• Assessment of and decision making in relation to FCI, live animals, animal welfare and meat

Enforcement
• Gather evidence to support targeted enforcement for FSS and other enforcement agencies as required
• Follow risk based procedures to take fair and proportionate enforcement actions to ensure compliance is achieved educating and advising FBO’s to create action plans to achieve compliance
• Responsible for all timely enforcement and its escalation
• Completing and collation of paperwork and electronic enforcement systems
• Delivery and recording of informal enforcement activity
• Drafting, service and recording of formal enforcement
• Knowledge of how to identify potential food fraud opportunities relevant to the meat industry

Verification of compliance with Third Country requirements (as/when needed)
• Carry out veterinarian activities in line with specific Third Country requirements when requested
• Certification of product
• Have or obtain all relevant export qualifications
• Knowledge and understanding of general and third country specific export requirements
• Knowledge and understanding of the principals of certification
• Where relevant, knowledge and understanding of animal health and notifiable disease elements
• Cascade technical information as required in regards to export certification to colleagues
• Manage the induction and practical training of new COs, FCCOs and CSOs

Technical leadership of the plant inspection team
• Responsible for the technical leadership and performance of the plant inspection tea, by providing appropriate advice, coaching, support and ensuring technical compliance
• Assessment of on-going technical, competencies of AO’s
• Cascade technical information as required
• Participation on the practical training at the plant of trainee OA’s or OV’s
• Awareness of and commitment to all relevant FSS policies

Stakeholder management
• Establish and maintain productive working relationships with FBO’s and other stakeholders (Local authorities, etc.)
• Raise any changes to the FBO business patterns in relation to the Business Agreements with the Operations manager
• Inform FBO’s of any legislative changes that have an impact of their operation
• Hold regular minuted meetings with the FBO to discuss and review level of compliance and enforcement as appropriate
Health and Safety Management
• Provide support in implementing FSS Health and Safety policy at plant level
• Participate when required to investigate and record incidents involving the plant team
• Participate in plant inductions, ensuring plant inspection teams and visitors are fully aware of FSS Health and Safety policy and procedure

FSS SLA’s
• Ensure FSS services are delivered in line with SLA targets

General
• Maintain confidentiality of internal FSS communications and commercially sensitive information
• Continued familiarisation with the SMOC and other guidance documents as appropriate

Person specification

Qualifications

• Veterinary degree and RCVS membership (including temporary registration)
• Must hold an Official Veterinarian qualification.

Please provide evidence of these in your application.

Success Profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.

1. Technical/Professional Skills:

• Good understanding of Veterinary Public Health

• Good understanding of livestock pathology and conditions which may impact consumers

  
  

1. Experience:

• Demonstrated experienced working as an Official Veterinarian.
  

1. Behaviours:

• Working together – Level 3
• Communication and Influencing – Level 3
• Leadership – Level 3
• Managing a quality service – Level 3
  

Candidate guidance on the behaviours can be found here: Behaviour levels - Success profiles: candidate guide - gov.scot

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,944, Scottish Government contributes £10,702 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Apply via the link provided

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Joan.bricall@fss.scot
• Email : Joan.bricall@fss.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : Joan.bricall@fss.scot

Further information

https://fa-evxn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/3215/?utm_medium=jobboard&utm_source=CivilServiceJobs