Health and Safety Business Partner (Projects)
Job summary
You will promote and develop a positive safety culture, provide technical guidance to Forestry England on health and safety and best practice in the industry. You will help with investigating incidents and accidents to determine root cause, containment and corrective and preventative actions and developing policy and practice across the business. You will be providing guidance and mentoring to a wide range of colleagues, volunteers, and contractors to improve health & safety performance.
You will provide practical help, advice, and support to management on a range of health & safety issues, supporting the business with compliance and applying health and safety legislation. You will lead key project areas as agreed, providing support to specific teams as their first point of contact with the health and safety team. You will conduct health and safety checks and inspections, investigate incidents, providing the business with recommendations and advice on how to improve, and assisting in highlighting best practice.
As a Defra-funded post within a Forestry England–wide programme, the H&S Business Partner (Projects) will take a lead role in shaping, guiding and embedding H&S systems and processes within the Biodiversity and Resilience Programme.
Job description
Key responsibilities & accountabilities• Provide competent health and safety advice and support across the organisation.
• Help make sure Forestry England staff and partners meet relevant duties and legislation.
• Apply best practice and support improving our health and safety culture.
• Support line managers embedding health and safety arrangements with their teams by attending/holding regular support visits, demonstrations, toolbox talks, problem-solving and coaching, making sure solutions are implemented quickly for hazards identified.
• Work with national teams to support applying health and safety policy, procedures, systems, and processes.
• Develop and implement corporate risk assessments.
• Develop and review new and existing health and safety policies, procedures and guidance by consulting managers and staff involved in relevant tasks and processes.
• Support line managers to have good quality incident investigations, identifying lessons learned for sharing and implementing.
• Provide coaching and support to managers and staff to implement health and safety systems.
• Develop and introduce ways of communicating and engaging people on health and safety matters relevant to different audiences, using a range of techniques that are inclusive.
• Support developing and implementing new initiatives.
• Support health and safety governance arrangements by contributing to relevant groups, committees, and networks.
• Design, procure and contract manage health and safety software and service contracts
• Develop and carry out health and safety audits, providing recommendations for improvement and identifying best practice.
And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.
As the post involves dealing with contacts across the UK, regular travel with overnight stays away from home is requirement of the post.
The duties of this post require the applicant to have a full current driving license that enables them to drive in the UK.
Person specification
Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential professional and technical experience
• Excellent programme or project management skills
• Experience of building strong working relationships to support problem solving, working through challenges and developing alternative strategies to overcome concerns.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience in health and safety practice.
• Ability to use a range of Microsoft Office software packages.
Desirable professional and technical experience
• A good understanding of technical forestry, land management and countryside recreation.
• Experience of working closely with stakeholders to achieve positive outcomes.
• Experience working in forestry or similar outdoor settings.
Qualifications
Essential
As a minimum,
• NEBOSH certificate or equivalent;
• Evidence of maintaining your own CPD
• Chartered membership of IOSH or working towards this.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £40,388, Forestry Commission contributes £11,700 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).- 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
How to apply…
You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.
You will be assessed on experience, a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview.
The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –
- Communicating and Influencing
- Changing & improving
- Working Together
- Managing a Quality Service
“If candidates pass the interview but are not the leading candidate they can be placed on a reserve list. We may offer candidates on the reserve list for this role the opportunity to be considered for other roles at the same or lower pay bands.”
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.
If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.
If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.
Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.Medical
Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.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
Working for the Civil Service
Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.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
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 :
Recruitment team
Further information
Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.Attachments
Forestry England Job Description - Health and Safety Business Partner (Projects)(PB4) Opens in new window (pdf, 239kB)Salary range
- £40,388 - £43,482 per year