About the job

Job summary

Do you have a passion for Health and Safety (H&S)? Then this could be the role for you! We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic and motivated H&S advisor to join our team. As the H&S lead, you will be the main point of contact and subject matter expert for all Safety, Health, Environmental and Fire (SHEF) related matters for Bovington Garrison. Reporting directly to the Garrison Commander, this post is pivotal in maintaining the ‘safe place’ to support the delivery of training to enable trained soldiers to complete their initial technical training for service in the British Army.  Bovington Camp is an Army base located in Dorset which together with Lulworth Camp forms the Garrison. The camp is a few miles from the south coast and is part of the world heritage site that is the Jurassic Coast. The Garrison consists of three barrack complexes, a forest/heathland training area and a heathland firing range. The physical estate (offices, accommodation blocks, garages etc) and training areas are critical to the delivery of both initial and career training for soldiers from across the whole of the British Army. The soldiers are taught skills in driving, communication, and gunnery across courses of varying lengths within the garrison, using a mixture of tracked (tanks) and wheeled vehicles. Supporting the maintenance of a safe place to deliver this fast-paced training with significant risk to life activity is a crucial aspect of the role and presents a unique challenge for the right person. We are seeking applicants who are both diligent and confident in implementing policy and due to the variety of ranks of serving personnel, civil servants and contractors you will be dealing with, applicants will need to be effective communicators and confident in developing trusting working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. This position is advertised at 37 hours per week. Hybrid working is actively encouraged, although attendance at site for the majority of the week will be necessary. This post is open for all working patterns but please note that part time or job share will only be considered if full time cover can be achieved.

Job description

This role will provide H&S advice and guidance directly to the Garrison Commander to enable them to fulfil their duties and obligations as the Head of Establishment in safeguarding all those individuals that work at Bovington Garrison.

You will also be responsible for giving both practical support and advice to all personnel working within the Garrison including the Commanding Officers of the Lodger units.

You will be involved in incident reporting and investigation, conducting audits and risk assessments, assurance exercises, attending meetings as well as providing guidance and advice.

Through proactive engagement you will monitor and develop Garrison systems and culture to ensure compliance and positive H&S behaviours across the organisation. 

Person specification

Specific tasks the H&S officer is required to deliver include;

• Providing professional advice and guidance to all personnel across the Garrison relating to maintaining a ‘safe place’ to enable individual Commanding Officers to manage and minimise Risk to Life (RtL).
• Draft, assure and review the SHEF plan and policy statements on behalf of the Garrison Commander.
• Lead on Fire safety management across the Garrison.
• Act as Garrison PoC for the Army incident reporting tool (DURALS) and actively promote incident reporting and ‘near misses’ across all units within the Garrison.
• Engage with the relevant stakeholders and subject matter experts to develop policy, procedures and any supporting materials needed.
• Manage and maintain the Garrison H&S Risk Register.
• Support and mentor teams investigating incidents and identify causes, recommendations and encourage the taking of appropriate and timely action.
• Liaise with key stakeholders to ensure appropriate procedures and standards are implemented to safeguard personnel, protect assets and ensure compliance with all H&S legislation.
• Proactively engage with customers to identify and support appropriate H&S training, delivering input where necessary.

Personal qualities

• Strong written and oral communication skills including briefing senior officers,
• A proven ability to build effective working relationships and work with a wide range of stakeholders,
• Previous experience of negotiating and influencing to achieve positive outcomes.

Training requirement

• The successful candidate will be expected to study for and obtain the NEBOSH General Certificate within 12 months of joining, if this qualification, or similar, is not already held.
• Attendance at the 2 week Army delivered H&S Advisors course will also be required.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

At application you will be assessed against the following;

• Behaviours: Leadership and Delivering at Pace
• Experience: Personal Statement (500 words)

Please note that it is essential that your personal statement is aligned to provide evidence that you have the knowledge and recent practical experience for each of the following selection criteria in your application:

• Strong written and oral communication skills including briefing senior officers,
• A proven ability to build effective working relationships and work with a wide range of stakeholders,
• Previous experience of negotiating and influencing to achieve positive outcomes.

At interview you will be assessed against the above along with the following:

•  Behaviours: Making effective decisions and Managing a Quality Service

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came in to effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

 

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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. 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.