About the job

Job summary

General  information

Britain has one of the safest railways in Europe – for passengers and for workers. Office of Rail and Road regulate health and safety for the entire mainline rail network in Britain, as well as London Underground, light rail, trams and the heritage sector. We want to make sure that our railways are safe not just a safe mode of transport but also a safe place to work.  You will be joining a team of over 100 dedicated national safety inspectors and professionals who are respected across the industry, and they have significant powers of enforcement to regulate the industry and hold those accountable for any failures in adherence to health and safety laws and regulations

Job description

Job Purpose
As a Trainee Inspector Assistant, you will be on the first step of a career in regulating health and safety for passengers, the workforce and the public who use, operate, and maintain Britain’s railways. 

 Working within your local geographic team in ORR, your work will contribute to ensuring the railway industry meets the requirements of health and safety law and is working towards achieving zero industry caused fatalities.

 Initially, at Grade F you will develop your inspection skills through the internal training and development programme and undertake your inspections jointly with more experienced colleagues progressing you to develop your own inspection and analysis skills set.

 You will:  

• work towards building and recording your skills and experience to complete the internal training program at Grade F (EO);
• complete coursework and assignments;
• be regularly assessed by the training team and your line manager;
• contribute to your local team’s completion of inspection and investigation work.

 

As your knowledge, skills and experience develop you will begin to work more independently; planning and completing inspections, making initial enquiries, and investigating accidents and incidents, where appropriate. You will provide advice to duty holders and assist inspectors with their investigations and inspections. You will also represent ORR to stakeholders in the railway industry, including trade unions.

You will be located in the ORR regional office for which you applied and regulating mainline railway, infrastructure managers and train operating companies. You will be in a team with Inspectors, working directly to a Principal Inspector. You will mainly work within your home region and will be required to travel and work away from your home, particularly to training events.  

Please note this is a permanent position at Grade F (EO) leading to promotion to Grade E (HEO) Inspector Assistant on successful completion of the training development programme and regulatory skills Professional Practice Competency Framework (PPCF) which will take approximately 24 - 36 months.

Person specification

For key responsibilities please see the attached job description.

Benefits

Details of our employee benefits can be found in the attached Candidate Information Pack.

A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Find out what our colleagues have to say about their ORR careers Our people Office of Rail and Road (orr.gov.uk).

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.For information on the selection process, please see the attached Candidate Information Pack and Job Description.

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.

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.