About the job

Job summary

At HSE, we work with one goal in mind – to help keep Britain’s workforce safe and healthy.

Our occupational health specialists work as Regulators across Great Britain in a whole range of essential industries with thousands of workers, to ensure that work is managed safely. In this role, you can utilise your considerable professional knowledge to influence not only individual employers but whole industry sectors.

A career with HSE gives you a unique opportunity to visit and interact with different and diverse employers and work activities, often small to medium sized businesses that lack occupational health understanding. You’ll work alongside other inspectors to ensure that all employers take action to control health risks in the workplace, and that means you will see a wide variety of work-related health concerns and reported occupational diseases.

Job description

Your work as a regulator will make the most of your experience in occupational health – identifying risks, providing the right advice and crucially - taking steps to ensure the employer takes the necessary action. You could be inspecting the management of health risks in an engineering firm, investigating a report of occupational disease in a bakery, taking enforcement action when required. Your work will take you across the range of industries from construction, manufacturing and engineering, to agriculture, waste and recycling or the public sector.

This role will broaden your knowledge and your professional credibility like no other role can and you will be fully supported by your colleagues including the widest range of health and safety experts in Britain. It is expected that you will have successfully completed the SCPHN Masters within 2 years of starting it, as you will be expected to appear as specialist / expert witness at tribunals, inquests and legal proceedings

Together, you’ll be helping to protect thousands of people, whether that be from our offices or out on site.

Further information about the role can be found in the attached candidate pack.

You will be office-based but as part of your role, you will be required to inspect and visit sites across Great Britain. This will require regular travel and overnight stays.

Training:

As a requirement of your contract, we will build on your existing experience working in occupational health by supporting your completion of the 2 year Specialist Community Public Health Nursing PgDip and Masters, should you not already hold this qualification

Also, whilst working for the HSE and in order to fully understand the legal and enforcement requirements of this front-line role, you will develop your regulatory expertise by completing formal accredited training and complete a legal assessment. This includes a mixture of e-learning and face to face tutorials. After this training, you’ll then have wider learning opportunities through your Civil Service access.

Essential Requirement:

As well as learning on-the-job, you will continue your development, consistent with the professional revalidation process, to maintain your registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Please provide your NMC registration number on your application form.

Key Responsibilities developed during your first two years and once you have successfully completed the SCPHN Masters:

• Leading and/or supporting investigation of work related ill-health concerns and reportable diseases to identify the cause and where necessary, take appropriate enforcement action to control the risks
• Inspecting a variety of workplaces, either on your own or supporting another inspector to make sure health risks are managed safely, driving improvements and taking enforcement action where required to secure compliance with the law
• Advising other HSE colleagues about OH and how conditions compare with minimum legal requirements and good practice
• Providing specialist support to guide enforcement decisions and specialist opinion in reports
• Contributing to policy work and guidance in relevant priority areas by sharing information and advice with policy colleagues
• Contributing as a member of the occupational health team to promote occupational health at relevant UK forums as well internally, for example, coaching trainee H&S inspectors, and
• You will be expected to appear as specialist / expert witness at tribunals, inquests and legal proceedings. 

Person specification

To be considered for this role, you will need to:

• Be a registered nurse
• Have a full degree in Nursing - 2.2 or above
• Have 3 years experience across the occupational health setting
• Be able to demonstrate sound practical experience and technical expertise in occupational health
• Be able to influence at all levels in an organisation to make significant improvements in occupational health

Essential experience requirements: 

• The assessment and management of health risks from workplace exposure to a range of hazards such as substances hazardous to health, work-related infections etc.
• Developing policies and written arrangements for protecting worker health
• Managing health surveillance arrangements regarding risks to workers hearing, skin and respiratory system as well as the risks from exposure to vibration
• Monitoring the quality and effectiveness of occupational health delivery
• Experience in the management of musculo-skeletal disorders and work related stress and broader occupational diseases.

Desirable experience

• 5 years experience across the occupational health setting

In addition to the above, you’ll have made impact in your career by making intelligent, measured decisions in your area, with good analytical skills to spot underlying issues. Communication skills are key in this role as you will be expected to persuade and influence people at all levels.

We value people who respect others, work well in a team and can build robust relationships with employers and other stakeholders.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,647, Health and Safety Executive contributes £11,286 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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Informal Discussions:

You may wish to have the opportunity to speak to the vacancy holder or a HSE OH colleague prior to the advert closing on 10th June 2024 in order to learn more about the role and the organisation. Please note that these discussions are not part of the formal assessment process, they are intended to give candidates the opportunity to learn about the role and the Civil Service.

Contact Julie.wood@hse.gov.uk or susan.donnelly@hse.gov.uk  who will contact you to arrange a mutually convenient time to talk.

Application information

As part of your application, please complete the CV and tailor this to the Person Specification, Essential Experience Requirements and Key Responsibilities as outlined in the advert. Please ensure you complete your career history, skills, experience and qualifications.

You will also need to provide your Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration number on your application form.

Sift Information

At sift, we will assess you on your CV.

The sift will take place during the week commencing 10th June 2024.

Interview information

If successful at sift stage, you will be invited to a MS Teams interview.

We will assess you against a mix of strengths-based questions, the behaviours and the technical skills outlined in the job advert. As part of your interview, you will be required to deliver a 10 minute presentation. Further details of this will be sent out with your interview invite, if successful at the sift stage.

Interviews will take place week commencing 1st July 2024

AI Tools & Platforms

During the application process candidates are allowed to utilise AI (artificial intelligence) platforms and Tools to support them in writing their Behaviours, CV’s and Personal Statements. However, all information submitted must be factually accurate. This includes presenting the ideas and experience of others, or those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. All presented information will be assessed at the Interview Stage.

Further Information

Please note that a Reserve List will be held for the period of up to 12 months.

Please note that sift dates and interview dates may be subject to change.

Due to the nature of security checks undertaken, applicants must have 3 years continuous residency in the UK up to the date of the application and, Home Office approval for indefinite leave to remain within the UK.

Sponsorship

This role is not open to application from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship your application will be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment will be withdrawn.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application. For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached HSE Terms and Conditions document.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

HSE is proud to be a part of the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS). As a Disability Confident employer, we positively welcome applications from disabled people. We are committed to making workplace adjustments to ensure anyone can participate in the recruitment and selection process.

We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for all disabled applicants who provide evidence of meeting the minimum requirements necessary for the post.

If, during the application or interview process, you require any assistance due to a disability or a medical condition, please contact us at the email address below to discuss how we can support you. For example if you have a disability, and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk

If successful in securing your role, HSE can provide suitable workplace adjustments to support you throughout your career with HSE.

Any move to HSE from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at here

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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.