Trainee Inspector of Health and Safety (Band 4 / HEO)

Diverse Perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.

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 Health and Safety Executive (HSE) exists to help prevent work-related death, injury and ill health. Our inspectors play a critical role on the front line in the workplace; protecting people by preventing and investigating incidents and enforcing the law.

Working across a wide geographic area, you will begin your career in a robust training programme involving a combination of field and classroom based training culminating in a post-graduate level qualification and promotion to the career grade for an Inspector. In training you will build a technical understanding of the law, safety technology and health matters as well as learning to analyse how companies manage these issue and deal with people at every level in a wide range of organisations.

It’s a hugely varied and rewarding opportunity that offers the scope for continuous personal and professional development, as well as the chance to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Getting the perfect match between our culture, our work and you is incredibly important for both of us.

Please be aware that we are expecting to have a high volume of roles available, we will be placing all successful candidates into a merit order based on location preference. Offers will be made to candidates when posts become available throughout the next 12 months. 

For a full description of the role and further details regarding the Regulators’ Training Programme, please ensure you read the attached Candidate Pack before submitting your application.

As an Inspector you will be involved in a range of activities, notably inspections and investigations. Where appropriate, you will use various legal processes such as enforcement notices and prosecutions to secure health and safety compliance.

Inspections involve proactively assessing the ability of employers to effectively manage risks to their employees and others (such as contractors or members of the public). Investigations cover accidents, dangerous occurrences, ill health and concerns about workplace conditions and your role will be to uncover what has happened and why. You will have to be prepared to tell people that there is a breach of the law (you will be given lots of training to help you identify and understand this), what action needs to be taken as a result and ensure that this action is taken.

You will have the opportunity to work off site or outdoors at workplaces spread across the region surrounding your base office; occasionally outside of normal working hours.

Not everyone will appreciate what you will be trying to achieve, and sometimes it might be a struggle to change attitudes and convince others about what is required. Very occasionally you may encounter some hostility to your visit. Your training and the support you receive from us will give you the confidence to deal with a wide range of duty holders and difficult situations.

The investigation of fatalities and serious accidents may mean visiting places where there is evidence of what has happened and, in some rare instances, the deceased person may still be on site. You will work with other agencies such as the Police in such circumstances, as well as pulling from the valuable experience and expertise of colleagues and managers. At times, you may need to speak with the bereaved families and witnesses. You will need to be able to do this in a professional, but empathetic manner, communicating effectively with people at every level in an organisation and in the public arena.

Your aim will be to identify where there are breaches of the law and take the action required to get these corrected, and to help duty holders understand what they need to do to sustain compliance with the law. This might require you to take formal enforcement action. It might require persuasion and influencing skills. Often, it will require elements of both. You will always need to gather the right information and evidence to support your decisions. You therefore need a logical and analytical mind and good organisational skills.

With our training and support, you will prepare cases for prosecution for criminal court proceedings and you may need to appear as a witness in court or at an Employment Tribunal.

We operate a cost recovery scheme known as Fee for Intervention (FFI). Whilst you won’t be involved in the collection of the fee, you will need to notify the workplace duty holder at the time of their inspection and/or investigation if that visit is going to be cost recoverable and why. You may also need to become familiar with other cost recovery regimes.

In addition to the above, for roles within Chemicals, Explosives and Microbiological Hazards you will be:

• Providing assurance that major accident risks are being properly managed

• Writing site strategies and carrying out intervention planning

• Focusing interventions on improvements to operator safety management systems and control of risk, including carrying out leadership interventions

Roles located in Chemicals Regulation:

Chemical Regulation employs around 400 scientific, policy and support staff in York, Bootle (Liverpool), London and other areas across the UK. Our primary role is to deliver regulatory schemes intended to protect the health of people and the environment by ensuring the safe and sustainable use of chemicals and by identifying and managing chemical hazards and risks.

To achieve this and deliver improved regulatory outcomes, we work closely with small and large businesses, and key stakeholders, ranging from industry bodies and multi-national chemical businesses, other government departments (in particular Defra) and other regulators across Europe and internationally. Specifically, CRD regulates pesticides, biocides, industrial and consumer chemicals, detergents and the export and import of dangerous chemicals. Additionally, through intervention in the supply chain we seek to prevent the adverse effects of chemicals on people and the environment.

We also have a role through guidance, partnership working and leadership to raise awareness and promote behavioural change to help improve the control of hazardous substances in the workplace.

As you might expect, this role can take you to all sorts of workplaces and conditions, and you may need to access various parts of the workplace, including at height. You therefore need to be reasonably fit. Obviously, your health and safety is paramount to us and we will provide you with a range of personal protective clothing depending on the workplace you are visiting. When you are in the office, you will be dealing with the follow-up to investigations and inspections using HSE’s information and recording systems. You can expect to have a challenging, but realistic workload.

Becoming a Health and Safety inspector is hugely varied and rewarding, and you’ll be challenged in ways you won’t expect. The variety means that it is never dull. And you have an incredible opportunity to make a very positive impact on peoples lives.

For a full description of the role and further details regarding the Regulators’ Training Programme, please ensure you read the attached Candidate Pack before submitting your application.

We are looking for high calibre individuals with:

• Good communication skills, enabling you to give direction, collaborate and partner with others as well as to influence change at all levels, occasionally you may come across an unreceptive or confrontational audience

• Sound analytical skills to include being able to critically review numerous pieces of information, identify significant findings, draw conclusions with reference to relevant benchmarks, make recommendations and articulate them in a written report.

• The ability to plan, change and adapt and have the determination to progress multiple workstreams at the same time and deliver at pace

• Initiative and decisiveness, supporting your ability to make effective decisions

• Confidence to take charge of situations, people and decisions

• Resilience, having inner composure, the ability to recover quickly from setbacks and learn from them

• Commitment to your learning and development to achieve the Regulators’ Training programme, with the ability to proactively manage your own learning needs, continually seeking and acting on feedback to evaluate and improve your own and the organisations performance

For posts located in York with our Chemical Regulations Division (CRD), there is a requirement for individuals to have a minimum degree of 2:2 or a level 7/8 qualification (e.g. – postgraduate degree, postgraduate certificate) in a relevant science subject such as: • Chemistry • Environmental Sciences • Biological Sciences • Agriculture • Horticulture • Occupational Hygiene • Biochemistry • Pharmacology • Toxicology • Biomedical Sciences

Candidates who pass the sift will be contacted to provide verification of their qualifications prior to the Assessment Event.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

We invest in our people with;

• Learning and development tailored to your role

• An environment with flexible working options

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

• Competitive rates of pay

• Access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme to which HSE contribute 27.1%, far more than in the private sector.

• Family friendly policies and working hours to help balance your home life and career

• Carer friendly policies to help create a supportive working culture

• 25 days annual holiday increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays and 1-day Civil Service privilege leave

• Parental leave benefits

Allowances

This post is eligible for Excess Fares Allowance. A successful internal candidate currently based at another office may be entitled to Excess Fares Allowance in line with HSE Policy:
http://intranet.hse.int/finance/expenses/excess-fares-allowance-policy-procedure.htm

Job contact :

• Name : traineeinspectorrecruitment@hse.gov.uk
• Email : traineeinspectorrecruitment@hse.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : traineeinspectorrecruitment@hse.gov.uk