Departmental Safety Officer Virology SD23/92

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. Our diverse teams of over 2,000 skilled and committed professionals come together to provide research, advice and support to UK Government for safeguarding animal, public and plant health for benefit of the environment and economy.

The Departmental Safety Officer (DSO) for Virology is responsible for safety technical assurance in their department, providing comprehensive and consistent technical assurance of laboratory and specialist environments and work practices including higher containment laboratory facilities, post mortem facilities and animal facilities. They will also use their knowledge of genetically modified organisms to provide guidance to ensure staff work according to the genetically modified organisms regulations.

The post-holder must enable and work to ensure legal compliance in all areas of responsibility collaborating with the Biorisk team and other specialist advisors in the Safety, Health and Wellbeing team (SHaW) to identify areas for improvements and to implement these and flag areas of concern or non-compliance to the senior management team in the department.

Provide technical assurance that we are working safely

The post-holder will:

• Spend time talking to and working with staff in laboratories and specialist areas, observing procedures and verifying that staff are working according to their job descriptions, protocols and safety
• Ensure equipment works as it should and identify areas of concern or areas where shortcuts have become embedded
• Identify where protocols can be improved and work in liaison with staff and managers to implement these changes

Provision of advice, information, instruction, training and assessment

The DSO will assist their department line management in providing suitable and sufficient information and instruction to staff. This will include:

• Providing relevant training information for staff to carry out their role
• Cascading information from the Health & Safety department to staff within their department
• Providing input into staff training plans through the identification and recommendation of internal and/or external training courses, ensuring relevant training is identified and provided
• Delivering at least two toolbox talks, or other suitable local training presentations are delivered to staff each year
• Ensuring staff within their remit are aware of the actions to be taken in the event of an emergency, ensuring that at least one local contingency exercise of each type is practised per year within each workgroup and that it is recorded on the appropriate system
• All local, corporate, divisional and departmental induction training is recorded (including safety committees, policies and procedures) in individuals’ training records
• Ensuring that inspections, audits, tours are booked in, recorded on safeguard and completed on time
• Representing their department at any new build, refurbishment or annual maintenance works pre-start and/or co-ordination meetings to ensure that all parties are aware of the hazards and risks associated with the work and that appropriate control measures are implemented to mitigate those risks

Risk Assessments

The DSO is responsible for ensuring that risk assessments are:

• Carried out before new work commences
• Reviewed and rewritten where existing assessments are inadequate or inappropriate
• Reviewed and revised, where necessary, following any change(s) to procedures, equipment, substances, premises, people or legislation, and following any accident or incident
• Not unnecessarily duplicated and where possible merge risk assessments to provide more generic cover
• Understood by staff within the department (i.e. importance of the risk assessments and the specific control measures within them)
• Locally distributed and indexed allowing staff to ‘sign up’ to risk assessments relevant to the work that they are undertaking after each review

Accident and Incident Investigation

The postholder will ensure that:

• All accidents and incidents are notified to the Safety, Health and Wellbeing (SHaW) department as per Accident and Incident Reporting Procedures
• All relevant risk assessments are reviewed, and where necessary revised, within one month of any accident/incident
• A local investigation is carried out in order to identify immediate, underlying and root cause. Report this to local management, implement preventative actions and ensure that all findings communicated to all staff within one month of the final report

Safety Inspections

The DSO will:

• Plan, organise and deliver a programme of safety inspections/audits/tours for their department which may be carried out by a variety of people (BioRisk Advisors in SHaW team, HoD, Senior responsible person, lab managers). Capture actions and implement improvements in a timely manner escalate to the department’s senior management team
• Follow up all action points to ensure that appropriate action is taken within the deadlines set and where necessary a re-inspection should be scheduled to examine the effectiveness of actions taken
• Regularly review outstanding actions and present at departmental meetings to ensure management pressure for clearance
• Ensure that copies of all inspection reports go to the lab manager, senior management team and Safety and Health and Welfare department within a month of the inspection and actions should be reviewed and cleared within 1 month
• Assist with an annual safety inspection in a department other than their own and contribute to the report, according to the schedule of inspections published on the safety performance monitoring schedule. Usually this will be annually, however more frequent inspections may be required depending on the level of risk and variability of the work

Safety of Visitors and contractors

The DSO will ensure that:

• There are local procedures in place to ensure that visitors receive suitable and sufficient information, instruction, training and supervision regarding the hazards they are likely to be exposed to during their stay, and the risk that they pose. What is suitable and sufficient will depend upon the duration and nature of their stay, and any previous experience or training
• Any other visitors to their workgroup/ department receive a safety induction session and any safety training appropriate to the nature and duration of their stay/visit. Any training provided must be recorded
• The department adheres to Agency Procedures, and that the Nominated Person for each building within their department follows the relevant guidance
• The Nominated Person issues the appropriate Certificates of Assurance as part of the Permit to Work procedure, and those rooms and equipment, including microbiological safety cabinets, are adequately decontaminated before any service engineer or maintenance contractor commences work

Experience

• Relevant experience of working in a bio-containment environment with sufficient technical knowledge
• Experience of managing within Health and Safety
• Knowledge of safety standards and a commitment to safety including training
• The role requires evidence of excellence in communication with the ability to obtain cooperation and input from colleagues while demonstrating confidence influencing upwards to senior managers
• Willing to work to obtain necessary health & safety training and qualifications, e.g. NEBOSH General Certificate
• Understanding of the regulatory obligations of APHA
• Knowledge of the genetically modified organism regulations
• Postgraduate degree in Virology or a relevant Biological Science, or equivalent experience

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

In return for your dedication, we will support your ongoing personal development through appropriate training. Inclusion, support and the development of our people matter to us. We aim to support the career and personal wellbeing of everyone in APHA. Our benefits include generous annual leave of 25 days (rising one day per year up to 30 days after 5 years), flexible working, a contributory pension, staff bonuses and recognition, salary sacrifice benefit options, and an employee discount scheme.

Pension and Financial Benefits

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package and there are various options including Alpha and Partnership pension schemes in which Defra can invest in providing a contribution to the cost of your pension.

Life Assurance: if you become too ill or die before retirement valuable benefits will be provided to you and your family.

Learning and Development

Access to five days learning and development each year to support professional development through Civil Service Learning. Corporate induction and three days special leave for volunteering.

Staff Wellbeing

Access to Employee Assistance Programme, available 24/7, providing advice and guidance on both personal and employment issues such as personal wellbeing, career development, legal matters such as landlord / tenant disputes. Access to the Employee Assistance Programme, Occupational Health Service and the Civil Service Sports Council.

Office attendance

Successful candidates are expected to work from one of the office locations listed in this advert. Our current office attendance approach requires 60% attendance in Defra group workplaces or off site meetings with partners and customers. This balance provides thriving workplaces to connect with colleagues, as required by their role and business team needs balanced with personal flexibility and choice.

Job contact :

• Name : Science Directorate HR
• Email : Science.DirectorateHR@apha.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk