Head of Health & Safety

Head of Health & Safety

What you'll be doing

You will lead on the provision of outstanding proactive and professional Health and Safety advice to health and safety risk owners across the National Church Institutions. The role combines providing strategic Health and Safety leadership and advice up to Board level with guidance to operational risk owners as well as oversight, and hands on delivery of some day-to-day health and safety activities. You'll be part of the NCIs Business Continuity Group providing support to its members, as well as working with and our Joint Staff Council, Trade Union representatives, and facilities managers at Lambeth and Bishopthorpe Palaces.

You'll work across the NCIs (a predominantly office-based workforce) as well as supporting the Church of England Pensions Board (which provides retirement housing for clergy), and the Church Commissioners (which provides the homes and offices of the 42 Diocesan Bishops and 180 staff).

You'll be part of our HR Operations team, and report directly to the People Director, with a dotted line to the Director of Housing for the Pensions Board.

Core Responsibilities:

• Leadership & Strategy: Lead the health and safety function, setting strategic direction and overseeing compliance with health and safety legislation and standards, and helping to align our work on employee wellbeing
• Policy Development: Develop, review, and support the implementation of health and safety policies and procedures across the organisation
• Risk Management: Ensure effective risk assessment, audit, and incident investigation procedures are in place to identify hazards and implement corrective actions
• Training & Development: Lead on the provision of health and safety training and development opportunities for all employees, other workers and volunteers to ensure awareness and compliance with health and safety practices
• Compliance & Reporting: Monitor whether the organisation meets all legal requirements, and report on health and safety performance to stakeholders including the CHECS Senior Leadership Team and Trustees, the Joint Staff Council, the Trades Unions and other NCI groups
• Continuous Improvement: Promote a culture of continuous improvement in health and safety practices

Key Tasks:

• Health & Safety Management: Oversee the implementation and continuous improvement of the health and safety management systems
• Incident Management: Investigate accidents and major incidents, ensuring timely production of corrective and preventative action plans
• Training Programs: Develop and deliver health and safety training programs
• Audit & Compliance: Conduct checks to provide assurance of compliance with health and safety regulations, and work with our Risk and Assurance team to support formal internal and external audits
• The role will have a focus of approximately 60% in supporting the activities of the Church of England Central Services, including:
• Working closely with the Health & Safety Adviser who is the day-to-day contact for Health, Safety and Wellbeing queries within our HR Operations team, and providing advice and guidance on employee health and wellbeing concerns to HR Business Partners.
• Being in regular contact with our Facilities Management team (part of our Technology Services department) and the Corporation of Church House (the NCIs landlord for our London office)
• Supporting the Facilities Managers at Bishopthorpe and Lambeth Palaces and working with internal teams and external property consultants who support our bishops' residences which sits within the Church Commissioners' responsibilities
• 40% of the role will be working with the Pensions Board where you will be:
• Ensuring that health and safety is foundational to the Board's activities

Advising upon and assisting with health and safety strategy and delivery across a national housing portfolio with 1200 rental properties and seven sheltered housing schemes and pensions provider for 44,000 members who work, minister, or have retired from over 700 church organisations

We will support you in building and developing your skills as a health and safety professional offering a range of opportunities, developing relationships with key stakeholders, and working with colleagues to build pragmatic and practical health and safety solutions.

Your job description is intended to reflect your main tasks and areas of work but is not exhaustive. Changes may occur over time, and you will be expected to agree any reasonable changes to your job description that are commensurate with your banding and in line with the general nature of your post. You will be consulted about any changes to your job description before these are implemented.

About You

The Church of England is for everyone, and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups.

Knowledge/Experience:

This role requires previous experience of developing health and safety strategies and plans and reporting progress and compliance to committees up to Board level; provision of advice on operational health and safety risks (including for example display screen equipment and general office safety, lone working, facilities and property management and relevant statutory requirements, advice on overseas travel safety); liaison with union representatives and other external parties e.g. building landlords, enforcement bodies etc.

We work in a self-sufficient way and rely heavily on technology to support our customers; You will therefore need to be a confident IT user including Microsoft Office 365, Teams, and SharePoint.

Skills & Abilities:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with accuracy and attention to detail including with numerical data.
• You will need to be able to communicate clearly to stakeholders at all levels within and external to the organisation;
• You will be enthusiastic, have a highly organised approach to work, with the ability to understand and process high volumes of information.
• You will need to be able to work comfortably with competing priorities and show flexibility in your approach to customers to understand differing expectations;
• The successful candidate will need to be proactive and have strong problem-solving skills in order to deal with complex queries;
• You will be comfortable in negotiating with both internal and external stakeholders, able to take initiative, to manage supplier performance and both anticipate and implement change.

Qualifications & Training:

• Recognised Health & Safety qualification at Diploma level e.g. NEBOSH Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health & Safety Management (or equivalent);
• NEBOSH (or equivalent) qualifications in construction, environmental and fire safety management are also desirable;
• Safety Management Systems Auditor Training (ISO 45001) desirable.

The Human Resources department provides a strategic and operational HR service to the seven National Church Institutions (NCIs) and the 42 Diocesan Bishops' offices. Our HR Operations team focusses on the entire employee lifecycle providing support, advice and guidance to senior leaders, line managers and staff. The Organisational Development team lead on culture, values, wellbeing, development and our belonging & inclusion strategy. Through our External Service team, we also offer HR support on a consultancy basis to other Church of England organisations including our dioceses and cathedrals.

We are a friendly, diverse, well respected and highly engaged HR team who are committed to actively sharing knowledge and learning across the team and beyond. We encourage flexible working within the team and meet online weekly and in-person once a month for collaboration, knowledge-sharing and building relationships within the team.

The NCIs comprises a wide variety of functions and professions to support the mission and ministries of the Church by working with those who serve in parishes, dioceses, schools, and other ministries, and with partners at a national and international level.

We have made significant progress in our wellbeing, belonging and inclusion strategies and recently launched our new values, helping us to focus not just on what we do but how we do it. This is a new role following our Health & Safety function transferring into HR to better align our Health, Safety and Wellbeing work into one team.