Health and Safety Officer

Prospective officers and staff must be held to a higher standard of behaviour and accountability than members of the public and that therefore their right to privacy can be fettered in certain circumstances. This is to ensure that members of the police are fully aware and accountable for the unique powers entrusted to them and the standards of professional behaviour they swear to uphold.

To provide advice for enquiries into the Health and Safety Team coordinating and retaining health and safety related data and documentation ensuring quality and accuracy.

Key Responsibilities:

• Respond to all enquiries in a timely and accurate manner providing advice on policy and process related matters

• Recognise personal limitations and escalate matters to the Health and Safety Advisors when they are outside of your level of expertise

• Ensure all incident records are accurately completed requesting further detail where required to complete the record

• Identify incidents that require investigation and depending on severity either request the relevant information from the line manager or notify the Health and Safety Advisor that will provide support

• Ensure internal stakeholders are notified of pertinent detail / records relating to incidents

• Identify incidents that require notification to the HSE under RIDDOR and ensure the Health and Safety Advisor / Head of Health and Safety is notified

• Ensure all RIDDOR documentation is logged and retained within the incident recording system

• Monitor the completion of investigations for quality and accuracy

• Analyse reports for any emerging trends and notify the Health and Safety Advisor / Head of Health and Safety of any trends identified

• Alert the Health and Safety Advisor / Head of Health and Safety of any significant incidents as soon as possible

• Ensure that the action plan process is managed and that accurate data is provided to LPAs and Departments

• Manage the walkthrough inspections process ensuring that notifications are provided to stakeholders

• Ensure the quality of the walkthrough inspections is of a high standard and provide further advice and to stakeholders where issues are identified

• Manage the local health and safety committee process ensuring that meetings are scheduled and are provided with the required management information

• Record the minutes of the health and safety committees ensuring a high level of quality and retain them for evidential purposes

• Attend meetings to update on matters of policy and process

• Ensure risk assessments that are submitted are suitable and sufficient (as defined by Regulations) and retain them for future reference

• Manage the review process for risk assessment issuing reminders to stakeholders as required

• Ensure fire safety management information is collated and reminders are issued to key stakeholders for activities such as fire drills evacuation plan review weekly alarm testing and fire risk assessment

• Maintain records of the Site Safety Leads and build effective working relationships with the to ensure a smooth flow of information

• Monitor the health and safety website to ensure information to ensure the information available is accurate

• Manage the Document Control process to ensure the information provided by the team remains current

• Manage the CX system for the team ensuring any actions are completed within a timely manner

• Build effective working relationships with stakeholders e.g. Insurance and Risk Manager Property Services Team Facilities Team IT&D

• Produce health and safety data to answer requests for information including:

  • Benchmarking data

  • Investigation data

  • FOI Requests

  • Data for Audits

  • Bespoke data requests

  • Performance data

• Ensure the incident recording system is managed to maintain access for users by working closely with IT&D colleagues

• Develop the system to include all areas of safety management as guided by the Head of Health and Safety

• Support the team on the use of the systems and processes.

Essential Skills:

• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office software particularly Excel

• Proactive and practical approach

• Good interpersonal skills

• Building and maintaining strong working relationships

• Creative and driven to deliver

• Excellent communication skills

• Customer focused

• The ability to challenge constructively.

Desirable Skills:

• Level 3 qualification in Occupational Safety and Health

• Minimum of two years experience in health and safety

• Knowledge / Experience of the Police Service

Benefit Statement:

By choosing to join West Midlands Police you will receive an enhanced benefits package including:

• Fair remuneration with progression opportunities and access to a very competitive pension scheme.

• Enhanced annual leave in addition to public holiday entitlements.

• Discounts across travel parking daily costs of living and leisure activities.

• A comprehensive wellbeing package including 24/7 support free eye tests and flu jabs

• Comprehensive benefits including pension Blue Light Card and employee assistance programme.

Vetting:Successful applicants will be required to pass Recruitment Vetting and Counter Terrorism Clearancescrutiny prior to commencing their role this will include a full background & financial disclosure as part of the vetting process.

Medical: Successful applicants will be subject to a medical assessment which may include a drug or hearing test.

Interview: TBC

Hours/Location: Monday - Friday 08:00 - 16:00 Logistic Centre

Contact: For further information email

West Midlands Police is a Disability Confident Leader - the highest level an organisation can achieve under the scheme run by the Department of Work and Pensions. As part of our commitment we operate a Disability Confident Interview Scheme - all candidates who declare a disability and meet the essential criteria for the role will be offered an interview.

It is important to notethat there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the essential criteria for the job. For example:in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume seasonal and high-peak times the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled these circumstances the employer could select the candidates whobestmeet the essential criteria for the job as they would do for non-disabled applicants.

Diversity and Inclusion Vision: Maximise the potential of people from all backgrounds through a culture of fairness and inclusion to deliver the best service for our communities