Head of Health and Safety

Government Recruitment Service; Southampton; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A public sector organization seeks a Head of Health and Safety to lead the HSES team, ensure regulatory compliance, and engage stakeholders to foster a strong safety culture. The ideal candidate will drive health, safety, and environmental initiatives, ensuring a safe working environment for all. This role offers attractive benefits and aims to empower line managers while promoting excellent outcomes for the public.

Benefits

Employer pension contribution of 28.97%

25 days annual leave, increasing with service

Flexible working options for work-life balance

Qualifications

• Experience in leading Health and Safety teams.
• Ability to manage health and safety strategy effectively.
• Strong engagement skills with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead Health, Safety, Environmental and Sustainability function.
• Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
• Produce reports on performance, risk, and trends.

Job description

Overview

You could join the Maritime and Coastguard Agency as our Head of Health and Safety. This influential position leads the Health, Safety, Environmental, and Sustainability (HSES) Team within the Directorate of Corporate Services, providing guidance, oversight and ensuring legal compliance on all aspects of Health, Safety, Environmental and Sustainability Management. Working with stakeholders across the MCA and wider Department for Transport to drive forwards safety improvements and to achieve the Greening Government Commitments and regulatory requirements. Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

The purpose of the Head of Health and Safety is to lead and manage the organisation’s health and safety strategy, ensuring a safe working environment for all, and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Enabling the Behavioural, Environmental and Sustainability, and Occupational Health and Safety Leads to deliver by setting clear direction, operationally focussed solutions, and support where appropriate. Engaging with senior stakeholders across the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to embed a Safety Culture.

For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. The role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of a robust Health, Safety, Environmental and Sustainability function across the organisation. Ensure all Health and Safety systems and processes align with statutory requirements, the MCA Safety Management System and best practice. Produce reports on performance, risk and trends for Senior Leadership. Ensure accurate reporting of incidents, RIDDOR compliance, and appropriate escalation of risks and issues.
• Contribute to responses to internal audits, regulatory inspections, and parliamentary inquiries.
• Oversee development of Health, Safety, Environmental and Sustainability Policies, Procedures and Guidance. Provide constructive challenge and expertise to identify opportunities for improvement, championing change to make MCA a safer and environmentally sustainable place to work.
• Complete complex and/or high-profile organisational stress risk assessments. Work with Senior Leaders, Employees, and Volunteers to implement outcomes.
• Act as an escalation point for health and safety matters within the team to provide guidance, direction and support as appropriate.
• Lead on investigations into serious incidents and near-misses, ensuring root cause analysis and corrective actions are identified and implemented.
• Oversee the MCA’s compliance responsibilities with respect to Health, Safety, Environmental and Sustainability. Monitor and provide oversight on inspections, audits, and assurance activities across the MCA.

Benefits

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.