Health & Safety Support Specialist

HARRIS FEDERATION; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 25,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK education charity is seeking an early-career Health & Safety Coordinator. This role involves coordinating audits, tracking actions, and providing guidance to staff to ensure compliance and a positive safety culture. Strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and proficiency in Excel are essential. If you're detail-oriented and eager to develop your career in health and safety, this is an excellent opportunity to join a dedicated team committed to supporting educational excellence.

Qualifications

• Strong organisation and coordination skills; able to manage multiple trackers and deadlines.
• Strong Excel skills and data accuracy; comfortable producing charts, pivot tables and dashboards.
• Clear, professional communication (written and verbal).
• Attention to detail and a methodical approach to document control.
• Demonstrate strong IT skills, with the ability to work confidently across multiple platforms.

Responsibilities

• Log and track actions from Health & Safety audits and investigations.
• Chase overdue actions with academies and departments.
• Maintain and update central trackers ensuring data quality.
• Carry out regular safety checks for compliance.
• Plan, organise, and book mandatory Health & Safety training.

Skills

Strong organisation and coordination skills

Strong Excel skills and data accuracy

Clear, professional communication

Attention to detail

Strong IT skills

Job description

Join the Harris Federation's central team and play a key role in ensuring compliance and promoting a positive safety culture across our academies and shared services departments. This early‑career role offers progression into a Health & Safety Advisory role and involves coordinating audits, tracking actions, training the training programme, and providing first‑line guidance to staff. You'll maintain accurate data, support operational teams, and help streamline processes to keep our schools safe and compliant.

Responsibilities

• Log and track actions arising from Health & Safety audits, Fire Risk Assessments, near miss reports, inspections, and incident investigations – maintaining a clear audit trail and status dashboards.
• Chase and escape overdue actions with respective academies and departments in line with agreed SLAs (e.g., 10 working days for near miss review).
• Maintain and update central trackers and registers (SharePoint/Raw Data Sheets, RIDDOR Tracker or equivalent), ensuring data quality and evidence of closure.
• Carry out regular safety checks as required to ensure compliance with health and safety standards.

Training Administration & Records

• Plan, organise, and book mandatory and role‑specific Health & Safety training (elearning and in‑person), ensuring sessions align with academy needs and federation requirements.
• Manage financial aspects of training delivery, including raising purchase orders, liaising with suppliers, and confirming payment completion in line with finance procedures.
• Maintain accurate training matrices (intervals, refresher dates) and proactively remind managers and staff of upcoming expiries, file certificates and attendance records promptly.

If you're highly organised, detail‑oriented, and interested in a career in health and safety, this is an excellent opportunity to develop your career within one of the UK's leading education charities.

Qualifications

• Strong organisation and coordination skills; able to manage multiple trackers and deadlines.
• Strong Excel skills and data accuracy; comfortable producing charts, pivot tables and dashboards.
• Clear, professional communication (written and verbal).
• Attention to detail and a methodical approach to document control and evidence gathering.
• Demonstrate strong IT skills, with the ability to work confidently across multiple platforms and learn new systems quickly to support reporting and data integrity.

About Harris Federation

Our vision, from the start, has been to provide the structure and services needed for our schools to amount to more than the sum of their parts, and to free‑up our and leaders to focus on one thing and one thing only: the outstanding education of all their pupils. Our young people and communities are at the heart of everything we do. Our core mission has always been to close the educational gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. Our ambition is one where every child in London, no matter their background, has equal access to high quality education, giving them the same opportunities and potential to succeed. We know there are many challenges facing our young people and the communities we serve, and that's why we need determined people like you to help us tackle those inequalities. Whilst each of our academies has their own unique cultures and values; as a whole Federation, we have four core values which are central to successfully achieving our vision: Excellence, Collaboration, Support, and Innovation. We are proud of our values because they guide us in how we work allowing us to achieve the best possible outcomes for our young people, communities, and colleagues. The founder and sponsor of the Harris Federation, Lord Harris of Peckham, opened our first school in 1990. We have, over the past thirty years, implemented ideas and initiatives that have transformed the opportunities of pupils from working class and disadvantaged backgrounds. Harris academies are widely recognised as a force for social mobility. We are immensely proud of the role that our alumni are now beginning to play in the world and of what we believe our current generation of pupils will go on to achieve. We now have over 50 schools educating more than 40,000 young people across London and Essex, and employ over 5,000 staff across our academies and head office. With the majority of our academies located in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage, a high‑quality education is key to the futures of the pupils we serve. As a provider of employment and education, we value the diversity of our staff and students, and all our staff are equally valued and respected. We are committed to providing a fair, equitable and mutually supportive learning and working environment for our students and staff. Our work will impact many generations to come, and our staff come from all backgrounds and walks of life, coming together to inspire young minds. We promote an inclusive culture that embraces the valuable and enriching contribution that all of our community make. We continue to be proactive in uplifting and supporting all voices at Harris.