Army Force Protection Health & Safety Advisor

The Land Warfare Centre (LWC) delivers the Deployable Force training and education, driving agile adaptation of the Army, to enable success on current and future operations. Fundamental to this is protecting the Army's Licence to Operate and its ability to deliver challenging and appropriate training, education and experimentation while keeping the risk to force and reputation As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) and tolerable.

This Force Protection (FP) role, based in Warminster is a senior Health and Safety position that provides specialist, Safety Health Environment & Fire (SHEF) advice across LWC’s global Area of Responsibility. This post provides authoritative and technical guidance to Director Land Warfare (DLW) and supports 36 units worldwide, to compliance with UK legislation, MOD policy and safe delivery of land training.

The role requires visits to LWC Operating Groups, including overseas locations, to assure, help resolve safety issues and strengthen organisational safety culture.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

We are looking for a Health and Safety practitioner with experience of operating at management board, formation level. The role is, based in Warminster but will entail visiting units across the UK and overseas. This position is responsible for providing safety advice, guidance and direction relating to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, supporting Regulations and MOD SHEF Policies. It is also responsible for ensuring all safety risks are managed correctly, that service personal on land training exercises and courses are protected and that MOD and Army Policies are met across the LWC’s Area of Responsibility.

The Force Protection Health & Safety Advisor role provides an exciting opportunity to deliver Health and Safety advice, guidance, direction and support at a senior level, to protect the Army’s licence to operate.

Main responsibilities will include:

• Provide specialist Force Protection and SHEF advice to DLW and HQ LWC, ensuring compliance with UK legislation, MOD policy and mandatory Defence requirements.
• Lead and coordinate Health, Safety, Environmental Protection, Training Safety and wider Force Protection activity across LWC.
• Maintain and continuously improve Health and Safety and Force Protection (FP) governance, processes and organisational arrangements.
• Drive and promote a positive Health and Safety culture into the Land Training Systems and support senior leaders in driving continuous improvement across LWC.
• Identify Health and Safety and Force Protection training needs and ensure delivery of Safety Risk Manager, Duty Holding, Risk to Life and other mandatory training.
• Capture and share best practice to support learning, assurance and consistent standards across LWC.
• Build effective relationships with Defence partners, senior commands and other stakeholders to enable coordinated Health and Safety and FP activity.
• Develop, maintain and assure compliance with all LWC Health and Safety and Force Protection policies, processes and directives.

Level 3 certificate in Occupational Health and Safety.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

At application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Your CV
• Personal Statement - of no more than 750 words detailing how you meet the essential skills criteria
• Behaviour - Leadership
• Technical - Inspection, Audit & Assurance, Intermediate level

Where a large number of applications are received, an initial sift will be conducted based on the evidence you provide in support of Leadership.

The remaining elements will only be reviewed if you are successful at this initial sift.

At interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions
• Behaviour - Communicating & Influencing
• Technical - Inspection, Audit & Assurance, Intermediate level
• Technical - Organisation and Culture, Intermediate level

Application sifting will be scheduled to take place within 7 days of the application closing date. Interview dates are to be confirmed and will be held in person. We endeavour to keep to these time frames, but these are subject to change around business needs.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

There may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all DCS candidates that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as a high volume of applications, seasonal demand, or peak periods, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both DCS and non-DCS applicants.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.