Job title: Health, Safety and Wellbeing Apprentice

Salary: C1 - PO1 £28,598 - £40,777

Hours: 37 Hours

Contract: Permanent

Location: Hybrid Working

As a Health, Safety and Wellbeing Apprentice (HSW), working within Highways and Transportation, you’ll thrive on keeping people safe, ensuring safety standards remain high and legislation is adhered to, whilst developing your skills and understanding of Health & Safety legislation, good practise and applying these to real world circumstances

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.

About you

As a Health, Safety and Wellbeing Apprentice, you will bring to the role:

Health, Safety & Wellbeing Support: Assist in providing day-to-day health, safety, and wellbeing advice across the Highways and Transportation service area, ensuring a safe workplace and safe activities.
Accident & Incident Management: Ensure and support the correct reporting and investigation of all accidents, incidents, and near misses in line with policies and procedures.
Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement: Work closely with the Corporate Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team on initiatives and liaise with Safety Representatives, both union and non-union, attending Safety Committees as required.
Training & Development: Support the training and development of staff in health and safety procedures and competencies.

About the role

We are looking for a proactive and skilled Health, Safety & Wellbeing Apprentice to join our dynamic team and develop their skills. This is a pivotal role supporting managers and teams to create a positive culture around Health, Safety, and Wellbeing in which you will assist with driving compliance with statutory health and safety regulations and ensure alignment with Council policies, standards, and procedures, ultimately fostering a safe and supportive environment for all employees, whilst developing your knowledge and experience of this.

You will help to advise on best practices and compliance, conduct audits and risk assessments, manage consultations and develop performance metrics and reporting frameworks to assess health and safety management.

You’ll also assist in accident investigations and sharing findings to promote continuous improvement, supporting health and safety projects and facilitating local health and safety committees.

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a positive health and safety culture in a forward-thinking organisation. If you are a dedicated professional with a passion to begin a career in Health, Safety, and Wellbeing, we would love to hear from you.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

Please complete the online application form.

Read our guidance for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.

If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Jason Boasman at Jason.Boasman@leeds.gov.uk

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose

Support and advice managers to meet create a positive HSW culture and improve compliance with all statutory Health and Safety requirements and relevant Council Policies, standards and procedures.

Responsibilities

Assist, lead and support teams and managers to provide health, safety & wellbeing advice on a day-to-day basis to ensure a safe workplace and activities across all sections of the service.
Ensure all accidents, incidents and near misses are correctly reported, and provide support to investigation teams in accordance with our policies and procedures.
Conduct regular reviews and provide summaries, analysis, and reports to support the management of risk, consultation, and improvement.
Support with conducting manual handling, Personal Risk and COSHH plus PUWER assessments.
Assist with undertaking internal monitoring/inspection of compliance and working practices to provide assurance that systems are operating robustly.
Comply with all internal health, safety and wellbeing Policies, Procedures, Practices and Legislation.
Assist with the training and development of staff across the Service on health and safety procedures and competencies.
Work with and assist the Service and Corporate Health, Safety & Wellbeing Team on a range of improvement initiatives.
Liaise with union and non-union Safety Representatives and attend Safety Committees as required.
Develop excellent relationships with key stakeholders in support of overall and local health and safety objectives, in particular managers at all levels, Trade Unions, HR etc.

The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria. Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the essential requirements.

Experience of working within a H&S role.
Basic knowledge of current health and safety legislation.
Confident, well organised, with a flexible ‘can-do’ attitude, have attention to detail and be a team player who supports and influences others
Excellent communication and organisation skills to encourage, educate and support colleagues make good HSW choices.
Good IT knowledge and able to use a range of M365 and in-house applications.
A full driving license is required for this role.
Experience of workplace risk, compliance, legislation, data trend analysis and control measures to drive improvement and injury reduction.

Behavioural and other Characteristics required

Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours and codes of conduct.
Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambition of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon
Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council equality and diversity policies.
Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health and Safety Policies.
Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities.
Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
Participate in appraisal, training, and development activities.
Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
Be aware of and support difference ensuring equality for all, working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity.
Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person.
The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.