Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Health & Safety.

This is a Full Time, Permanent post.

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, London, Portsmouth (Fort Cumberland) and Cambridge. 

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.

What you will be doing

As our Head of Health & Safety, you will provide expert advice and leadership to Historic England in the maintenance and development of its operational risk management controls, covering health, safety, fire, security and emergency planning risks (the ‘operational risks’). You will lead in the development, communication, review and maintenance of policies and standards so that Historic England may comply with all laws and best practice concerning the operational risks.

You will take the lead in providing proactive advice and assistance to all those with responsibility for delivering operational risk management controls as to their responsibilities. You will lead in ensuring that there are appropriate systems and processes in place to allow for the effective and consistent dissemination of new and amended legislation and regulations, guidance or practices for the management of health & safety risk.

Who we are looking for

• A nationally recognised Health and Safety/Risk Qualification or equivalent 

• A proven track record of general health and safety experience across a wide range of risks 

• High level of understanding of health and safety management strategies and legislation 

• Experience of engaging with employee representatives on health and safety matters

• Understanding of managing budgets  

• Able to produce a high standard of written reports 

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy early if we receive excessive applicant numbers.

Provisional interview dates: Mid -June 2025 via Microsoft Teams

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –

https://cms.historicengland.org.uk/media/nbclbbsl/head-of-health-and-safety.odt