Environmental Health Officer (Food Safety)

Environmental Health Officer (Food Safety)

Salary: PO2 - PO4 £39,951-£49,083

Contract Type: Full - time Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: Sat 20th July 2024

Proposed Interview Date(s): Week commencing TBC

Reference: 1219

About Us: 

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. 

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents. 

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the https://www.london.gov.uk/good-work-standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment. 

About the role: 

We’re looking to recruit a permanent Environmental Health Officer to join our ambitious and progressive Food & Safety team. The appointed officer will be a qualified and experienced post holder who holds the relevant qualifications in Environmental Health. You will enjoy a range of duties in the fields of food hygiene, food standards, infectious disease investigations, smokefree enforcement and health & safety enforcement. The successful candidate will display a commitment to strong enforcement actions using the full range of available powers. We are looking for a motivated and dedicated officer with a demonstrable commitment to top quality regulatory services. The Council will offer appropriate support to successful candidates in their professional development.

https://fs-filestore-eu.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/Waltham_Forest/Role%20Profiles/EnvHealthEnforcementOfficer.pdf

Key Responsibilities: 

Be an authorised officer for the undertaking of the Council’s statutory functions in relation to food hygiene and standards inspections, health & safety and dealing with complaints

To be competent in Environmental Health assessments and enforcement actions.

Possess the knowledge and skills to be able to investigate possible breaches of legislation, serve notices, gather evidence and prepare cases for prosecution

To take the lead role on projects from inception to conclusion using project management techniques

The post holder may be required to work evenings, weekends and occasional public holidays in order to meet service requirements, this will include morning/ evening inspections for different food businesses, e.g. food markets, NTE, smokefree compliance etc 

Plan and organise work to ensure the delivery of those aspects of the service for which responsible

Qualifications and Requirements: 

Applicants must hold a degree or diploma in Environmental Health (i.e. BSc/MSc).

Applicants must be fully registered with the Environmental Health Registration Board (EHRB), as a Registered EHP (REnvH) or equivalent. 

NB. Candidates approaching full qualification and registration with EHRB/REnvH will also be considered, with appointment subject to achieving full EHRB/REnvH qualification within an agreed timescale.

Terms and conditions: 

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks; 

Satisfactory declaration of interest; 

Continued professional body registration; 

Suitable driver’s licence; 

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English. 

How to Apply: 

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.  

Equal Opportunity Employer: 

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. 

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy. 

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview. 

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us. 

Contact Information: 

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Caroline Drewery at mailto:caroline.drewery@walthamforest.gov.uk or 0208 4956 2285.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at mailto:recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk. 

The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email mailto:recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method. 

Click here for further information on the https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/council-and-elections/your-data-and-privacy/our-privacy-notices/hr-recruitment-privacy-notice.