Environmental Health Officer - Food and Health & Safety WCC619531

Job Details:

Salary range: £41,580 - £55,710 per annum 
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36 
Contract type: Permanent 
Closing date: 19 January 2025
Contact details for Informal discussion: David Stupples, Team Leader (Food Health and Safety), via email: DSTUPPLES@WESTMINSTER.GOV.UK

About Us:

The extraordinary story of over 6000 restaurants. 

Environmental Health at Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where passionate and expert professionals go above and beyond for their colleagues every day. 

Cian believes that food brings people together. His work opens his eyes to the widest range of people and places. From restaurants to hotels, cafés to bakeries, his inspections keep the public safe, and help businesses keep their doors open. And with over 6000 restaurants to explore, if there’s one thing he knows for certain, it’s that he’ll never be bored. 

The Role:

As a Safe City Environmental Health Officer, you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. You will join a highly experienced team, where you will get opportunities to develop your environmental health skills while challenging yourself. The team’s aim is to ensure that every resident, business, and visitor of Westminster will thrive in a clean, safe and quiet city. 

As a part of our environmental health service, you will work within and nurture an integrated Public Protection and Licensing directorate that is responsible for ensuring a culturally competent, inclusive workforce that identifies with our community through its positive values and behaviours. 

You will also need to channel your environmental and health knowledge to help make Westminster healthier and equitable for all residents and businesses. 

Responsible for developing, implementing and enforcing environmental health policies and legislation, you will use specialist technical skills and knowledge to maintain and safeguard health and well-being standards. You will also need to carry out routine or unplanned inspections to ensure compliance with legislation and take action to improve conditions, through engagement, education as well as enforcement.

While delivering a fair and informed response to complaints from our communities, you will resolve issues and risks that were highlighted in a time-effective manner. There will be instances where you will have to take enforcement action, initiate legal proceedings and prepare evidence to present in court. You will also need to promote integration of environmental health principals across the Council and its partners, while providing guidance and support to improve public health.

Please refer to the Job Description and our Environmental Health site for more information. 

About You:

To be successful in this role, you must hold a Degree or Diploma in Environmental Health or other relevant qualifications that enable you to undertake the responsibilities effectively. Ideally, you will have regulatory experience in food safety, food standards, and health & safety. For roles within our food service, you must meet the Food Standards Agency competency framework outlined in the Food Law Code of Practice Guidance. You will be registered with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) – either directly or via prior registration with the Environmental Health Registration Board (EHRB). 

You will have great oral and written communication skills, and a proven track record of responding to complaints regarding environmental health disciplines from the public, including stakeholders and public elected members, both in writing and in person. Any experience of working in a relevant environmental health discipline is also highly desired.

Past experience of delivering a customer facing role with the ability to build trusted relationships in emotionally challenging situations and responding calmly when facing conflict owing to your great interpersonal skills, is also preferred. You should also have good listening skills, where you can hear diverse point of views and influence behaviours through sharing knowledge and outlining consequences.

You should also have the ability to work closely with a range of both internal and external teams, and a proven track record of working with various agencies and professionals, building effective relationships to deliver excellent customer service and improve public health.

You should have experience in managing cases, including gathering information and evidence to support legal action, and a fair understanding of legal nuances of court proceedings. Your understanding of the legislation, procedures and requirements should allow you to improve compliance and clearly inform on consequences and penalties of non-compliance. 

You will have strong analytical skills and the ability to assess the appropriate intervention based on the risks posed to the public by non-compliance with regulations. Your decision-making skills will enable you to act swiftly and effectively to achieve compliance and mitigate risk, often in real-time scenarios.

Past experience in planning and managing workloads to meet agreed targets and standards within set timeframes will serve you well in this role. You will be comfortable working independently with minimal supervision while operating in the community, and you’ll have a clear understanding of when and how to escalate risks appropriately.

Proficiency in IT, particularly with the Microsoft Office Suite, is also important to thrive in this role. You should also be open to using handheld technology for recording information, completing tasks, and responding to customers while working across the city.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.   
 
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties  
 
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.  
 
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.