Head of Health & Safety

We pride ourselves in being a great place to work, providing a supportive culture with opportunities to grow and develop your career, achieve a healthy work life balance and to be recognised for the great work you do. You will receive:

• Competitive salary and pension scheme
• 33 days holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) - increasing to 38 days over 5 years
• Cycle to work scheme Electric Vehicle Scheme (subject to terms)
• Health and Wellbeing portal - access to financial, health and wellbeing support and an Employee Assistance Programme
• Discounts - you will have access to Blue Light and NHS Discounts as well as discounts on mobile phones, gym membership, cinema tickets, restaurants, holidays and shopping

About Us

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a team of over 1,100 employees and over 20,000 volunteers, united by our goal of saving lives through essential first aid services, training and campaigning. As a charity with rich heritage and a long history of serving humanity, we are proud of our past and excited about creating a healthier, safer, more resilient future.

St John Ambulance works at the heart of communities, supporting and enabling them to access and receive physical and mental health first aid. We do this through developing and providing effective community response and outreach services (e.g. Ambulance response) and using our longstanding expertise to empower people with vital clinical skills and the confidence to use them (e.g. our Volunteers and Community Advocates, and Young Responders programmes).

Job Summary

Every day, St John Ambulance supports communities across England by providing life-saving first aid, healthcare services and volunteering opportunities that make a real difference. Behind everything we do is a commitment to keeping our people, volunteers, patients and the public safe. We're now looking for an experienced and inspiring Head of Health & Safety to lead our organisation-wide approach to health and safety, ensuring we continue to deliver our mission safely, responsibly and with confidence.

This is a pivotal leadership role with strategic influence across the charity. As our Head of Health & Safety and organisational Responsible Person, you will provide expert leadership, governance and assurance, ensuring robust health and safety standards are embedded across our diverse operations. Working closely with the Executive Leadership Team and Board, you'll provide evidence-based advice, shape strategic direction and ensure compliance with statutory requirements while driving continuous improvement.

We're looking for a collaborative leader who is passionate about creating a positive, learning-focused safety culture. You'll lead a team of health and safety professionals, champion best practice and work across the organisation to identify, manage and reduce risk. This is an opportunity to make a lasting impact, influencing how health and safety supports our people, strengthens our services and enables St John Ambulance to continue making every second count.

About the role

As Head of Health & Safety, you'll provide strategic leadership to ensure health, safety and fire risk is effectively managed across every part of St John Ambulance. Reporting at a senior level, you'll work closely with the Executive Leadership Committee, Board of Trustees and leaders across the charity to shape our safety strategy, strengthen governance and embed a culture where everyone takes responsibility for keeping people safe. Leading a team of health and safety professionals, you'll drive continuous improvement, provide expert advice and assurance, and ensure our policies, systems and practices enable our people and volunteers to deliver our life-saving work safely and confidently.

In this role you will:

• Lead the development and delivery of our organisation-wide health, safety and fire strategy, ensuring compliance with legislation and embedding a proactive, learning-focused safety culture across all areas of the charity.
• Provide expert advice and assurance to the Executive Leadership Committee and Board of Trustees, acting as the organisation's principal health and safety adviser and Responsible Person, with oversight of governance, compliance and strategic risk.
• Develop and maintain robust health and safety management systems, including organisation-wide risk assessment frameworks, document control processes, legal compliance registers and integrated corporate risk reporting.
• Drive performance through effective monitoring and assurance, introducing meaningful safety metrics, dashboards, internal audit programmes and robust incident investigation processes that support learning and continuous improvement.
• Lead programmes to strengthen compliance across our diverse operations, including property, fire safety, clinical activity, events, youth programmes, logistics, contractor management and business continuity.
• Build strong partnerships with colleagues, volunteers and senior stakeholders, leading consultation forums, promoting engagement and ensuring health and safety remains integral to decision-making at every level.
• Champion continual improvement by embedding best practice aligned to ISO 45001 principles, strengthening organisational resilience and ensuring lessons learned translate into measurable improvements.
• Represent the charity with regulators and external bodies, leading responses to inspections, investigations and enforcement activity while maintaining the highest standards of professional integrity and governance.

About You

We're looking for an experienced and influential health and safety leader who can combine strategic thinking with practical delivery. You'll be confident operating at executive level, building trusted relationships with senior leaders and providing clear, evidence-based advice that supports effective decision-making and organisational performance.

You'll be passionate about creating a positive safety culture, with the credibility and leadership skills to inspire others, challenge constructively and drive continuous improvement across a complex, national organisation.

You'll bring:

• Chartered Membership of IOSH (or an equivalent professional body), together with a degree, postgraduate qualification or significant equivalent professional experience.
• A proven track record of developing and delivering organisation-wide health and safety strategies within a large, complex or multi-site organisation.
• Significant experience providing expert advice, assurance and reporting to Executive Leadership Committee, Board of Trustees on health and safety governance, risk and compliance.
• Strong leadership experience, with the ability to influence, engage and collaborate with senior stakeholders, building trusted relationships across all levels of an organisation.
• Experience leading organisational change and embedding a positive, proactive safety culture that focuses on learning, accountability and continuous improvement.
• A strong understanding of UK health and safety legislation, governance and best practice, with the confidence to act as the organisation's senior professional authority.
• Experience acting as a competent person, leading responses to regulatory inspections, investigations or enforcement activity, and ensuring organisations meet their statutory obligations.
• Excellent communication, judgement and problem-solving skills, with the ability to balance strategic priorities while delivering practical, proportionate solutions that enable operational success.

Please see the job description for more detail

For all other candidates, or St John Ambulance volunteers wishing to apply: please apply below

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

St John Ambulance are committed to increasing the diversity of our team and making sure we best reflect the diversity of the communities we serve.At St John, everyone is valued and supported to thrive, we have several networks including Multi Culture, Disability and Accessibility, Pride, Family and Carers and Women's groups. We do nottolerate any form ofdiscriminationandengendera sense of belonging for all, by creating an environment of mutual respect, where we value unique differences and demonstrate authentic allyship.We believe passionately in equality, diversity and inclusion.

'St John Ambulance is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice. Therefore, all successful applicants will undergo pre-employment checks, including DBS Clearance, as part of the onboarding process, if applicable to the nature of the role'.

Please note: St John does not accept speculative CVs and will only review CVs sent in application for an advertised vacancy.