Occupational Health Advisor

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

Assist in delivering a comprehensive occupational health service.

Protect, promote and enhance the health and wellbeing of the Councils workforce. Providing advice to departmental managers and employees relative to the provision of healthy workplaces and the prevention of work-related ill health.

Main Duties:

1. Carry out pre-employment health assessments, including basic functional assessments.

2. Carry out health assessments and welfare checks in relation to employee fitness for work e.g. School Crossing Patrol, Driver checks, Sight/Hearing, Hand Arm Vibration.

3. Production and distribution of Health Unit reports.

4. Advise on reasonable workplace Risk Assessments and adjustments in relation to the health of individual employees.

5. Carry out health assessment and surveillance for groups or individuals in relation to statutory requirements, council policy and good practice.

6. Carry out initial counselling consultations.

7. Give presentations and briefing sessions on associated health matters.

8. Develop corporate and specific policies, practices, and procedures as an integral part of the Health Unit.

9. Carry out risk assessments as an integral part of the Health Unit.

10. Undertake health promotion activities in line with the national strategies and initiatives.

11. Develop a strong relationship with the Primary Care Trust any other Partnership with which the Council interacts.

Organisational Chart:

Occupational Health Nurse

AdministrationAssistant

Counselling/CBT Provision

Occupational Health Physician

Qualifications and Experience:

See Person Specification.

Special Conditions:

Car User Allowance payable if additional mileage incurred.

The post is customer facing therefore you must have the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence through the medium of English.

The post you are applying for is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore you are required to declare any convictions, cautions, reprimands, and final warnings that are not protected (i.e., filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2013. For further information, please refer to DBS filtering guidance at www.gov.uk/dbs.

General:

This job description is a representative document. Other reasonably similar duties may be allocated from time to time commensurate with the general character of the post and its grading.

The post holder is also expected to monitor the effectiveness of the occupational

health and safety arrangements and systems and to implement and promote appropriate improvements where necessary.

The person appointed will be expected to work flexibly and the exact nature of the duties described above is subject to periodic review and is liable to change.

All staff have a duty to take care of their own health & safety and that of others who may be affected by your actions at work. Staff must co-operate with employers and co-workers to help everyone meet their legal requirements.

The Authority has an approved equality policy in employment and copies are freely available to all employees. The post holder will be expected to comply, observe and promote the equality policies of the Council.

Note: Where the postholder is disabled, every reasonable effort will be made to support all necessary aids, adaptations, or equipment to allow them to carry out all the duties of the job.

The post holder will be expected to treat, maintain, and store all personal and medical information and records, to which they have access through his/her role, in an appropriately confidential manner and in line with the procedures adopted by the Health Unit.

Since confidential information is involved with the duties of this post, the postholder will be required to exercise discretion at all times and to observe relevant codes of practice and legislation in relation to data protection and personal information.

Undertake, and participate in training, coaching and development activities, as appropriate.

Person Specification

Teamwork, Communication and IT

Essential

• Work well within a team.
• Ability to write health reports.
• Ability to verbally communicate with all grades of staff.
• Computer literate

Experience

Essential

• Experience in Occupational Health provision/services.
• Willing to develop HAV competencies.
• Willing to develop sight test competencies.
• Willing to develop hearing test competencies.

Desirable

• Experience of working in a Local Authority or the National Health Service.
• Experience of performing HAV (Hand Arm Vibration) Testing.
• Experience of performing sight tests using specialist equipment.
• Experience of performing hearing tests using specialist equipment.

Presentations and Training

Desirable

• Experience and competence in presenting and providing briefing sessions to groups and/or willing to undertake self-development to develop these competencies.

Qualifications

Essential

• A Nursing qualification and registration with the UKCC.

Desirable

• Occupational Health Nursing Certificate or higher level qualification (e.g. Degree in Occupational Health Nursing or Occupational Health Nursing Diploma).

Competency

Essential

• The confidence and ability to make routine or uncomplicated clinical decisions (and other decisions that are within the limits of personal competency).
• and
• The wisdom to recognise where it is appropriate to seek guidance from or to refer an individual to an Occupational Health Physician.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Sefton Council

Address

2nd floor, Magdalen House

30 Trinity Road

Bootle

Merseyside

L20 3NJ

Employer's website

https://www.sefton.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)