Technical officer x 2 - Food Safety / Housing in Hereford

We’re looking for two new members of staff to join the Environmental Health Team to work within the specialist regulatory service areas of Private Sector Housing or Food Safety. This is an exciting opportunity to start a new career in Herefordshire Council Environmental Health Team where your work will help to make a difference to people’s lives, health and wellbeing across the county. In the specialist area, you will work across a varied caseload that keeps every day interesting and builds your professional competence. Working from the office, with some flexibility to work from home, travelling around the County gaining knowledge experience and support as you grow into your role. Herefordshire Council offers staff training and opportunities to progress towards professional and specialist qualifications in environmental health work as needed.

What will you be doing?

In a Technical Officer's role, you will be working with colleagues and partner agencies providing advice, carrying out inspections, gathering information and evidence to support enforcement actions. This mainly within the specialist team with some flexibility working across Environmental Health functions as required (including occasional evening/weekend working). Within the specialist area of work the role will include:

• Private Sector Housing – Technical Officer - Delivering private sector housing work, including Housing risk rating (HHSRS) inspections, complaint investigation, property condition checks and landlord/tenant advice. Assist with HMO licensing activity, including inspections and evidence gathering. Provide advice and enforcement actions on Illegal eviction and ASB/Nuisance cases relating to rental properties. Also contribute to health and safety enforcement work, including assisting with reactive investigations, workplace inspections, RIDDOR responses and targeted projects when required.
• Food Safety - Technical Officer - Delivering commercial food business food safety inspection programme and food hygiene rating scores. Investigating complaints, advising and inspecting new food businesses, assisting with public health food poisoning investigations, sampling food. Assisting with other public health work e.g. licensed checks, festival site visits and advice, health and safety assistance in commercial premises etc.

About You

You’ll be enthusiastic, customer-focused and ready to learn, with organisational skills to manage competing priorities. You’ll communicate confidently with residents, businesses and colleagues, with an ability to work both independently and as part of a team.

Job requirements

• Willingness to undertake and successfully complete relevant professional development and any specialist or statutory training required for the post.
• Career grade; entry level requires GCSEs/A-Levels (or equivalent), through to top career grade fully competent/authorised level: a degree/Level 6 equivalent or substantial professional experience.
• Have an understanding of the enforcement skill required for the role, being guided by legislation, regulation, codes and good practice, preferably with reference to the Environmental Health specialist subject area.
• Ability to travel across Herefordshire.

We Offer

• A competitive salary, holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes:
• Career progression: clear pathways to progress, with training, mentoring, and support.
• Salary range of £25,989 – £36,363 (career graded).
• Enrolment in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
• Annual Leave: 31 days’ annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum during the request period.
• Flexible working: including the potential for job-sharing, part-time hours and agile working.
• Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling.
• Payment of professional membership fees (based on role requirements).
• Pick your perks – our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts.
• Pool car available for district work.

Why Choose Us?

The Environmental Health profession has a long and proud history of safeguarding and improving public health for local communities, public and businesses, as a core local authority function, which is very much the case in our team in Herefordshire Council. We are a dedicated, supportive and professional team with a wealth of experience, knowledge and care in delivering this service. All this within the beautiful, historic county of Herefordshire.

Herefordshire is big-hearted, welcoming, and friendly. We have strong and independent communities and idyllic countryside, situated in the South West Midlands and bordering Wales. The county sits between Worcestershire and the Malvern Hills to the east, and Bannau Brycheiniog (the Brecon Beacons) in Wales to the west. Historically Herefordshire has been the gateway to the Marches.

We embrace partnership working. We are a member of the Marches Forward Partnership, which is a cross-border collaboration between Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Powys and Shropshire who are collectively working to secure funding to invest in the region.

The council priorities over the next four years are set out in the Council Plan, with four main areas:

• People: We will enable residents to realise their potential, to be healthy and to be part of great communities who support each other. We want all children to have the best start in life.
• Place: We will protect and enhance our environment and ensure that Herefordshire is a great place to live. We will support the right housing in the right place, we will support access to green spaces and we will do everything we can to recover the health of our rivers.
• Growth: We will create the conditions to deliver sustainable growth across the county; attracting inward investment, building business confidence, creating jobs, enabling housing development along with providing the right infrastructure.
• Transformation: We will be an efficient council that embraces best practice, delivers innovation through technology and demonstrates value for money.

Don’t meet all parts of the job description? Herefordshire Council is committed to strengthening a diverse and inclusive work environment which reflects the communities of Herefordshire. If you are looking at the next stage of your career and have a broad base of fieldwork experience, we can provide supportive and welcoming opportunities to help you develop your professional, management & supervisory skills.

Reasonable Adjustments

Our recruitment process runs in partnership with Hoople Resourcing. If you require any reasonable adjustments or alternative methods for the online application process, please contact the resourcing team by email.

Creating an inclusive workplace

We encourage our employees to feel empowered and to use their voices to help embrace diversity, promote inclusivity and shape our organisation. We have eight employee network groups, collectives of colleagues who often share identities, life experiences or cultures and offer support and community. They also play an important role in strengthening the voices of employees at Herefordshire Council. Embedded in the Council's values is a commitment to listen to people's views and needs.

Commitments, Covenants and Statutory Obligations

The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for:

• Those who indicate that they have a disability. This is part of our commitment to the “Disability Confident” scheme.
• Those who indicate in their application that they are an Armed Forces Veteran or Reservist. This is part of our pledge to support the Armed Forces Covenant.
• Those who indicate in their application that they are a Herefordshire care leaver. This is part of our commitment to supporting young people leaving our care.

We take our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously and expect all of our staff, visitors and volunteers to share in this commitment. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children & young people and vulnerable adults. If you are offered this position, it will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

How to apply

To apply for a position, please upload an up-to-date CV and complete the application form demonstrating your experience, skills and abilities for the role. Please indicate which role you are applying for Technical Officer - Food Safety or Technical Officer - Public Sector Housing or if you wish to be considered for either role. For more information or to arrange an informal discussion about the role, please contact: Elisabeth Laughland, Regulatory Service Manager (01432 261676) or email.

Be sure to include reference to the job description and person specification or role profile! If you are successfully shortlisted, Hoople Resourcing will contact you via email to arrange your interview and/or assessment. They will confirm the date, time and location of your interview, so please keep an eye on your email inbox - check your spam/junk folder too. Good luck, we’re looking forward to it.