National Veterinary Health & Safety Manager (UK & Ireland)

Closing date is Monday 22nd October

About Us

Healthy Animals, Happy Owners – that’s the goal.

We are IVC Evidensia and are on a mission to build the world’s best veterinary group. Investing in people, premises, and processes, we deliver outstanding care in around 2,500 locations globally.

About The Role

This role is responsible for leading Health & Safety across the UK & Ireland, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, embedding best practice, technology platforms and supporting the wider business to deliver a safe and positive working environment. The position provides leadership on incident management, risk and compliance activities, and the continual improvement of safety standards, while also coaching and developing in-country teams to build capability and engagement.

What you'll do

Accountabilities

• Supporting the Head of H&S by providing leadership through the application of national policy and frameworks, aligning business and legal requirements
• Ensuring all systems for risk assessment, procedures, and compliance are implemented and monitored throughout the UK & Ireland
• Leading the development and evolution of risk management platforms, reporting modules, and improvements in processes
• Promoting positive safety culture throughout the business, engaging with UK & Ireland operations and clinics to embed
• Acting as an SME at H&S committees; contribute to monitoring and reporting against audit programmes and KPIs
• Developing tools and training to raise awareness, and competency development programmes to ensure managers and colleagues are equipped to manage risks
• Oversight and escalation of key incidents; acting as an escalation point for Regional H&S Managers
• Analysing business wide data to identify patterns/trends, sharing lessons learned and making recommendations for improvement
  
  

Responsibilities

• Continue to develop & Implement the H&S Policy, Framework, H&S Management System, Risk Assessment & *Procedures at all Veterinary Clinic sites throughout the UK & Ireland
• Support regional teams with Developing, Undertaking & Overseeing both National & targeted H&S Audits as part of a defined Audit Program
• Advise on health and safety competency and training requirements of Functional Teams; prepare and deliver internal presentations, including team briefs, health and safety awareness or other training as required
• Support regional teams on activities to minimise the likelihood of accidents and incidents and to effectively manage risks for the region, by effective evaluation of Incident Data and sharing
• Support regional teams to ensure the Health & Safety Committee(s) within the region and facilitate development of the committee’s role and purpose
• Communicate on H&S matters at local and regional meetings. Facilitate & support Area Managers, Directors, BSMs, Operations Managers, Clinic Teams and H&S representatives in practice
• Facilitate Health & Safety Training & Media using the online systems. Ensure training and support is provided in enabling practices to manage the risks within their Clinics
• Supporting compliance within country in line with group to H&S policies and procedures in relation to Clinical Activities
• Lead on the continued development of Modules & Reporting for the H&S Risk Management Platform Nationally for all business Units; primary liaison Nationally with the Software Provider
• Co-ordinate the external arrangements for management of H&S Vendors, Radiation Protection; Practice Standards Scheme Health & Safety
• Lead & Co-ordinate H&S committee forums; support clinical standards teams and continual H&S improvement activities
  
  

What you'll bring

Essential

• Experience of veterinary sector essential
• NEBOSH Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety
• Ability to prepare written documentation such as reports, Policies, Risk Assessment & operational procedures. Strong administrative and organisation skills are essential.
• Good understanding of H&S legislation, processes, standards, and improvement techniques. Practical knowledge of implementation of H&S legislation
• Must be a strong communicator, able to work collaboratively with colleagues from different disciplines.
• IT skills. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, SharePoint, incident database, audit databases, Power Bi, H&S Platforms
• Experience of implementing and managing Health & Safety Policies, procedures and Risk Assessment within a clinical environment.
• Role-holder must be willing to undergo relevant Health & Safety training and other training as required for the role.
• Full driving licence: field-based work is a requirement of the role and travel will be required
  
  

Desirable

NEBOSH Diploma / Degree level qualification in Occupational Safety & Health

Experience of managing a Health & Safety function & Team

Chartered member of the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) or progressing towards

What We Offer

At IVC Evidensia we recognise that our people are fundamental to the success of our business. Investing in our people, premises and processes is at the heart of what we do. In addition to a competitive base salary, you will benefit from

• 5 weeks’ holiday, plus bank holidays.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Discounted staff pet care.
• Company pension.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and supportive well-being initiatives.
• Single Private Healthcare.
• Family-friendly policies.
  
  

At IVC Evidensia we are a committed to Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Belonging, we are keen to hear from candidates from all minority and diverse groups. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are keen to hear from candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions and would be happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments needed during the recruitment process.