Health & Safety Director - London
Apply locations Finsbury Park time type Full time posted on Posted 2 Days Ago job requisition id JR029368
Principal point of contact for the UK Bus London business unit in respect of all health, safety, risk, and sustainability matters, including the development and execution of strategic plans to drive an improvement in safety behavioral culture together with sustained improvement in safety performance of the business. This role drives change, defines strategies, and executes initiatives that improve safety culture, reduce safety incidents and safety risks, and enhance our safety performance and compliance at all levels in the business whilst advancing our commitment to zero emissions. Ensures UK Bus operates safely and complies with the law and maintains the ‘Safety Management System’, ‘Road Traffic Safety Management System’ and Safety Quality Manual.
Leads the strategic rollout of safety campaigns, taking responsibility for embedding the change and implementing targeted improvement initiatives that address safety risks and safety performance underpinned with the introduction of a measurement card framework to monitor and track improvements to safety performance. Holds Senior Leadership teams accountable for managing and maintaining a strong safety culture throughout the business and aligns with UK Bus compliance and audit SMEs to ensure overall safety performance is improved including; Fleet Risk performance, Occupational Health & Safety, Environmental Safety and alignment to our operational and technical policy and standards.
Align with Operational Teams accountable for delivering UK Bus’ Electrification Implementation programme to ensure safe systems of work are established and maintained. Work closely with UK Bus’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) programme to ensure accurate and timely reporting of UK Bus’s required environmental, social and governance reporting is established and in place for 2026.
Main Responsibilities
This job description sets out the main duties and responsibilities of the job-holder. It does not constitute an exhaustive or comprehensive description of duties and the job holder will be required to carry out any additional tasks as and when requested to do so by their manager. Responsibilities and duties may also change in light of future business needs and personal development.
Health and Safety & Sustainability
* Develop, agree and implement strategic plans to drive a culture of behavioral safety through the business with associated safety improvement initiatives and performance measurement card framework.
* Manage and allocate HSER resources to ensure that robust and consistent support is provided to the business.
* Contribute to and develop required Risk & Safety policies, in line with any legal or statutory compliance, for UK Bus and implement within the business.
* Develop and execute safety and risk campaigns that are with prevailing trends and target safety improvement initiatives and addressing identified areas of enhancement.
* Act as a professional Head of Health & Safety where necessary and support investigation to safety incidents and escalations and drive corrective actions where necessary.
* Lead the production and reporting of safety, risk, compliance and sustainability performance metrics as required for the London Teams and align with UK Bus central Safety SMEs to ensure UK Bus and Group Safety Performance KPIs are reported, monitored and tracked.
* Work with external bodies and UK Bus Executive to mitigate risks from emerging safety challenges and associated changes in the law and safety legislation.
* Support the rollout of UK Bus Zero Emission Fleet and associated footprint strategy as defined by the UK Bus London MD’s and advise on environmental, safety & risk matters.
Customer
* Work closely with the business to identify risk and safety issues, provide guidance and formulate improvement plans that are driven through until completion.
* Work with the OpCos to ensure that multi-incident drivers are identified and that interventions are carried out in a timely manner to avoid reoccurrence.
* Advise the London MD and Senior Leadership Team on their roles, duties and responsibilities and ensure continued appropriate awareness of key health, safety and legal risks and obligations.
People
* Manage and lead the health, safety, risk personnel within the London team to ensure they are providing timely, pragmatic & commercially focused safety advice and support.
* Identify areas of skills enhancement required and ensure appropriate training and qualifications are maintained for all Health, Safety and Risk personnel within your organisation.
* Work closely with the Head of Health, Safety, Risk and Sustainability to ensure alignment and coordination of safety initiatives, communication, safety improvement programme delivery and measurement.
* Engage and motivate site teams through effective leadership and communication forums to become high performing teams.
* Be visible, credible, knowledgeable, and approachable, role-modelling standards of high business and personal performance.
* Forge strong working relationships with key stakeholders.
Quality
* Lead and coordinate national projects to deliver improved processes or better business performance through the introduction of new technologies/new ways of working ensuring smooth and aligned implementation across the business.
* Work with the central UK Bus Safety SMEs for governance, risk and compliance to coordinate audits and to ensure that any adverse findings are actioned.
* Ensure all material changes to safety law or legislation are cascaded and implemented in your operational area and ensure appropriate internal policies are fully compliant.
* Ensure the Arriva Group minimum safety standards are disseminated and implemented within UK Bus for your operational areas in all discussions with the central HSE&R SME team on wider health, safety, risk and sustainability matters and issues.
* Provide input into key strategic decisions impacting safety concerning the UK Bus business unit and entities within, as appropriate.
Financial and Decision-Making
* Work closely with OpCos, Legal and Transcare teams to minimize the exposure to the business relating to claims and incidents in both financial terms and in the event of litigation.
* Ensure through the Fit for Future measure card tracking that items related to improving Safety, Risk and Environmental performance are captured with the relevant owner to show tangible performance outcomes impacted by an improvement in Safety Performance where appropriate.
Continual Improvement & Innovation
* Continuously review the operating terrain, identify areas, processes and systems which through innovation can be substantially improved.
* Be a champion for creative thinking, supporting and challenging to develop robust change programmes in order to deliver local business objectives.
* Be accountable for new ideas, accepting some will be calculated risks.
* Work closely with the area leadership team and peer group to share best practice throughout UK Bus. Liaise with the HSER Data team to ensure that all reporting is accurate and aligned to the business need.
* Utilise the BI provided by the Data team to inform the business on Risk and Safety performance, trends and plan actions to reduce/mitigate impact.
* Provide strategic safety advice and recommendations to UK Bus Exec Leadership Team by identifying material safety risks and advise on remedial action where necessary to mitigate, or remove, such risks.
Corporate Social Responsibility
* Uphold, safeguard and promote the reputation and values of the organization throughout all internal and external business relationships and activities.
Essential Postholder Requirements
* Proven experience of multi-site operations and safety performance improvement across multi-disciplined environments.
* Demonstrable experience in large, comparable organisation (structure, complexity and size) to turn around safety performance, culture and sustainable safety culture.
* Degree education obtained with Safety recognised professional qualifications in the field of Health & Safety, Environmental and Sustainability with relevant proven experience in a similar environment. (NEBOSH diploma or equivalent and ideally Chartered Member of IOSH)
* Knowledge and understanding of ISO39001 and ISO45001, ISO14001.
* A subject matter expert with strong influencing & analytical skills and with exceptional attention to detail.
* Comfortable with extensive travel.
Person Specification
* Technical education with academic degree in either Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, environmental technologies or equivalent education.
* Multiannual management experience in the EH&S sector in industrial companies (manufacturing, transport or equivalent)
* Strong background in strategic planning and execution, team leadership, and a proven track record of implementing effective safety measures in large-scale operations and improving safety performance.
* Proven experience to define and execute strategies initiatives aimed at improving safety culture, reducing incidents, and advancing our commitment to zero emissions.
* Strong leadership skills and the ability to lead and develop a team of professionals.
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to engage non-safety stakeholders in health, safety, risk and sustainability issues.
* Proven experience in minimising risk profile within an organisation.
* Demonstrable experience working with Trade Unions and legislative Transport bodies.
* Ability to work collaboratively with other departments and external stakeholders, while also being able to resolve complex and strategic issues.
About Us
Arriva is a leading provider of passenger transport across Europe, employing around 34,400 people and delivering around 1.6 billion passenger journeys. With buses, trains, coaches, trams, waterbuses, bike-sharing systems, on-demand transport solutions and a rolling stock leasing company, Arriva proudly connects people and communities safely, reliably and sustainably across 11 countries, delivering these services in a better way, every day. The activities of Arriva are divided into four business units: UK Bus, UK Trains, The Netherlands and Mainland Europe. Arriva has passenger transport operations in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom, and also operates a rolling stock leasing company in Romania.
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