Senior Fire Safety Advisor

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1.Communication and relationship skills

Provide the Trust with operational leadership in the field of fire safety and technical fire detection device management. Undertakes extensive communication within the Trust and with multiple stakeholders often discussing complex technical information.

Be an effective communicator as a senior manager with the team and peers.

Liaise with key stakeholders, the Fire Service and other specialists, as required, to obtain clear advice and guidance on developing a plan of action with a fire emergency leading to relevant changes being made to the fire strategy.

Ensure clear instructions to all contractors and ensure that they comply to the Trust's policies whilst working on site.

Adaptive to a changing environment and be flexible team member.

Represent and attend various committees where formal presentations may be expected for areas of responsibility.

Represent the Trust, Head of Estates and Facilities and Head of Technical Estates - Hard FM on internal and external forums within this technical area of responsible, as required and carry out appropriate duties to maintain continuity of service.

Negotiate and obtain agreements both in house, communicating with Directors and managers throughout the organisation and with external agencies bodies.

2. Knowledge, Training & Experience

Specialist knowledge on fire safety management is a key corporate responsibility to ensure that the Trust's policy and procedures are achieved across all aspects of fire safety.

Advise the Trust on fire safety policy and all matters relating to Fire Safety best practice and Fire Safety legislation such as the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 compliance.

Responsible for advising for the reduction of risks relating to fire. Undertake and manage comprehensive fire risk assessments and associated risks identified, including fire compartmentation, warning, and response, means of escape, evacuation and PEEP (personal emergency evacuation plan). Together with emergency lighting and fire signage.

Ability to liaise with the team and advise on fire ventilation and suppression systems to ensure that the estates infrastructure is fully compliant.

Experience of ensuring compliance in relation to fire maintenance and the process necessary to upgrade when appropriate, providing technical reassurance to the Trust.

Lead teams meetings and audits as required. Supporting the fire wardens and marshalls to undertake their responsibilities.

3. Planning & Organisational Skills

Plan fire risk assessments as required and ensure necessary training of staff to support this process. Ensure the training is tailored to meet the operational and legislative needs of all departments across the Trust and ensure that all parties are aware of their statutory duties as appropriate.

Support service interruptions as appropriate in conjunction with other staff within the trust, to ensure all contingencies have been identified and covered, supported by risk assessments, COSHH, method statements and the permit to work systems.

Provide technical support to Capital Projects and Estate Strategy such as Ward and department refurbishments.

Ensure all statutory compliance requirements, systems and standards set for the Trust are in line with legislation, NHS standards and the quality of work accepted by the Trust. Further ensuring that controls result in desired and targeted performance being achieved and duly recorded.

Work to achieve agreed objectives with considerable independence within professional parameters.

Provide authoritative advice on issues responsible for without reference to Head of Estates and Facilities.

Provide technical related reports for committees and governance and support technical associated business case development through to approval and implementation.

Please review the attached job description for a full list of responsibilities

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Fire Safety Post Graduate Diploma or equivalent relevant practical experience demonstrating specialist knowledge in the management of fire safety.

Desirable criteria

• Membership of a professional organisation (i.e. Institute of Fire Engineers, IFE; Institute of Fire Prevention Officers IFPO).
• IOSH managing safely or equivalent.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of undertaking fire risk assessments.
• Experience of working across organisational boundaries.
• Extensive experience gained within the management and delivery of fire safety/fire precautions & prevention.
• Able to analyse and interpret complex data and information to ensure that the Trust is compliant in all fire safety matters.
• Experience associated with work process, policy and procedure that directly affect patient care.
• Strong record of delivering quality service to customer.
• Be decisive and clear thinking.

Desirable criteria

• Possess NHS experience in fire management.
• Previous experience at working at a senior position.
• Experience of Financial Management of budgets.
• Experience of Working in a political sensitive environment.
• Experience of working with clinical staff.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Excellent leadership skills.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills.
• Proven organisational skills and ability to prioritise workload without interruptions and changing prioritises whilst meeting deadlines.
• Highly motivated and resourceful with a proactive approach to problem solving.
• Strategy development expertise.
• Good interpersonal skills.
• Project management experience.
• Budget management experience.
• Good negotiation skills.
• IT Literate, be capable of producing spreadsheets & reports.
• Time management.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of leadership in the NHS.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge and understanding of the Fire Legislation such as Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 compliance.
• Formulating a Fire Strategy and the associated legislation and compliance associated with managing this area.
• Excellent team building skills.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to both lead and be part of a team.
• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Project management experience
• Budget management experience.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of statutory and NHS codes of practice.

Values

Essential criteria

• Ability to demonstrate the organisational values, culture and behaviours.

Other

Essential criteria

• Flexible to meet the demands of the service.
• Self-reliant and ability to work under one's own initiative.
• Commitment to quality.
• Anti-social hours may be required.

The closing date for this post may be extended if there are insufficient applicants or brought forward if there is a high volume of applicants.

We want to ensure that everyone who works at the Christie or uses our services is welcomed, valued and treated with dignity and respect. The Christie values diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all and fair representation across the organisation at all levels. In support of these commitments, we particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and people with disabilities for this post. Appointment will be only on merit.

We are committed to creating a balanced and diverse workforce. As such we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Together we will foster inclusion and tackle inequity and health inequalities in cancer care.

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy

All positions within the Christie are subject to the receipt of satisfactory written references, medical clearance and evidence of your Right to Work in the UK. Some roles will require a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check. Please note if you are successfully appointed to a post with this Trust, you will be required to pay for your own DBS Disclosure.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, I regret that on this occasion your application will have been unsuccessful.

The Inter-Authority Transfer (IAT) process is a critical and beneficial component of ESR and will form part of the recruitment process. In the event that you are successful following interview your previous NHS employment data, if applicable will be transferred from your current / most recent employer.

Overseas candidates wishing to apply for this position and who would require immigration sponsorship, may wish to self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship for the post on the UKVI website.

You should be aware the Trust operates a No Smoking Policy and therefore employees are not permitted to smoke at work.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• JD & PS (PDF, 213.2KB)
• The Christie Values and Behaviours (PDF, 919.5KB)
• Strategy Brochure (PDF, 1.0MB)
• Travel to The Christie (PDF, 3.8MB)