Health and Safety Manager (The Felix Project)

Job Title: Health & Safety Manager

Reporting To: Head of People & Volunteering

Salary: £35,000- £42,000 per annum

Contract type: 6-month fixed term contract, full-time

About The Felix Project

The Felix Project is London’s biggest food redistribution charity and the largest end-to-end food redistribution charity in Europe.

Our vision is a London where no one goes hungry and good food is never wasted.

We rescue surplus food from businesses, supermarkets, restaurants and farms. This food is nutritious, in-date, and safe and includes a high proportion of fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish. If we did not rescue this food, it would be at risk of going to waste. Instead, we deliver it free of charge to London charities, schools, food banks, COVID food hubs and other organisations serving people in need. Our food is a vital lifeline for children and families, people on low incomes, people who have lost their jobs, the homeless, refugees, domestic abuse survivors, the elderly and keyworkers.

We are a very ambitious and dynamic young charity and we haven’t stopped growing since we were founded in 2016 in memory of Felix Byam Shaw, by his father, entrepreneur Justin Byam Shaw. We recently ran a very high-profile media campaign with the Evening Standard and Independent, raising £10million to feed London. We have celebrity endorsement from Reece James, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Jack Whitehall, Stephen Fry, James May and many others.

Last year we delivered enough food for 21.1 million meals to help people in need. We have continuing major growth plans for the next 4 years, with a target of delivering enough food for 100 million meals by 2024. Because nearly all the food we receive is donated by the food industry and volunteers, every £1 of expenditure redistributes £10 worth of food.

Purpose of the Job

 The Health and Safety Manager is a brand-new role at The Felix Project. Due to recent expansion, we are looking to improve Health and Safety including Food Safety in accordance with relevant legislation. Although the role will sit in the People Team, the main deliverable is to provide strategic and operational Health & Food Safety leadership and expertise across all areas of the organisation.

You will develop and implement a Health & Food Safety framework, taking responsibility for the development and management of robust health & food safety strategies, policies, processes and procedures considering best practice and the operational needs of the business, thus ensuring that The Felix Project complies with all relevant legislation.

This is a short-term role designed to help Felix strengthen our Health & Safety procedures, and train and empower all our staff to understand their Health & Safety responsibilities.

Duties and Accountabilities

• Design initiatives to improve food safety behaviours and culture
• Coach and develop staff across Felix to understand their Health & Safety responsibilities
• Lead, support and encourage communication and sharing on food safety matters, best practice and accidents/incidents
• Identify and monitor food safety risks and propose strategic responses
• Take the lead for all Health and food Safety related activity, providing expertise and insight to the business (including but not limited to);
  • developing the corporate Health & Food Safety framework
  • leading on furthering a corporate culture that focuses on Health & Food Safety
  • be the organisations ‘competent person’ for Health & Food safety
• Develop The Felix Project Health and Food Safety management system to ensure it is current and fit for purpose. This includes incorporation of any updates in legislation
• Own and implement a rolling health and food safety communication plan including LMS/intranet content
• Become a first point of contact for all Health & Food Safety matters throughout Felix
• Report Audit and Risk to SLT and the Board of Trustees
• Lead the first annual review of the Health and Safety policy, which will be recommended to the Board for approval
• Provide Health and Safety training, inductions and tool box talks for staff
• Investigate serious near misses or accidents, providing written reports to management, recommending actions arising and liaising with insurance companies as required
• Report RIDDOR reportable accidents in a timely and accurate manner to HSE. Conduct RIDDOR accident investigations on site, in addition to supporting managers with non RIDDOR investigations.
• Ensure relevant workplace assessments are undertaken and action is taken as required
• Regularly review health and safety practice within Felix, ensuring that safe practices are consistently followed and compliance can be demonstrated
• Review contractors’ compliance with Health & Safety arrangements when working for Felix

Person Specification

 The Felix Project recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage job applications from candidates from diverse backgrounds.

We particularly welcome applications from those of a black and minority ethnic (BAME) background, as BAME people are currently under-represented within The Felix Project.

You will be an experienced Health & Safety Manager with a background working within food safety. You will have good knowledge of current Health & Safety legislation and working procedures. You will be able to work with managers, teams and volunteers to identify better safer working and support the implementation of processes and procedures to create safe working environments that are easily maintainable and support achieving Felix’s strategic priorities. It is expected that you will maintain an up-to-date knowledge of relevant regulation and guidance and ensure that The Felix Project is compliant with relevant statutory and regulatory frameworks

Essential skills/knowledge relevant to this role 

• NEBOSH General Certificate
• Chartered Membership of IOSH
• Extensive and up-to-date knowledge of Health and Safety legislation
• Experience of Health and Safety and/or Food Safety management and auditing
• Experience of working in Food Retail
• Experience of Board/Committee report writing and presentation
• Computer literate with good working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook
• Background using bespoke IT systems, databases, spreadsheets.
• Experience of developing and maintaining effective relationships
• Analytical and logical thinking skills with the ability to operate at both a strategic and detailed level
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ethical and accountable behaviour
• Excellent problem solving, judgement and decision-making skills
• Seeks ways to continuously improve and learn

Desirable skills/knowledge relevant to this role 

• Train the trainer training in mandatory training – Fire/manual handling/health and safety
• Committed to reducing food waste and fighting food poverty
• Experience of Health and Safety change management

 What you’ll get in return

You will be working in an upbeat, innovative charity with strong vision, ambition and a fantastic culture and leadership team.  This role is home based but you will need to regularly visit all of the various Felix locations. The salary is c£35,000 – £42,000 per annum (dependant on experience), 25 days annual leave + bank holidays.

Contract Type:                       6-month fixed term

Hours:                                     37.5 hours per week

Application procedure

Please send your CV with a covering letter demonstrating your suitability for the role to [email protected] with ‘Health and Safety Manager’ in the subject line.  We are looking for a candidate who can start immediately.

Recruitment timeline

Applications close: Friday 17 September

First interviews: Wednesday 22 September

(if applicable) Second interviews: w/c 27 September