Senior Occupational Health Advisor

Senior Occupational Health Advisor

Location(s) Cheltenham

Salary £61,168

Flexible working: we recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance, which is why we offer flexible working options including part-time and compressed hours, with some flexibility around start and finish times. Please note, due to the nature of this role, home working will not be possible.

About Us

MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners, including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you’ll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.

The Role

Our Occupational Health team is currently facing an exciting evolution which has created this opportunity to manage a new team of Occupational Health Advisors. In this uniquely challenging role, you’ll play a crucial part in protecting and promoting the health and wellbeing of our most important assets, our people.

You’ll provide leadership and oversight of the service provision alongside management of more complex casework. You’ll support employees with advice on how to manage their health conditions in the workplace, while providing travel clearances, risk assessments, health surveillance, and fitness for work medicals. Your advice will be relevant and timely, and your recommendations will always be in line with medical standards and legislation.

Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do, so you’ll work closely with colleagues towards the overall goal of creating a positive and proactive health and wellbeing culture. You’ll work with a multi-disciplinary team – colleagues from Wellbeing, Safety and Psychology – as well as other healthcare professionals. You’ll take opportunities to shadow different teams in the organisation(s) to better understand how to support our employees, while also working with partners, such as HR, to provide the best possible service.

You will be employed by MI5, but be based, and work predominantly with people, at GCHQ. You should also expect some UK and overseas travel.

About You

As well as demonstrable line management experience, you will be a qualified Occupational Health Advisor – registered with NMC Part 1 – with good knowledge of occupational health and employment legislation. You will be an experienced Senior Occupational Health Advisor, who has previously managed an Occupational Health team and worked within a wider multi-disciplinary team.

You’ll have experience managing diverse and complex caseloads, including supporting both physical and mental health needs, and using analytical skills you’ll be able to make evidence-based decisions and provide effective solutions. Your leadership skills will enable the service provision to prioritise and support the needs of individuals and the organisation accordingly.

Training and Development

When you start, you’ll get an organisation induction to help you settle in. We are proud to offer an inclusive and supportive working environment and as an organisation that values and nurtures our colleagues both professionally and personally, we are dedicated to helping you fulfil your potential.

From a wide range of courses in our internal training academy to the chance to build on your professional qualifications, we’re committed to making the most of your skills and potential. Our support includes funding for job-specific training such as audiology, spirometry, vision screening and HAVS (Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome).

Rewards and Benefits

You’ll receive a starting salary of £61,168, plus other benefits including:

• 25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• Dedicated Development Budget
• Interest-free season ticket loan
• Excellent pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• Paid parental and adoption leave

Equal Opportunities

At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website:

We’re Disability Confident

MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the DWP’s Disability Confident scheme. This is aimed at encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Leader we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• You will be an experienced and qualified Senior Occupational Health Advisor with experience of managing an Occupational Health team and registered with NMC part 1.

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to Expect

Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

• Eligibility questions – you’ll need to answer a series of questions relating to this vacancy.
• If you meet the eligibility criteria, and pass the essential criteria sift, you’ll be invited to an interview.
• Interview, including technical and competency-based questions.
• If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment and progress to the vetting stage of the process.

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 to 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before You Apply

To work at MI5, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Cheltenham, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to Withdraw Statement:

Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.