Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for someone with extensive health and safety leadership experience to join us as our Head of Health and Safety, where you will lead the strategic development and implementation of a robust, sustainable Health & Safety framework, ensuring we fulfil our duty of care to colleagues, volunteers, and visitors across all our offices, retail stores, events, and projects.

Please note: This role is an 18-month Fixed Term Contract.

About us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the role

As Head of Health and Safety, you will lead the design and delivery of an organisation-wide health and safety strategy that embeds a proactive, people-centred safety culture across Save the Children UK. You will strengthen governance and compliance, oversee incident and risk management, and ensure our systems and training empower every colleague to play their part in keeping themselves and others safe.

In this role, you will:
• Lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive Health & Safety framework and management system aligned with UK legislation and best practice.
• Embed a proactive, positive safety culture where all colleagues understand and take ownership of health and safety.
• Oversee governance and assurance, ensuring timely, accurate reporting and alignment with SCUK's risk and compliance functions.
• Manage incident reporting, investigation, and learning processes, ensuring continuous improvement and transparency.
• Lead and develop the Health & Safety team, acting as SCUK's “Competent Person” and trusted advisor to senior leaders.
• Design and implement H&S training and competence frameworks to ensure staff, volunteers, and managers are equipped for their roles.

About you

We're looking for a Health & Safety leader with strong problem-solving and decision-making skills who is excited to deliver true impact. 

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Chartered Membership of IOSH (CMIOSH) or equivalent, with demonstrable competence as a Health & Safety leader.
• Significant experience in a senior H&S role, ideally in a complex multi-site organisation (e.g., retail, charity, facilities, or commercial).
• Proven track record of developing and embedding H&S management systems and delivering cultural change.
• Strong knowledge of UK H&S legislation, risk management frameworks, and compliance obligations.
• Experience managing serious incidents, investigations, and regulatory engagement.
• Skilled communicator, able to influence senior leaders and engage volunteers and frontline staff.
• Experience building and leading H&S teams, including developing others' competence.
• Knowledge of security, and safeguarding interactions with H&S.
• Familiarity with ISO 45001 or similar management systems.
• Demonstrable ability to work collaboratively with leaders and influence at all levels.
• Commitment to inclusivity, wellbeing, and a “people first” approach.

What we offer you

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits here.

To learn more about the position, please review the Job Description in the attached Documents.

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Location & Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact. This role will also require some travel to other offices and retail sites across the UK.

This will be discussed and agreed with your manager / team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage.

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. 

Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. 

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here. 

To see our full statement please visit this link: https://jobs.savethechildren.org.uk/our-policies/diversity/

Salary Structure: 

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: Save the Children | Careers

Interview Expenses: 

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

Pre-employment Checks:

Any Employment with Save the Children UK will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• a satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• receipt of satisfactory references
• proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role

If you have any questions, we have an FAQ section here.

For anything else you can email us on: careers@savethechildren.org.uk