Principal Environmental Health Officer (Nuisance and related issues)
Grade 9 Salary: £43,693 to £46,713 per annum
37 hours per week (flexible working pattern), Permanent
Location: Kidderminster, Worcestershire
Situated in the south-west Midlands, Worcestershire is a place of rolling hills and beautiful countryside with a range of towns with both industrial and rural heritage, and at its heart the mediaeval city of Worcester with its iconic cathedral and riverside setting. Yet this stunning place is only an hour by train from the bustle of England’s second city and all the attractions of Birmingham.
Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) is a shared service of the six district councils in Worcestershire that discharges all the core Environmental Health functions for these authorities as well as all their Licensing functions. The service also manages Trading Standards for Worcestershire County Council, with the teams co-located, and delivers a range of activities for authorities outside of Worcestershire. Although hosted by Bromsgrove District Council, the service’s operating base is at the HQ building of Wyre Forest District Council between Kidderminster and Stourport on Severn.
Following the retirement of the previous incumbent, the service’s Community Environmental Health division is looking for a Principal Officer to lead on statutory nuisance and other related environmental matters including drainage, water supplies and public burials. The division has three teams all covering food safety, health and safety at work and infectious diseases as well as the environmental functions previously indicated.
The successful candidate will lead one of these teams of around eight officers focusing on all aspects of work. You will be expected to provide the usual first line management support ensuring their workloads are manageable and that their targets achieved, as well as leading on the environmental matters outlined, providing expert advice to assist the other two Principal Officers with environmental cases within their teams, as well as similarly supporting the Community Environmental Health Manager with any wider queries from members and the public. WRS encourages its Principal Officers to engage with relevant regional officer groups, so this opportunity would be available to the successful candidate.
You should be an experienced Environmental Health Officer with EHORB registration, wide general experience in Environmental Health services and considerable experience of the environmental side of EH work, particularly statutory nuisances. Experience of working with businesses under the Primary Authority provisions would also be helpful as the service is keen to support local businesses and already has several agreements in place. Previous supervisory experience would be desirable so that you can hit the ground running with dealing with all day-to day management issues, overseeing their work and driving visits and investigative activities.
WRS is an intelligence-led service, so you will work with colleagues delivering activities through the tasking allocation process and be expected to assess submissions and agree activities for your team before supervising the tasked work through to fruition. We realise this is a novel approach for EH services so the successful candidate must be willing to embrace this new approach to driving the service’s business.
To be successful you should also be able to deal with a wide range of different customers and stakeholders as we are looking to engage with a wide range of partners. Modern Environmental Health work requires good relationships with a wide range of bodies, and we will be asking the successful candidate to maintain some of those, whether it is links to our district Private Sector Housing teams, or on multi-agency operational groups involving the Police and other partners.
The service operates mobile and flexible working patterns but attendance at the office is likely to be required a few times a week to provide necessary support to staff.
Additional Information
The Council offers a range of employee benefits:
- pension
- generous leave entitlement starting at 25 days plus bank holidays (pro-rata)
- flexible working, where appropriate
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Access to employee benefits platform: where employees can find discounts for high street shops, leisure discounts, holiday discounts, salary sacrifice schemes and more
What Next
Need further information? For an informal chat about the role, please contact David Mellors, Community EH and Trading Standards Manager on 01562-738060 or by email to [email protected] or email the recruitment team, [email protected]
The closing date for applications is 1 July 2025 (Midnight)
Interviews will take place week commencing 21 July 2025
If this role interests you please use the 'Apply Now' button
