Personal Homecare Pharmacy
Facilities & Health & Safety Officer
Department
Quality & Compliance / Operations
Location
Leicester (on-site)
Responsible To
COO / Superintendent Pharmacist
Work Pattern
Full-time, MonFri
Contract Type
Permanent
Salary
50000-55000
This role takes ownership of PHPs facilities, premises, and physical infrastructure alongside the organisations Health & Safety framework, ensuring a safe, compliant, and operationally resilient environment across a clinical homecare pharmacy handling 800 to 1000 deliveries per day. The post holder acts as PHPs competent person for Health & Safety and as the lead for facilities, utilities, and GDP-critical environmental infrastructure.
The role delivers and coordinates the operational controls (fire, security, utilities, cold-chain infrastructure, contractor management) that the Quality / Deputy RP function independently audits, maintaining clear segregation of duties between delivery and assurance.
Health & Safety Management (Competent Person)
- Act as PHPs competent person for Health & Safety, providing clear, practical advice to managers and teams.
- Develop, implement, and maintain H&S policies, procedures, and the Health & Safety Management System in line with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, COSHH, RIDDOR, DSE, manual handling, and related regulations.
- Complete and review risk assessments - COSHH, DSE/display screen equipment, manual handling, fire, workplace, and static/dynamic assessments for high-racking and forklift (FLT) operations.
- Investigate incidents, near misses, and accidents, completing RIDDOR reporting where required and driving root cause analysis and preventive actions.
- Support occupational health processes and workplace adjustments from a safety perspective, and address lone-working and out-of-hours staff safety.
- Liaise with the HSE, local authorities, and occupational health providers as required.
ISO 45001 & H&S Assurance
- Maintain and develop the organisations H&S management system in line with ISO 45001, including documentation, audit schedule, and continual improvement.
- Plan and complete H&S audits against national standards; create action plans and follow through to completion.
- Monitor and report H&S performance metrics, trends, and legislative changes to leadership through clear reports and dashboards.
Fire Safety & Emergency Response
- Lead fire safety arrangements: coordinate alarm, emergency lighting, and sprinkler testing, fire-rated door inspections, and photoluminescent exit marking with approved contractors and Fire Wardens.
- Plan and conduct fire drills and evacuation exercises and maintain fire risk assessments.
- Maintain emergency response plans for fire, flood, security, and power loss, reviewing them quarterly.
Buildings, Fabric & Waste
- Oversee roof and structural integrity inspections and maintenance of fixtures, fittings, soft furnishings, ablutions, and work areas.
- Manage rapid-rise dock doors, dock levellers, and dock seals to preserve internal temperature.
- Coordinate general waste clearance and controlled clinical/hazardous waste disposal and secure shredding of patient data with approved contractors.
- Oversee integrated GDP-compliant pest management - bait stations, and pest-proofing of the premises.
Physical Security & Access
- Oversee physical security infrastructure: CCTV (90-day retention), biometric/key-card restricted access zones, alarm codes, key register, and keyholder rota.
- Act as a key liaison with the Alarm Monitoring Team for out-of-hours alarm response, intruder alarms, and CCTV review/evidence handling (24/7 first response delivered by that team).
Utilities & GDP-Critical Infrastructure
- Maintain equipment ensuring temperature-control such as cold storage areas, HVAC/air conditioning and heating systems, emergency lighting (with lux-level compliance for picking), and water services including Legionella testing and temperature monitoring.
- Oversee backup power (generator) load testing to ensure cold-chain continuity during grid failure.
- Coordinate the facilities side of temperature mapping, sensor calibration, and fridge/cold-room maintenance (F-Gas, leak checks, 28°C validation) delivered by approved contractors - with GDP sign-off retained by the RP / Pharmacy Manager.
- Conduct quarterly temperature and premises alarm testing, escalation, and response-process drills.
Contractor, Vendor & Audit-File Management
- Vet and manage contractors to ensure they follow GDP, SOPs, and site rules while on site.
- Complete vendor selection questionnaires and supplier assessments for facilities suppliers.
- Maintain the Master Facility File of all maintenance and calibration logs to support MHRA audit readiness.
Business Continuity, Incidents & Reporting
- Act as a key stakeholder for the Disaster Management Team (DMT) and BCP planning; assist with BCP testing of premises, including generator checks and cold-room failure response.
- Log deviations and raise CAPAs/incidents for non-conformities discovered within facilities and H&S domains.
- Coordinate incident response across teams and contribute to post-incident review and CAPA.
Training & Environmental
- Coordinate and deliver H&S inductions, toolbox talks, and mandatory refresher training, maintaining training logs with L&D.
- Author and maintain SOPs for equipment management (fridges, generators, data loggers, HVAC, dock equipment), validation activities (temperature mapping, calibration, equipment qualification), and Health & Safety procedures (COSHH, fire, emergency response, risk assessment processes), working collaboratively with the QA/DRP function who will review, approve, and control the final documents within the QMS.
- Support environmental/sustainability good practice across facilities operations (e.g. waste, energy, F-Gas compliance).
- Proven experience in a Health & Safety role at advisor/lead level, including risk assessment, incident investigation, and policy development.
- Experience managing facilities, premises, or building infrastructure in a regulated, warehouse, or logistics environment.
- Strong working knowledge of UK H&S legislation and best practice.
- Confident communicator able to influence and advise at all levels.
- Excellent organisation, documentation, and audit discipline.
- Strong technical writing skills able to translate complex equipment, validation, and H&S processes into clear, accurate, and audit-ready procedural documents that meet ALCOA+ principles and are accessible to operational staff.
- Experience in healthcare, pharmacy, logistics, or other regulated environments, with awareness of GDP and cold-chain requirements.
- Experience maintaining an ISO 45001 (or OHSAS 18001) management system.
- Fire safety qualification and/or experience overseeing fire risk controls.
- Experience managing contractors and service-provider vendor assessments.
- Prior experience authoring SOPs, work instructions, or technical procedures in a regulated environment (pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, or similar GxP/ISO-governed setting), with an understanding of document control principles.
- Familiarity with equipment qualification or validation concepts (IQ/OQ/PQ, calibration, temperature mapping) sufficient to author the facilities-side SOPs and contribute meaningfully to validation planning, even where formal sign-off sits with the RP/QA function.
- NEBOSH General Certificate (or equivalent) desirable. Candidates without a formal qualification will be considered where they can demonstrate strong, evidenced H&S competence gained through experience in a comparable regulated or high-hazard environment. A commitment to working toward NEBOSH General Certificate within an agreed timeframe will be a condition of appointment for candidates appointed without it.
- NEBOSH Diploma desirable (longer-term development goal).
- IOSH membership (Tech IOSH/Grad IOSH or working towards) desirable.
- Facilities management qualification (e.g. IWFM) and/or fire safety qualification desirable.
- Serves as PHPs competent person for Health & Safety under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Competence is defined by sufficient training, experience, and knowledge for PHPs specific risks not by a named qualification alone. Where the post holder is appointed without a formal H&S qualification, PHP will fund and require completion of NEBOSH General Certificate within an agreed timeframe, and must be satisfied at appointment that the candidates evidenced experience meets the competence standard for PHPs site.
- Delivers and coordinates GDP-critical environmental and physical controls; GDP validity sign-off and independent audit of these controls are retained by the RP / Deputy RP to preserve segregation of duties.
- Maintains facilities and calibration records to support MHRA inspection readiness and the integrity of the Master Facility File.
