Health & Safety Advisor - Childcare / Education Sector
Salary: From £43k +£4000 Car Allowance + Mileage) - UK Driving Licence essential
Job Type: Fixed Term Contract – Maternity Cover for up to 12 months, Full-time Hours: 37.5 per week / Monday-Friday
Location: Field Based Role – Travel required to the nurseries and meetings in your divisional location Central and London Division (Covering our Nurseries in London and South London - Our HO is in Northampton)
Closing Date: 10th July 2026 - All applicants need to attach an up to date CV to be considered
This role would suit a Qualified H+S professional with experience in Childcare, Education, and Retail
Purpose of Role:
The Health and Safety Advisor is responsible for providing assurance to the company that its health, safety and other compliance policies, procedures and requirements are applied across operations and support functions consistently and effectively to mitigate risks and fulfil our Keeping Everyone Safe responsibilities.
The Health and Safety Advisor supports the Head of Health and Safety in general Keeping Everyone Safe work as directed, including but not limited to carrying out and managing investigations including accidents and incidents, providing dedicated support to a nominated Division, completing KES audits, providing advice for general H&S enquiries across the business through the H & S inbox, supporting with DSE assessments, support with fire risk assessment outcomes, attending regional meetings and undertaking regular support visits at nurseries etc.
The Health and Safety Advisor works in collaboration with the Health and Safety Manager (Audit and Compliance) and appropriate key stakeholders to continuously learn from Keeping Everyone Safe audits and ensure that a culture of continuous improvement is embedded across nurseries and support offices. The Health and Safety Advisor will advise, support, coach and train nursery managers and other colleagues in Keeping Everyone Safe best practice.
Why Bright Horizons?
Our support functions enable our nurseries to deliver the best possible care and education to over 10,000 children across the UK. Through this support, our nurseries can deliver excellence – with 98% of our 270+ portfolio being rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. We’re on a mission to change the future for children, families, and the people we work with, and are committed to progressive working values like flexibility, work-life balance, and wellbeing.
What We Can Offer You
Our benefits include but are not limited to
Flexible working and holiday entitlements
Discounted childcare in one of our nurseries
Quarterly Employee Appreciation Weeks
Annual gala award evening
Fantastic range of discounts on high street retailers, grocery stores, cinema tickets, holidays and more
Wide range of wellbeing resources, supporting our teams for the ups and downs of daily life
What You'll be Doing:
To support the Head of Health and Safety in the development and implementation of health and safety policies and procedures.
To support the Head of Health and Safety in ensuring that key health and safety messages are communicated to nurseries and the support functions in a timely and effective manner i.e. KES Newsletter, attendance at cluster calls etc.
To support nurseries in developing and maintaining robust risk assessments and health care plan assessments.
To support nurseries and the Support Offices with fire safety enquiries and ensuring fire risk logs and fire risk assessments have been kept up to date and maintained.
To support nurseries in embedding a positive health and safety culture.
To be a main point of contact for all nurseries located in a nominated division supporting with all health and safety requests.
To attend nurseries and support offices as part of regular support visits to monitor compliance, provide advice and guidance and to seek continuous improvement in health and safety compliance across the nominated division.
Keeping Everyone Safe by continuously improving the practices, processes and behaviours that underpin a safety culture.
Setting the highest standards of behaviour consistent with the HEART principles.
Completion of KES audits in the allocated regions of your Division, ensuring that actions arising from the audits are completed with an allocated time frame.
Work closely with the Health and Safety Manager (Audit and Compliance) to target trends and influence positive change across the nominated division.
Develop and maintain strong and positive relationships with key stakeholders working in collaboration and maintain a thorough knowledge of the business and regulatory environment.
Support the Head of Health and Safety in complying with the Display Screen Equipment Regulations for all applicable support and nursery colleagues.
Support company project activities with the aim to improve internal control measures and risk mitigation.
Attend regional/divisional meetings to provide health and safety coaching/mentoring/advice and guidance.
Providing assurance to the company that its health, safety, environmental and other compliance policies, procedures and requirements are applied across operations and support functions consistently and effectively to mitigate risks and fulfil our Keeping Everyone Safe responsibilities.
Providing independent assurance through conducting internal KES audits, working in collaboration with appropriate stakeholders, continuously learning from the audits, and recommending improvement solutions for audit processes and risk mitigation.
Advising, supporting and coaching Nursery managers and other colleagues in Keeping Everyone Safe best practice.
Be a main point of contact for all health and safety queries, accidents and investigations for a nominated Division.
Embedding a positive health and safety culture across the nominated Division and across the business as a whole.
Essential Experience:
Demonstrable experience of having worked previously in a health and safety support role, preferably as a Health and Safety Advisor or similar.
Proven track record in effectively undertaking the key tasks to the role, leading best practice and making a difference.
Being able to work independently and prioritise.
Sound knowledge of multiple areas of health and safety including safe systems of work, fire safety, risk assessments, RIDDOR, DSE and COSHH.
Preferred Experience
Qualifications:
NEBOSH General Certificate (Essential)
GRAD IOSH or working towards (Desirable)
Level 2 Food Safety Hygiene (Desirable)
Fire Safety experience (Desirable)
DSE Assessor (Desirable)
Full clean driving licence
Personal Attributes
Excellent influencer, change-maker and effective communicator (oral and in writing).
Highly motivated and driven, achieving positive impact and meeting deadlines.
Ability to take the initiative and find solutions.
Ability to build trust and develop cohesive teams – strong empathy, clear expectations and fair-minded.
Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to liaise with staff at all levels.
High energy and thrives in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a calm approach and ‘can-do’ attitude.
Encourages colleagues to realise their potential and empowers high performers.
Due to the multi – site structure, an ability to travel within the UK, including occasional overnight stays; flexibility to work at home or from a regional office as required.
Bright Horizons is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. This post is subject to safer recruitment practice and pre-employment checks, including an enhanced DBS check, which will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all backgrounds to apply. We will consider reasonable adjustments required by applicants. If you share our passion, values, and have most of the skills listed, we encourage you to apply – as you may be just what we are looking for!
We look forward to receiving your application!
If you experience any problems, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to help.
