Highways England
Divisional Director - Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Candidate Brief
Highways England – Divisional Director - Health, Safety and Well-being
Background
Formerly the Highways Agency, Highways England is a different type of organisation: better equipped to support journeys today while investing in those of tomorrow. As well as securing long-term funding, Highways England has more freedom and flexibility than the Highways Agency, so we can better manage and improve England’s motorways and major A roads.
Why change from the Highways Agency to Highways England?
Over recent years, investment in our highways has increased, while advances in technology, such as smart motorways, mean traffic flows more smoothly. However, even more needs to be done.
Certainty of funding and greater flexibility will enable us to become a better business. In our first 5 years alone, we’ll invest £11 billion in motorways and A roads – boosting capacity, tackling congestion and improving safety.
At the same time, we’ll improve how we work. That means we’ll plan roadworks better to minimise disruption; clear incidents more quickly; and save more than £1 billion by working more efficiently.
Putting customers first
Highways England has the ethos of a commercial organisation – putting value for money and great customer service at the heart of all we do. Yet we are still owned by government, so we’re always working on behalf of drivers and the country as a whole.
Two new bodies will hold us to account. One to monitor the performance of our highways, run by the Office of Road and Rail Regulation, and another to champion the needs of road users, called Transport Focus. With secure funding and more freedom to improve our network of motorways and A roads, Highways England will have what it takes to drive our country forward.
In our first 5 years as Highways England we will be adding new capacity to the network but this alone will not deliver the 21st century network that the country needs. By embracing technology by operating the network better we’ll provide better journeys on better roads.
This includes:
Modernising England’s major roads:
Smart motorways and expressways: Over the coming years, a national spine of smart motorways will add more than 400 miles of extra capacity to our highways. And we’ll introduce a new standard for A roads, known as ‘expressways’: with modernised junctions, refuge areas and specialist technology to quickly detect incidents and get traffic moving again.
Unblocking bottlenecks: We’ll tackle congestion hotspots across the country, ranging from improving the A14, to progressing plans for a new lower Thames crossing.
Safer roads: Our roads are already some of the safest in the world. However, we’ll make them even safer by improving road design, while influencing driver behaviour and encouraging regular vehicle maintenance.
Greener roads: We’ll play our part in the national effort to manage carbon emissions. We’ll tackle noise pollution, support specialist research and improve how we monitor air quality. We’ll create a network that is open to all, and boost facilities for people that cycle or walk along our routes.
Running the strategic road network
Every year there are over 430,000 incidents on England’s motorways and major A roads. Along with roadwork and congestion, incidents stem the flow of traffic. Our job is to manage motorway traffic and keep the country driving forward.
Our traffic officers are at the forefront of this effort and will be a cornerstone of our future plans. We’ll seek to improve partnerships between our Traffic Officer Service and other organisations such as the emergency services. At the same time, we’ll equip our traffic officers with improved tools, including new equipment to quickly rescue stranded and overturned vehicles.
Crucially, we’ll provide better traffic updates and motorway information. We’ll keep you informed about planned roadworks and unexpected incidents in more ways than ever before. Our control centres will take full advantage of new technology to provide information on road closures, roadworks and traffic quickly and reliably – helping you to make the right travel choices before and during your journey.
Better road maintenance
Our motorways and major A roads are open 24/7, all year round. They’re in great demand, and carry 4 million vehicles travelling 230 million miles every day. With so much motorway traffic, keeping our routes in safe working order is a difficult task, especially as we try to balance urgent work to keep our roads open with the need to minimise disruption.
Highways England will tackle this challenge by planning ahead. Sometimes this will see us combine multiple road improvements simultaneously, so we don’t need to return to an area for at least 5 years. At the same time, we’ll continue to find better ways to spot faults, such as potholes, so we can deal with potential problems quickly and early.
We’ll also spread our work evenly throughout year, and take advantage of better weather and daylight to get the job done faster and with less disruption.
This type of long-term planning wasn’t always possible for the Highways Agency as it was funded on a yearly basis. As Highways England, a forward-thinking plan will drive how we work.
You can find more information about Highways England here. The Highways England Delivery Plan 2015-2020 can be downloaded here. Details of the Strategic Business Plan are here.
Divisional Director - Health, Safety and Wellbeing
The Role
Reporting to the Chief Highways Engineer, this newly created role of Divisional Director - Health, Safety and Wellbeing, will be a real challenge. The successful candidate will need to have a relentless focus and drive to lead a significant improvement in the safety of those who work for Highways England, work on or use the strategic road network. This will be enabled through inspiring teams from the Board and Executive teams to our extensive supply chain combined with a proven capability to build and maintain effective inter-personal relationships within the business and across the industry.
Summary Job Description
Role Purpose
· To be the professional head of health, safety and well-being within the Highways England. Providing innovative leadership, expertise and delivery, enabling best practice in the organisation its supply chain and the construction industry.
· To contribute to the corporate leadership and development of Highways England as an organisation that is ambitious, outward facing, flexible and somewhere people want to work.
Responsibilities
· As programme director, deliver our Five-Year Safety Plan.
· Lead and support Highways England and wider industry to deliver our vision that no should be harmed while travelling or working on the strategic road network.
· Provide the primary source of SHW expertise for the Board and Executive, facilitating timely and effective investigation of all serious incidents.
· Establish an effective group of business partners to support delivery of effective health and safety management.
· Develop a strong intelligence led approach including performance and risk analysis.
· Represent the company at industry level forums and regulators.
· Lead and develop a growing team of 20 professional and business support staff spread across all main office locations.
· In addition, as a senior manager in Network Services and the wider senior leadership team within Highways England, you will need to take responsibility for leading, motivating and engaging the team, managing performance and creating a positive, inclusive and innovative working culture.
Required Criteria
Essential
· A proven track record of developing and implementing a high performance SH&W culture and delivering within a complex, multi-site and commercial environment.
· Extensive experience working in the leadership of safety on infrastructure projects and/or operational environments.
· Experience of developing, maintaining and implementing health and safety systems.
· Relevant professional qualifications i.e.: CMIOSH –Chartered Member of the Institute of Safety and Health
· Understand the legal context and legislative framework in which they operate
· Programme management expertise
· Proven ability to lead, develop and motivate a diverse team spread over a large geographic area
Terms & Conditions
On 1 April 2015 the Highways Agency became Highways England, a publicly owned corporation, 100% owned by the Government, together with a significant investment programme for the strategic road network. Further information is available here and here
Besides the rewarding nature of the job itself, the benefits that come with this role are excellent. The package includes an attractive salary, generous annual leave allowance (31 days plus bank holidays), and a defined contribution pension scheme.
Equal opportunities
This appointment will be governed by the principle of appointment based on merit with independent assessment, openness and transparency of process. Highways England is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from candidates regardless of ethnic origin, religious belief, gender, age, (subject to being within the normal minimum retirement age), sexual orientation, disability or any other irrelevant factor.
Eligibility
Highways England operates an open selection process. This means that any person can apply for any job if they believe they have the right skills and experience and are able to demonstrate the competencies of the role. Applicants are assessed against the criteria required for a specific post.
Location
Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds or Bedford
Application and Appointment
To apply, please send a CV and covering statement explaining how your qualifications, skills and experience meet the requirements of the post to:
For an informal discussion about the opportunity, please contact our retained advisers:
or 0207 259 8743
Your application should include a covering letter summarising your suitability for the role, and include examples which illustrate your relevant experience and skills, ensuring you cover the “requirements of the role” above (including the outlined competencies in the attached competency document).
Please also include current salary level and the names and contact details of 2 referees. Referees will not be contacted without your permission but we will request to contact them should you be shortlisted.
In order to help Highways England to monitor the success of its commitment to equal opportunities, all applicants are requested to complete the Equality Monitoring questionnaire and return it with their application. This form is used for monitoring purposes only and will not be made available to the selection panel.
The closing date for applications is 24th July 2015.
Please see the timetable below for indicative dates:
Closing date / 24th July 2015First round interviews / Week Commencing 24th August
Short listing meeting / Week Commencing
7th September 2015
Psychometric Assessment / Week Commencing
14th September 2015
Final panel interviews / Week Commencing
21st September 2015
Dates are correct at time of writing but are subject to change
1. Contact Information
Should you wish to have an informal, confidential discussion about the post, please contact either Adam Mahmood or Andrew Timlin from Hays Executive on 020 7298743.
2. Guaranteed Interview Scheme for Disabled Persons
Highways England is an accredited user of the Government’s two ticks Disability Symbol, which denotes organisations that have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria in the job specification are guaranteed an interview. Selection will be on merit.
If you wish to claim a guaranteed interview under the disability commitment, you should attach a statement to this effect to your application. It is not necessary to state the nature of your disability.
3. Equal Opportunities
Highways England values equality and diversity and employment and a socially inclusive transport system. We are committed to being an organisation in which fairness and equality of opportunity is central to the approach in business and working relationships and where the organisational culture reflects and supports these values. In Highways England you have the right to a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation regardless of race, ethnic or national origin, age, religion, sex, gender identity, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, working hours, union membership, union office or union activity.
Our Vision
Highways England will be a confident, energetic, agile and connected organisation, fully releasing the potential of its people and partners for the benefit of its customers.
Our Values: What we stand for
Driven to improve
Performance: building on our professionalism and expertise, we are always striving to improve and deliver a network that meets the needs of our customers.
Leading the way
Leadership: we have a clear vision for the future of the network and our personal contribution towards it. We take other with us on the journey.
A trusted friend
Engagement: we have an open and honest dialogue with each other, as well as our customers, stakeholders and delivery partners
A responsible custodian
Stewardship: we are custodians of the network, acting in the long-term national interest, with integrity and pride.
A creative thinker
Creativity: we find new ways to deliver by embracing difference and innovation, while challenging conventions