Job responsibilities
Specific duties and responsibilities include:
To cover Environmental Health (EH) or Trading Standards (TS) duties relevant to one of the
PPS teams covering the Wiltshire Councils area. Enforcing a range of legal powers and
duties.
To conduct inspections of a specified range of premises especially to premises with high
and medium risk rating to ensure compliance with all environmental health and Trading
Standards legislation.
To respond to complaints and enquiries by investigation or advice as necessary. To use
professional judgement to determine and implement consequent enforcement action.
Lead officer in a specialist area of work. Responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of specialist equipment to legal standards.
Ensure that Wiltshire based businesses, including national companies, comply with Public Protection legislation by offering legal advice and where necessary act as a point of reference for other UK enforcement agencies.
Direct, mentor and motivate trainee, graduate and apprentice Environmental Health Officers, Trading Standards and Technical Officers studying for their professional qualifications and to participate in their training including responsibility for their health and safety.
To maintain accurate records of actions on manual and computer systems. To ensure notebook records are contemporaneous and admissible as evidence under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). Responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of specialist equipment to legal requirements.
Conduct and co-ordinate complex criminal investigations (resulting from complaints, inspections and officer initiative) determining action necessary from service of notices, organisation of works in default and preparing files for prosecution. To attend court as an expert witness
Providing the council's out of hours standby response to public protection emergencies and out of hours investigations - taking all necessary decisions, including legal action and revenue expenditure, as sole responsible person - the council's point of contact for emergency planning issues (Local Authority Incident Officer)
To carry out monitoring, inspections etc outside of office hours, often at weekends, at night or early in the morning.
Initiate, lead, contribute to and participate in the planning, implementation and review of project work, surveys and sampling programmes. Post holder may lead projects to determine compliance with Public Protection legislation. The post holder is expected to take responsibility for key aspects of certain projects including implementation of new legislation strategies and campaigns.
Planning, creating, designing and implementing a project, survey or inspection technique, including designing the protocol, which feeds into the service plan.
Assist in the preparation of Specific Service Plans and assist in developing and maintaining enforcement and procedure manuals. Represent the Department by giving talks to various bodies and participating in press interviews to radio, TV and newspapers as required, and identify opportunities for the effective promotion of the service.
To provide education and training by facilitating and lecturing on courses and seminars, organising and providing subject specific training for particular groups. Identify opportunities for promoting the service and representing the department.
Participate in producing risk assessment and drafting safe working practices to ensure the health and safety of staff and public.
To attend meetings of outside bodies and represent the council as necessary in matters relating to the post holders caseload and expertise.
Contribute to the planning, implementation and review of operational policies and priorities.
Provide cascade training to staff, at all levels within the service, on new legislation following attendance at National/Regional courses and seminars
Training responsibility for trainee Environmental Health and Trading Standards Officers and Enforcement Technical officers, mentoring and motivating trainee, graduate and apprentice public protection officers studying for professional qualifications.
Post holder may be accompanied on visits by a student or work experience student and post holder would be responsible for them whilst away from the office. Students: one year contract daily contact, and supervision of children used in underage sales test purchases. Post holder may temporarily direct contract staff from another organisation eg contracted EHO, work experience students
Providing practical advice specific to individual businesses suggesting systems to meet legislative requirements e.g. design of sampling or monitoring regimes, Post holder will determine most appropriate course of action to resolve a wide range of Environmental Health and Trading Standards issues and draft legal notices, letters, produce schedules of work and evaluate success of method.
Determines the appropriate offences to investigate and the most appropriate action to resolve Public Protection issues such as drafting legal notices, letters, schedules of work, obtaining evidence and reporting offences in consultation with the team manager.
There is wide discretion and empowerment for all officers. In responsive work there is no precedent and the post holder has to use discretion in choice of legislation and professional expertise to make a judgement of the most appropriate course of action. Post holder interprets legislation, work policies and procedures on a daily basis. The Post holder provides a professional opinion in the field and makes decisions, frequently remote from the office without reference to anyone else or direct colleague support. All initial decisions regarding enforcement are made by the post holder. Whether or not a matter can be dealt with by an informal discussion or requires a formal approach up to and including recommending prosecution is a matter for the judgement of the post holder.
Ordinarily a manager will be available for the post holder to discuss via telephone specific cases. However, occasionally in out of hours situations the officer is the sole authority e.g. if a statutory nuisance, health & safety or food safety incident requires immediate legal action. There is no manager available for advice out of hours and the EHO/TSO on-call has sole authority and responsibility to make decisions such as taking formal action on behalf of the authority. This could involve seizing items, closing premises or cautioning and reporting offences.
