West Lothian Council opens part-time health and safety post at civic centre
West Lothian Council is recruiting a Health and Safety Advisor for its Corporate Safety team at West Lothian Civic Centre in Livingston, offering a permanent part-time role of 16 hours a week. The post carries a pro rata salary range of £46,944 to £51,524 and is framed around day-to-day risk control across council services rather than a narrow administrative function.
The remit is broad and operational. The adviser will provide specialist advice, guidance, information, and training across all aspects of health and safety, with responsibilities that include workplace visits, inspections, audits, incident investigation, information analysis, reporting to services, procedural review, construction support, identification of training needs, and delivery of training courses. In practice, the role sits at the point where policy meets the physical workplace: the person appointed will be expected to translate statutory duties into routines that reduce avoidable harm.
A post like this matters because local government environments are dense with exposure points. Council buildings, maintenance activity, public-facing services, and construction works can all create layered risk, and each one requires a different control strategy. The advisory function is not limited to compliance paperwork; it is designed to detect recurring hazards, correct weak processes, and help managers understand where systems fail before an incident escalates.
The posting asks for a recognised health and safety qualification, such as the NEBOSH Health and Safety Diploma, or an equivalent credential. It also requires professional knowledge of health and safety legislation, codes of practice, and guidance, plus practical competence gained through previous experience. That combination signals a role for someone who can assess risk, interpret regulation, and influence behaviour across services that may not share the same operational pressures or working conditions.
One sentence captures the centre of gravity here: this is a prevention post, not a reactive one.
Incident review, audits, and training sit at the centre of the role
The list of duties reveals how the council intends the post to function. Workplace inspections and audits will help establish whether local procedures are being followed and whether controls remain proportionate to the hazards present. Incident investigation will be equally important, because the value of a safety post often depends on whether findings are turned into clear corrective action rather than filed away as isolated reports.
Analysis of information and reporting to services point to a structured approach to governance. Data review in a health and safety context can expose repetition in near misses, reveal weak points in supervision, or show where training has not taken hold. When a council employs an adviser with enough authority to challenge practice and enough technical depth to suggest a remedy, the resulting system can move from simple compliance toward genuine risk management.
Construction support is another notable part of the brief. Work in live public estates often places employees, contractors, and service users in the same environment, which increases the importance of sequencing, exclusion zones, permits, and communication. A safety adviser embedded within corporate services can reduce the chance that a project proceeds with blind spots around access, temporary hazards, or overlapping responsibilities.
Training is not a side task in this job description; it is a central mechanism. The postholder will identify training needs and develop and deliver courses to help the council meet policy standards and statutory obligations. In occupational safety, training only works when it is matched to actual site conditions and backed by consistent supervision. Generic awareness sessions rarely alter behaviour on their own. Practical instruction, reinforced by audits and visible management support, is what allows procedures to survive contact with daily work.
Qualifications and experience define the council’s expectations
The qualification requirement is explicit, and it narrows the field to applicants with formal expertise in the discipline. A NEBOSH Health and Safety Diploma or equivalent remains a common marker of advanced professional preparation because it signals familiarity with risk assessment, legal duties, enforcement standards, and the mechanics of control measures across different settings. The council is also looking for someone who can demonstrate not just knowledge, but applied judgement developed through prior roles.
That emphasis on professional competence is consistent with the scope of the post. An adviser who reviews procedures must be able to identify where policy is too vague, where practice has drifted, or where controls are no longer sufficient for current work patterns. In a public-sector setting, the challenge is rarely a single hazard; it is the interaction between many smaller risks spread across buildings, teams, and activities.
The post is part-time but permanent, running 52.14 weeks per year. That detail suggests continuity rather than a short-term project appointment. A role with that profile is usually intended to provide steady oversight, institutional memory, and a reliable point of contact for services that need technical support over time.
Recruitment also reflects wider workforce priorities
West Lothian Council says it is keen to employ a diverse workforce that reflects the people of Scotland. Applications are welcomed from all backgrounds, with particular encouragement for groups that remain under-represented, including people with disabilities, those from minority ethnic communities, and people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
The recruitment notice also includes a standard immigration and right-to-work requirement under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. Preferred candidates must confirm eligibility to work in the UK, and external candidates invited to interview will need to bring approved documentation as verification. While routine in public-sector recruitment, the language is a reminder that compliance obligations extend beyond workplace safety alone.
For applicants with a strong regulatory background, the post offers a chance to shape the safety culture of a large public employer from inside the corporate function. For the council, the appointment is about maintaining scrutiny where hazards are most likely to be missed: in inspection findings, incident patterns, construction coordination, and the quieter gaps between policy and practice.