Role: Senior Occupational Health Advisor
Department: HR and Learning
Location: Escafeld House, Sheffield
Salary: £44,700 - £49,716
Hours: 37
Contract Type: Temporary for 12 months
In this role you will lead a small multidisciplinary team to deliver a range of OH services to SYP, including attendance management, pre-placement assessments, fitness for work medicals, vaccinations, management of contamination incidents, physiotherapy, and other services as required.
Key responsibilities:
Lead and manage a small multidisciplinary team of clinicians, developing, motivating, and engaging the team to deliver a high standard of OH practice and customer service.
Conduct PDRs, address staff development needs, support welfare and ensure adherence to health & safety procedures.
Be the first point of escalation for clinical team and client queries.
- Ensure undertaking of all relevant responsibilities involving a safe and effective clinic environment, e.g. replenishment of consumables, maintaining vaccination stocks, fridge checks and calibration of equipment.
Support delivery of telephone consultations and maintain clinical objectivity and impartiality at all times in line with occupational health guidance.
Provide appropriate and effective evidence based occupational health advice to support employees and management across South Yorkshire Police.
Provide a concise report to management indicating an employee’s fitness to work and detailing any advisory reasonable adjustments with timeframes in line with audit criteria.
Utilise a bio-psychosocial approach combined with functional assessment to address barriers to work and inform robust work recommendations.
Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and effectively manage each referral to ensure each client receives the expertise required for their circumstances.
Liaise with the Clinical Governance Manager, Physician, Physiotherapist and Counsellors in order to provide robust Occupational Health reports that support an individual’s rehabilitation back to work and utilise relevant organisational policies to support effective return to work plans.
Interpret legislation, policies, and procedures to meet South Yorkshire Police requirements for Occupational Health provision.
Deliver occupational health services, which comply with confidentiality and codes of professional practice.
Assist the Clinical Governance Manager with policy review and improvements.
Support delivery of pre-employment and mandatory medicals advising on fitness for work, providing details of workplace adjustments for managers to consider and ensuring medicals are undertaken within agreed timescales to maintain frontline operational policing.
Responsible for setting up, management and delivery of health surveillance programmes, demonstrating competency in the required medical tests e.g., spirometry, audiometry etc
Undertake vaccination programmes and advise on infection control issues.
Sensitivity and effectively manage contamination incidents.
Demonstrate good understanding and practical application of relevant health and safety regulations and know when to escalate cases of concern.
Maintain accurate occupational health records in a safe and confidential manner through the eOPAS database in accordance with relevant legislation.
Assist in the delivery of health promotion activities in line with the force’s Wellbeing Strategy
Provide individual advice on improving health and wellbeing, signposting to relevant external agencies/charities to help individuals access support and make lifestyle changes.
Participate in regular peer clinical audit to generate continuous service improvements in quality.
Be able to prioritise work with effective time management to ensure all tasks are completed accurately and within set timescales/KPIs.
Skills and experience:
- Professionally qualified in Occupational Health Nursing (Degree, Diploma, Post Graduate Qualification) - along with significant understanding and practical experience in the health sector.
Previous experience of leading professional staff and optimising performance to improve delivery.
- Case management experience and knowledge and understanding of health and wellbeing issues facing Policing.
- Experience in delivery of immunisations, venepuncture, audiometry, spirometry.
- Proven ability to manage a challenging workload and support future OH plans.
- Thorough understanding and application of professional regulatory frameworks and their relevance to SYP occupational health services.
- Passion for excellence and high standards of client care.
- Excellent communication, influencing and relationship management skills.
- Excellent report writing skills.
- Ability to effectively manage a small team of professional clinicians.
- Ability to conduct medical assessments as requested and deliver vaccinations as required.
- Proven ability to manage a challenging workload and support future occupational health plans.
- Ability to travel within South Yorkshire Police to deliver an agile Occupational Health service
Skills and experience as documented in the role profile need to be evidenced in your application to be considered for interview.
For more detailed information relating to the role, skills and experience for this role, please click here to view the role profile.
What we offer:
We offer generous entitlements and supportive policies to enable a better work-life balance, some of which are listed below:
- A highly competitive salary and access to a generous pension scheme
- Generous annual leave allowance
- A wide range of family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
- Flexible working arrangements including flexi-time and hybrid working
- A transparent and collaborative team culture underpinned by our core values of Fairness, Integrity & Trust
- Comprehensive range of development and leadership courses to develop your career with South Yorkshire Police
- Employee Assistant Programme (accessible 24/7) offering confidential support and advice
- Flexible lifestyle benefits such as: Blue Light Card, Company Shop, Cycle to work scheme
- Committed to embedding sustainability: South Yorkshire Police Sustainability Strategy 2020-2025 (yhrn.police)
- Membership to the Sports and Social Club
- Access to a wide range of staff support groups and networks
Eligibility:
Applicants must meet the minimum requirement checkable history criteria, which must be taken into account for individuals applying to work with South Yorkshire Police in any capacity. A minimum checkable history of 5 years is required for this role and successfully undergoing recruitment vetting procedure is a pre-requisite of employment with South Yorkshire Police.
Appearance & Standards:
South Yorkshire Police is committed to striking a proportionate balance between self-expression and the need to maintain role sensitive professional standards in dress and appearance. Officers, staff, and volunteers of South Yorkshire Police are permitted to have tattoos visible whilst on duty provided the tattoo is not considered to be unacceptable or otherwise inappropriate. Tattoos will be reviewed as part of the recruitment and selection process.
South Yorkshire Police’s overarching aim is to deliver an excellent police service to support safer communities. The public’s assessment of our excellence is influenced by the level of trust and confidence in us, as an organisation and as individuals. In comparison to the general public, police officers and police staff are held to a higher standards of behaviour and accountability. In applying to join the police, applicants are accepting of these higher standards and understand the implications on their right to privacy.
South Yorkshire Police’s Key Values:
At South Yorkshire Police we have 3 key values which run through everything we do Fairness, Integrity & Trust, the attached document details the key behaviours we expect all employees to adhere to.
Smarter ways of Working:
South Yorkshire Police is committed to developing working practices which assist staff to balance their personal and professional lives, whilst meeting the needs of the organisation. This in turn enables SYP to provide an outstanding service to the community.
There are 3 different categories as part of this which are: Fixed, Field and Hybrid.
This role has been evaluated as a hybrid role.
Hybrid: Applicable when the work can be undertaken at any location, whether that be a SYP building or from home.
Contact details:
For further information about the role, please contact: Hannah Moore on 07464 986546
Closing Date: 4th May 2026
Closing dates are not normally extended, other than in exceptional circumstances and agreement is made between the Recruitment Manager and the Line Manager for the role.
Candidate Information:
Please note that, should you be successful at the interview stage and before appointment, the relevant pre-employment checks are required. These include references, medical clearance, vetting clearance and sickness absence criteria check.
Diversity & Inclusion:
Applications are particularly welcome from female and ethnic minority candidates.
It is really important to us that the department represents the community we serve, in order for us to provide the best service, utilising a range of backgrounds, experience and skills. We support and value all officers and staff and the unique experiences they bring to the role. We strongly encourage and welcome applications from these valuable underrepresented groups.
If you are from an underrepresented group and want to find out more about the support we can offer, please contact our dedicated team on positiveaction@southyorks.pnn.police.uk
In addition, we will look to support anyone who requires Part Time/Job share working hours.
Internal Candidates:
This vacancy is temporary therefore, you must have the support of your current Line Manager to apply. If you are a permanent member of staff, this would be classed as a secondment opportunity. If you are on a fixed term contract, you must contact the Recruitment Team before applying.
Please ensure that you and your current line manager complete the attached consent form. Please email the completed form to the hiring line manager, with the role title and the closing date stated in the subject of your email.
Without support, your application will not be considered any further.
Further Information:
This role is offered on a fixed-term basis in accordance with applicable employment legislation and South Yorkshire Police policy.
Fixed-term contracts are used where there is a genuine business need, such as project-based work, temporary cover or time-limited funding. The fixed term period is subject to change, linked to the posts requirements and may be subject to extension or early termination in line with appropriate notice period.
All fixed-term employees will receive equal treatment and access to opportunities in line with our commitment to fair and inclusive employment practices.
Where appropriate, fixed-term roles may be made permanent without the need for a further recruitment process.
Documents to Review:
For the Police Staff Recruitment Vetting Handbook - Please Click here
For Application Guidance and Tips - Please Click Here
For the FIT Values of South Yorkshire Police - Please Click Here
For Secondment Approval - Please Click Here
View our recruitment video:
