Head of Prevention

**About the job** Your passion and leadership can make a life-saving difference in our community**

**Salary**: £61,147 to £64,596 per annum.

**Working Pattern**: Full time, 37 hours per week.

**Contract**: Permanent.

**Location**: Based in Chichester, a typical week will combine homeworking with attendance at the office or visits around the County. This is led by the needs of the service.

**Annual Leave**: 30 days, plus bank holidays.

As Head of Prevention you will be responsible for the county wide delivery of specialist, centrally led programmes, initiatives and campaigns designed to support the **Community Risk Management Plan.**

In addition to setting strategy and directing resources, which includes overseeing how all operational staff (fire crews) perform the preventative aspects of their roles, the Head of Prevention is responsible for ensuring that early intervention activities are conducted in partnership with other parts of the organization and external partners, in accordance with agreed-upon standards and performance levels.

A vital aspect of this role is to set and monitor performance targets, working hand in hand with senior managers and external stakeholders to assess activities and ensure that we uphold consistent, effective delivery standards.
**What we need from you**:

- Strong communication skills to persuade, negotiate, and influence others to achieve sensitive objectives and implement solutions.
- Problem-solving that influences broader service outcomes and addresses critical business issues, leveraging existing policies and knowledge to navigate complex technical, professional, resource, or personnel challenges.
- Effective research and planning skills to construct creative solutions to ensure the successful delivery of service provision working on a time horizon of a number of years.
- Sound partnership working skills with the ability to develop working relationships with stakeholders.
- Effective people management and performance management skills.
- Relevant chartered status of a professional body or equivalent high-level experience of involved practices.
- Significant post qualification experience in dealing with significant and complex issues.
- Considerable experience of managing and leading business activities with conflicting requirements.
- Experience of managing a budget and contributing to decision making on high level spending.
- Experience of supporting initiatives in a political environment.

**Rewards and Benefits**
- **30** days annual leave + bank holidays with the ability to buy additional leave annually.
- A very generous pension scheme.
- Varied flexible working options.
- Training and development opportunities.
- A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers with the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform.
- Discounted membership at selected local sports and fitness centres.
- A range of commuting and business travel discount and initiatives.
- Plus many more

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our **Rewards and Benefits** page.
**How to apply**:
Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

Job Reference: CPP01004