Health, Safety and Security: NHS Interview Questions

Maintaining and promoting the health, safety and security of everyone in or affected by the organisation — including routine duties like safe moving and handling, and the management of risk.

Bands 1–4 (Level 1)

  • How do you take personal responsibility for your own health, safety and security?
  • Describe a time you spotted a health, safety or security risk.
  • How do you keep up to date with health and safety in your work?
  • What do you do to keep your working environment safe?

Band 5 (Level 2)

  • Describe a time you took clear personal responsibility for safety at work.
  • How do you contribute to the health and safety of yourself, your patients and your colleagues?
  • Tell me about a time you acted after noticing a threat to health, safety or security.
  • What health and safety policies or documents are you used to working with?

Bands 6–7 (Level 3)

  • Tell me about a time you managed a complex health, safety or security issue.
  • How do you contribute to the health and safety policies of your department or wider organisation?
  • Talk me through an occasion at work when you took a calculated risk.
  • How would you ensure safe systems of work across your area of responsibility?

Bands 8–9 (Level 4)

  • Tell me about a complex health, safety or security issue you had to manage.
  • How do you shape the health and safety policies of your department or organisation?
  • How would you build and sustain a culture that improves health and safety best practice in your area?
  • How do you make sure safe systems of work are embedded across the teams you lead?

What good answers contain

Listen for personal responsibility for safety, alertness to risk before it becomes an incident, knowing when and how to escalate, and a focus on safe systems of work and prevention.

Signs of a weak answer

Watch for treating safety as someone else's job, only reacting after something has gone wrong, or being unable to give concrete examples of identifying or managing a risk.

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