Appointment of Site Manager

Information for Candidates

September 2018

Contents

1 The Organisation

a. The Foundation’s Aim

b. The Role

c. Location

2 Job Description

3 Person Specification

4 Terms of Appointment

5 How to Apply

This document provides candidates with information on the appointment of a Site Manager.

For further information about the Foundation please visit the website at www.wgsf.org.uk

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1. Wakefield Grammar School Foundation

Wakefield Grammar School Foundation is one of the country’s leading families of single-sex independent day schools incorporating Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS), Wakefield Girls’ High School (WGHS) and Mulberry House Nursery. There are five schools in total as both QEGS and WGHS have a Junior School and a Senior School in addition to the Nursery.

In total there are around 2,000 pupils across the five schools and 450 employees approximately including both teaching and support staff.

Both the Junior and Senior School pupils are taught in a single-sex environment with some A-level subjects being taught jointly in the Sixth Form. Mulberry House Nursery is co-educational for boys and girls aged 3-4 years. Each school within the Foundation has its own Head and Senior Leadership Team with the exception of Mulberry House Nursery, which is managed by the Head of WGHS Junior School. The five schools are all highly individual and are tailored to the needs of their pupils.

There is a single Governing Body for the Foundation of 19 Governors with a broad range of skills and experience. The Governors provide strong governance through a committee structure with specific committees for QEGS and WGHS in addition to committees for Risk and Compliance, Land and Buildings and Finance. Total income for the Foundation is £20 million annually and the financial position is strong.

The Bursar is responsible for advising the Governing Body of the Foundation as well as managing the support functions of Admin, Catering, Compliance including Health and Safety, Development, Estates, Finance, Human Resources and ICT.

The Foundation Liaison Group (FLaG), the executive team of all four Heads and the Bursar work closely together to ensure consistency of approach across the Foundation where appropriate and to share best practice.

The Foundation’s Aim

The Foundation’s aim is to develop and maintain inspirational learning environments at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School and Wakefield Girls’ High School, with the schools focused towards the distinctive needs of boys and girls.

The schools will maximise the potential and educational opportunity for all those with the academic ability to access the curriculum by encouraging the pursuit of excellence, providing high quality teaching, outstanding pastoral care and an extensive range of extra-curricular activities. They will embrace as wide a cross section of the community as possible and support students irrespective of their social or economic background.

The Role

The Foundation is seeking an experienced Site Manager to be responsible for day to day operations across a large and prestigious estate based in central Wakefield. Reporting to the Estates Manager the successful candidate will be fundamental to ensuring the smooth running of the estate.

The ideal candidate will have experience of both hard and soft Facilities Management services and have experience of managing both in-house staff and contractors. The Site Manager will be responsible for a large estates team of approximately eleven staff, and leadership will be crucial to the role.

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On a day to day basis, the role is customer facing and the candidate will require excellent communication and organisational skills, in order to be able to prioritise, plan and manage work activities in a way that maintains the smooth running of the estate. The postholder will be required to oversee the Foundation Estates Helpdesk, therefore previous helpdesk experience would be advantageous.

As Site Manager the postholder will be responsible for ensuring that all planned and scheduled maintenance activities are completed on time along with the associated records. The Foundation is committed to ensuring a safe place of work for all. Therefore a sound understanding of contractor control, fire safety and safe working practices will be expected.

The schools occupy prestigious sites close to the city centre located within a conservation area of Wakefield. The schools are a mixture of original buildings dating back in some cases to the 19th century with various additions during the intervening years; the schools also have extensive playing fields with an excellent floodlit astroturf pitch and modern pavilions. The Foundation has recently acquired the former Clayton Hospital site. This is a four acre site located between the WGHS and QEGS campuses and it presents a wonderful opportunity for the Foundation to develop some exciting new facilities which will benefit all pupils at the Foundation’s schools.

Location

All five schools are conveniently located together with easy access to the West Yorkshire motorway network and within walking distance of Wakefield city centre. Wakefield is at the centre of excellent road and rail networks, and the other major cities of the North of England including Sheffield, Leeds, York and Harrogate and the Yorkshire countryside are easily accessible.

Wakefield is a cathedral city which is the centre of a Metropolitan District of 325,000 people. The city and district offers major cultural attractions such as the Hepworth Gallery, an international standard Art Gallery celebrating the life and work of Barbara Hepworth, who was brought up in Wakefield (and who attended Wakefield Girls' High School herself), the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Nostell Priory and the National Coal Mining Museum for England are within the District boundary.

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2. Job Description

Reporting to: Estates Manager

Department: Estates

Job Purpose:

To provide the day to day management and supervision of the Estates team and manage the routine maintenance of buildings and sites of the Foundation schools, with particular reference to their state of repair and health & safety aspects.

To liaise with teaching and support staff as necessary in the performance of this function and to identify opportunities for improved service delivery.

Produce with the aid of the Deputy Heads at each school, a summer programme of fixtures and fittings requirements and decorating schedule.

Line management and responsible for:

Head Caretaker, Head Porter, Foundation Joiners, Foundation Mini-bus Driver, External Contractors

Grade: WGSF Grade M

In addition to information outlined in the section, ‘The Role’, key duties and responsibilities will include:

1. Site Management Management and control of routine and scheduled maintenance activities. Respond to reactive maintenance issues as required. Management of Estates helpdesk (Every) to ensure work is completed in a timely manner. Management of statutory maintenance activities and control of associated documentation. Line management of in house Estates team. Management and control of contractor activities.

2. Health and Safety Monitoring of in house staff and contractors to ensure that safe working practices are being

adhered to. A strong understanding of Fire Safety and the associated best practice. Control of contractors on site (work permits etc.) Routine site inspections to ensure that premises are in a safe condition and suitable

housekeeping is in place. Attending the Foundation’s Health & Safety Committee meetings. Providing advice and

relevant practical assistance where necessary to members of the Committees when required.

Arranging induction, refresher and new training as required for the Estates team.

3. Estates Department Team To be responsible for the line management of designated Estates staff, including keeping

records on leave, training and personal development, including carrying out annual appraisals in accordance with Foundation guidelines.

4. Budgets and Record Keeping You will be responsible to the Estates Manager for the production of cost budgets for areas

under your control, including those budgets prepared by subordinate departmental heads.

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You will be responsible for controlling costs within those budgets and reporting on variances between actual and budgeted costs as appropriate. Including the ordering of services, fixture and fittings and materials.

The keeping of all records generated by the above duties. Management of Foundation gas and electricity accounts.

5. Revenue Project Work In consultation with key stakeholders, carrying out surveys and produce drawings and/or

specifications. These works would not normally require planning or building regulations approval but

should either be necessary then preparation of such documentation would be a requirement of the post.

Obtaining quotations for or estimating the cost of such works, the selection, programming, deployment and control of tradesmen/sub-contractors to carry out the works. Manage the Estates budgets including invoice authorisation and coding.

6. Repairs, Maintenance, Furnishings and Fittings Identifying requirements for programmed maintenance/improvement works and inspecting

and deciding upon the requirements to rectify running and emergency repair works. Where necessary producing clearly defined schedule of work (scope) and developing a

brief for project stakeholders to ensure that they are suitably briefed. Selecting, deploying and control of tradesmen employed on such works and identifying

when such works can be carried out by in-house staff. Purchasing of furniture, fixtures, fittings and furnishings, including the selection of

suppliers/manufacturers and installers; obtaining quotations, controlling the quality of installed work and matching selected products with intended use/location.

In conjunction with each school, identifying annual decorating requirements, tendering of work and management of summer painting program.

7. Miscellaneous: Establish good relationships with staff and contractors as required. Weekly site walks are to be conducted to ensure high standards of maintenance are in

place along with weekly site meetings with Estates staff (toolbox talks) Regular site meetings with key personnel from each school. Attend and participate in meetings as required To work additional hours as necessary in line with the requirements of the post, and to be

reasonably contactable in the event of an emergency. To be aware of and understand the role that all staff have in relation to the safeguarding of

pupils and to comply with policies and procedures relating to Safeguarding and Child Protection, reporting all concerns to the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

To comply with policies and procedures relating to health and safety, security, confidentiality and data protection/GDPR, reporting all concerns to the appropriate person.

To contribute to the overall ethos/work/aims of the school and Foundation. To be committed towards Continuing Professional Development and attend training as

necessary. It should be noted that this is not a definitive list of duties; you will be expected to carry out

any other duties as reasonably requested by the Estates Manager/Other Senior Manager commensurate with the grade of the post.

This job description may be amended at any appropriate time, following consultation between the Estates Manager and the postholder.3. Person Specification

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All qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience required are essential unless denoted as desirable (D)

Qualifications/Education/Training A recognised Health and Safety Qualification e.g. IOSH/NEBOSH Formal training in the requirements of Fire Safety (D)

Knowledge Understanding of health, safety and welfare regulations and best practice. Understanding of contract law. An understanding of child protection and safeguarding procedures (D) Experience of working within an educational environment and an understanding

of the issues facing independent schools (D)

Skills Excellent interpersonal skills to communicate and work effectively at all levels. Must be able to demonstrate a strong background in leadership and management of in house

staff and contractors. Strong literacy and numeracy skills including Word, Excel, and Visio. Experience with Auto CAD would be advantageous. A strong focus of working in a front facing customer FM environment. Able to demonstrate independent thinking and problem solving abilities including design

solutions. Must be able to demonstrate a pro-active approach to work and the ability to work with limited

supervision. Able to keep accurate records and work within agreed frameworks. Able to manage continuous professional development, staff appraisal and share knowledge with

other staff and support and encourage their development.

Experience Evidence of line management experience working in an FM environment of at least 3 years. Experience of the management of both hard and soft FM, either educational or commercial. The ability to act as a project manager on small scale projects up to £80k individually or

accumulatively. Previous trade experience (D) Experience of operating an electronic helpdesk (D)

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4. Terms of Appointment

The post is full time, all year. Hours of work are 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday 08.30 am – 5.00 pm or 08.00 am to 4.30 pm, with a 1 hour unpaid lunch break.

A suitable start date will be agreed with the successful candidate; ideally no later than January 2019.

An appropriate salary in the range of £29,400 - £34,300 per annum will be offered which will reflect the importance of the post and the experience of the successful candidate.

Annual holiday entitlement is 4 weeks holiday per annum and in addition 10 statutory days. A further 3 concessionary days are given at Christmas. This is a total of 33 days and increases to 38 days after 5 years’ service.

WGSF operates a money purchase pension scheme which employees are eligible to join on commencing employment. Contribution rates are currently 3.75% for the employee and 8% for the employer, based upon gross salary, with an option to increase up to 5.25% and 11% respectively.

Free school lunches (term time only).

Free car parking.

Access to our free 24 hour Employee Assistance Programme.

We offer a number of other benefits including a Cycle Scheme, Simply Health (hospital plan) and Engage Mutual (health plan).

Foundation staff are eligible for a discount on the fees in respect of their children attending Foundation schools (excluding the Nursery) subject to Foundation policy. Fee Remission is pro-rata for part time/term time employees.

An offer of employment will be subject to the receipt of 2 references considered satisfactory to WGSF, a satisfactory DBS (Disclosure and Barring service) check, evidence of eligibility to work in the UK, relevant qualifications and a satisfactory health questionnaire. An appointment with the Foundation is also subject to the satisfactory completion of a probationary period of 6 months.

WGSF is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

5. How to Apply

A Support Staff application form is available from our website www.wgsf.org.uk (via the tab Key Information and then Employment Opportunities) or by contacting the HR Manager, Annette Casey on t: 01924 231625 or e: annette.casey@wgsf.co.uk.

Application forms can be submitted on line or by post to the HR Manager, Annette Casey, Governors’ Office, 158 Northgate, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF1 3UF.

The closing date for applications is 9.00 am on Friday 19th October 2018.

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted within four weeks of the closing date and invited to a first stage interview on a date to be confirmed.

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