Strategic Property Lead Candidate Information Pack
Executive Summary
Thank you for your interest in the Strategic Property Lead role with Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS). We seeking to appoint to the newly created role of Strategic Property Lead, who will design and implement our estate strategies, shaping the Service for the future. The nature of the fire service is ever evolving and the demands across our prevention, protection and response delivery are very dynamic. Engaging our communities, working in partnership with other agencies and supporting our people to be the best that they can be, requires our assets to be the highest standards for today and for the future. To deliver against the priorities of the Fire & Rescue Plan, it is a necessity that we continue to develop our estate in a way that allows us to utilise our workspaces to be effective, environmentally sustainable and collaborative. We want our stations to be at the heart of our communities, engaging and accessible to the public so that we can maintain visibility and confidence. The Strategic Property Lead will design, implement and lead our estate strategies, shaping the Service for the future. The role is key to unlocking potential within the physical estate by developing new and existing relationships with partners, improving our commercial strategies, revolutionising the way we use our estate and ensuring that the estate and facilities meet the needs of a modern fire and rescue service and partners. This role will work with other senior managers to specifically identify and develop opportunities for business change and efficiencies across the organisation. This is an exciting time to join ECFRS in a role that will directly impact service delivery and support our firefighters and local communities.
We look forward to receiving your application.
Will Newman Assistant Director, Asset Management
About us
Estate Strategy
Essex County Fire and Rescue Services Estates Strategy represents a significant proportion of our financial investment. It is therefore crucial that our buildings and facilities provide our employees with the most efficient, effective and productive environments to thrive, work, train and support them to achieve our vision. Vision: An estate that contributes to keeping the people of Essex safe through strategic investment, improved efficiency and embracing new ways of working.
Our vision at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service is clear: To make Essex a safe place to live, work and travel. With a patch covering 367,000 hectares and a population of more than 1.8 million, Essex is one of the largest County fire services in the UK. We are a county of real contrasts, made up of people who have differing needs. Our headquarters are at Kelvedon Park in Kelvedon, where we also have a mobilising control centre. We provide prevention, protection, and emergency response services from 50 fire stations and an Urban Search and Rescue facility. Essex County Fire and Rescue Service (ECFRS) is adaptive and dynamic and is always there to keep the people of Essex safe. We are focused on new ways of working and the opportunities this brings in being able to use our estate differently. We are looking at innovative solutions to allow our people to continue to engage with one another in a much more flexible and agile way.
The core principles of our estates strategy:
1. Safe & Secure Working Environment We will create a safe working environment that allows our people to flourish and work in the most effective and efficient way.
2. Healthy & Inclusive Workplace It is important that we all adopt the practice of a healthy workplace with good infection prevention and control.
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3. Smarter – Sustainable Effective We want to adopt and develop new ways of working, ensuring that our buildings are smart, effective and sustainable to meet future needs. This means we need to harness and take forward our vision to meet the communities of Essex.
4. Supportive Culture We recognise that we need to continue to support our people in new ways of working and we want to ensure that we support your health and wellbeing in the workplace through connecting in a positive, fulfilling environment.
For further information, you can view our full estate strategy here.
The Role
7. The post-holder will maintain effective cross boundary relationships and ensure effective delivery of the development and implementation of plans and strategies which support work streams (e.g. through the design and articulation of appropriate data mapping activities). 8. The post-holder will act as a single point of contact both internally and externally for all property and facilities matters. 9. The post-holder will manage and be accountable for the annual property and wider support revenue budgets and capital projects budgets always ensuring appropriate use of funds and ensure that all decisions are made in line with ECFRS policy and Financial Regulations. 10. The post-holder is responsible for the successful generation of an income from the property estate as part of our plan. The post-holder will seek and secure opportunities to achieve, and where possible improve, this objective. This includes monitoring revenue income received from partners and tenants 11. Working with the ECFRS Property Team, the post-holder will develop, critique and approve the annual maintenance programme each year alongside regularly reviewing the programme for future investment in our buildings. 12. Manage and develop self and others to improve personal and team performance and deliver successful outcomes against plans and objectives. 13. Responsible for the effective management and timely resolution of people management issues which may include acting as an investigating officer or hearing manager. Completing Manager Self Service (MSS) processes where appropriate. 14. Manage the efficient and effective use of resources to support activities and to achieve departmental and ECFRS objectives. 15. Positively contribute to a safe work environment ensuring compliance with Health and Safety, Risk Management, Business Continuity and Safeguarding policy and procedure. Protect all personal information in adherence with the Data Protection Act 2018.
Property
Department: Grade/Role: Responsible to:
12
Assistant Director Asset Management Responsible for: Senior Building Service Engineer, Surveyors, Facilities Manager, Property Helpdesk &
Environment & Sustainability Officer, Water Section
Job Purpose: To protect and save life, property and the environment by embedding the principles of our estate strategy to provide first class facilities management and organisational support across the county. ECFRS seeks to establish a Strategic Property & Estates Plan which sets out the forward direction of the organisation’s property estate and how this will be managed and maintained. The post holder, working with partners, will design implement and lead our estate strategies, shaping the Service for the future. The role is key to unlocking potential within the physical estate by developing new and existing relationships with partners, improving our commercial strategies, revolutionising the way we use our estate and ensuring that the estate and facilities meet the needs of a modern fire and rescue service and partners. This role will work with other senior managers to specifically identify and develop opportunities for business change and efficiencies across the organisation. Main Duties and Responsibilities: 1. The post-holder will design, implement and lead the Strategic Property & Estates Plan, setting strategic direction for the organisation in terms of property, estates and facilities. 2. Oversee and be responsible for the successful delivery of several transformational work-streams to deliver property and wider support related projects. This includes commissioning, monitoring and directing professional teams. 3. The post-holder will implement, monitor and analyse options to make final recommendations for any scope changes necessary to deliver the programme strategy and enable integration of necessary work streams, e.g. technological applications and property, to deliver successful outcomes. 4. The post holder will manage the property, estates, facilities, water section and wider support business as usual teams. 5. Deliver a risk-based approach to the Water Section Delivery and Hydrant Testing. 6. The post-holder will liaise with all relevant stakeholders and participants, including department, programme teams and external parties to ensure strong relationships underpin the successful delivery of strategies and associated work streams.
The Person
Skills & Abilities Essential • Experience of successfully managing revenue budgets in excess of £2m. Experience of successfully managing capital programmes in excess of £6m. • Proven track record of maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of assets. • Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills, including the ability to explain complex ideas and engage people. • The ability to define and use analytics to support decision making. • Strong interpersonal skills including motivational negotiating, influencing and relationship building. • The ability to be creative and identify improvements and anticipate and respond to change. • Able to use professional judgement and diplomacy to make decisions. • Management of change within own business areas and supporting other services achieve change through effective asset management. • Ability to prioritise the use of resources, to make the most effective use of resources including staff, consultants and contractors. Other Essential • Demonstrates sound understanding of legislation relating to health and safety in the workplace. • Conversant with Building Regulations, Health & Safety at Work and statutory and regulatory / legislative requirements relating to construction and refurbishment works. • FM Workplace statutory and regulatory requirements, e.g. Equality Act, fire precautions, workplace Health & Safety, Asbestos, Water Management (Legionella), Gas, Electricity etc. • Willingness to work flexibly. • Committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. • Contribute to a positive working environment ensuring commitment to equality and diversity.
Qualification Essential
• Level 4 or 5 standard of education (e.g. Certificate/Diploma of Higher Education or HNDs) or equivalent experience. • ILM Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management, or equivalent Prince 2 or MSP practitioner. • Management qualification / Prince 2 or MSP practitioner. Desirable • Royal Institute of chartered Surveyors (or equivalent/similar professional property qualification) /estates/facilities. Knowledge & Experience Essential • Graduate degree in a property related discipline or property/estates/facilities related work experience deemed to have brought the post- holder to an acceptable level of knowledge. • Ability to demonstrate exceptional performance in a similar role within a property or facilities related industry. • Skills and experience in project management and in directing and facilitating others in the delivery of projects. • Experience of managing a service area or diverse group of staff. • Experience of managing budgets, resources and funding. • Experience of dealing with financial accountability and procurement systems within a public sector environment. • Experience of managing facilities management services, including statutory & regulatory compliance management. • Experience of managing the development and implementation of strategic Asset Management Plans. Desirable • An understanding of the social, economic and political environment of the Fire and Rescue Service and working with Trade Unions or Staff Groups.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Our employee forums and partners include: Asian Fire Services Association (AFSA), BEING (our LGBTQ+ employee support network), Christian Fellowship, Ethnic Minority Forum, Men’s Forum, and our Women’s Forum. In addition, we also have a female firefighters operational group. Further to the above, the Service has a Digital Accessibility Inclusion Group (DAIG) that supports all colleagues to improve their digital skills and provides additional support and guidance to colleagues with neurodivergent strengths and struggles as a result of dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, dyspraxia etc. We want everyone to thrive at work, and so we encourage and enable people to access digital tools to help them perform at your best. The DAIG is a group of colleagues from across the Service that unite to support others as a result of their lived experience and desire to make a difference. They support people with a range of visible and invisible disabilities to identify and access digital workplace adjustments and solutions and may be able to assist with your application too. Should you wish to discuss support, or access further information, from one of these groups, please contact Equality.Diversity@essex-fire.gov.uk You are also able to raise any queries or requests for support, including any adjustments you may require, at any stage of the process by email to recruitment@essex-fire.gov.uk You can find out more about Essex County Fire & Rescue Service here and about our vacancies and application processes here .
Within our Fire and Rescue Plan, we commit to creating a positive culture and continually improving the diversity of our workforce to reflect the community we serve. Greater representation of diversity across our Service is important as it brings wider perspective, skills, knowledge and lived experience. Greater diversity helps us to identify improved ways to engage with our communities, with awareness of their needs, to identify and reduce risks. It enriches our perspective, and broadens the skills and attributes required of a high performing organisation. Our Inclusion and Diversity team are working with our employees to collectively drive long-term change we need to see happen to create a workplace where people from all backgrounds want to work and build sustainable careers. Disability Confident We are an equal opportunities, Disability Confident, employer who welcomes applications from everyone and values diversity in our workplace. A commitment to promoting diversity and developing a work environment where all staff are treated with dignity and respect is central to our recruitment process and all applications will be considered solely on merit. As part of our offer to support all our candidates to perform to the best of their abilities during our recruitment and selection processes and we would like to let you know about a couple of support options you can access, should you wish to, including our employee forums, who are keen and willing to support all of our potential colleagues.
Further Information and How to apply:
The salary on offer is £63,712 to £70,715, plus benefits such as:
Safeguarding Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Fire and Rescue Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment. It is our policy to require all applicants for employment to disclose if you are currently being investigated by any regulatory body or have any decisions or sanctions pending or in progress in respect of your suitability to work for the Service. You agree to inform the Service within 24 hours if you are subsequently investigated by any agency or organisation in relation to concerns about your behaviour towards children, young people or vulnerable adults. The information you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and will be considered only in relation to the appointment for which you are applying.
• All employees are eligible to join a pension scheme with employer contributions above the national average (i.e Local Government Pension Scheme or Firefighters Pension Scheme) • Annual Leave – we offer 25 days basic annual leave, this is in addition to the 8 days public holiday. You will also receive 2 statutory days which are typically allocated towards the end of the year.
• Flexible working • Private healthcare • Blue light card
For further information on our benefits, please click here.
We are being supported on this recruitment campaign by the search consultancy the Management Recruitment Group.
To arrange a confidential briefing discussion, please contact our advisors:
This role will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
Charley McCarthy Charley.McCarthy@mrgglobal.com 07355 093 390 Stephanie Howe Stephanie.Howe@mrgglobal.com 07932 717 431
Friday 13 th & Wednesday 18 th September 2024
ECFRS Interviews:
Applications should consist of a comprehensive CV (of no more than 4 pages) and a covering letter (of no more than 2 pages). To apply, please send your application to both Charley and Stephanie.
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