Planned Maintenance Surveyor – Church of England, Remote
About the organisation
The Church of England Pensions Board Housing Department provides housing options for those who retire from ministry in the Church of England. More widely the Pensions Board is a charity which runs pensions schemes with over 30,000 members and provides grants as well as accommodation.
We offer a range of housing options for retired clergy and eligible family members, primarily through:
- 1,200 rental properties located throughout England
- Community Living (sheltered housing type accommodation with additional facilities) homes in 7 schemes across England
- Relationships with other housing providers
What you’ll be doing
As a Planned Maintenance Surveyor, you will be part of a small team ensuring our residents in our rental and Community Living properties live in quality homes, through the specification and delivery of planned maintenance programmes. This role is part of a new team, managing works in the region of £8m per annum.
You will work collaboratively with colleagues from across property and customer service teams and with external maintenance partners to deliver quality accommodation, value for money and compliance with regulatory standards.
You will combine technical knowledge with the ability to engage with and support our residents while working with contractors and external consultants to specify and deliver high-quality works. You will be instructing and managing contractors yourself directly or via an externally appointed contract administrator.
You will be instrumental in the Pensions Board meeting obligations including:
- The anticipated implementation of a Decent Homes Standard
- Minimum EPC C and energy efficiency requirements
- The wider Church’s aspirations in relation to Net Zero
Typical projects you may be responsible for include:
- External repairs and redecorations (including re-roofing and window replacements, paving, drainage and similar) to primarily street based housing
- Internal refurbishments, including replacement kitchens, bathrooms/wetrooms, rewiring, heating upgrades and similar
- Energy saving and other works to assist the Board in meeting its net zero aspirations initially based on a fabric first approach before moving onto net zero technologies.
- Major projects at our Community Living Schemes such as window and roof replacements, internal works to residents’ flats and upgrades/replacement of mechanical and electrical services.
Our properties are located throughout England, with a few in Wales. You will be visiting residents in their homes, and supervising the works of contractors and consultants will require meetings on site. This means you will need to work flexibly and on occasion, may require overnight stays away from home.
Our main office is in central London and you will need to attend the office for in-person meetings, training courses and other events on around a monthly basis.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- To provide technical and contract management for maintenance and refurbishment projects
- To contribute towards the development, design and deliver a forward works programme for the Board’s rental planned maintenance programme through the undertaking of surveys and other tasks as required.
- To support the delivery of the Community Living schemes’ planned maintenance programme, in liaison with the Community Living manager and team
- Develop specifications for works and assist with the procurement of external consultants/specialist advisors to undertake relevant design works, project management and other tasks for both rental and Community Living services.
- Work with our residents, contractors, consultants and other staff within our Housing Department to support residents through the various stages of a project. Identify and support residents who may require additional support, which may include in some instances arranging additional temporary facilities during the course of the works or arranging short term rehousing working in conjunction with our Housing Officers.
- Working with the principal designer and other staff to ensure relevant pre-construction information is made available to the principal designer and principal contractor (including asbestos registers)
- Ensure relevant consents are in place for works (for example; planning, building control, party wall awards)
- Undertake site visits as required to ensure there is clarification of specification, to ensure the quality of works and that good working practices are being used. On completion of works undertake quality assurance checks and that invoiced works matches that undertaken (depending on the nature of the project these may be on a sampling basis)
- Work with our Quality Assurance Officer to ensure customer satisfaction surveys and other relevant data is captured.
- On completion of works ensure that component records are updated on our housing management system and relevant compliance certificates are provided to our compliance team
- Provide forecast expenditure reports and regularly track planned, committed and actual expenditure against budgets and report to your team leader.
- Ensure you and your team comply with the organisation’s safeguarding policies and procedures and participate in relevant training.
- Provide a customer focused complaint resolution in relation to the works programme.
- Where external funding sources are to be used for the works, comply with and report against the grant stream requirements.
Your job description is intended to reflect your main tasks and areas of work, but is not exhaustive. Changes may occur over time and you will be expected to agree any reasonable changes to your job description that are commensurate with your banding and in line with the general nature of your post. You will be consulted about any changes to your job description before these are implemented.
About you:
The Church of England is for everyone and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we particularly welcome applicants from UK Minoritised Ethnicities (UKME)/Global Majority Heritage (GMH) and other under-represented groups.
Essential:
Knowledge/Experience
- Strong technical knowledge of residential maintenance, construction works and asset management and the ability to make informed decisions based upon specialist information provided by others
- Understanding of construction contracts and roles within such contracts
- Experience of delivering excellent customer service within occupied housing including engaging with residents and providing support to during the delivery of works
- Experience of inspecting works and ensuring defects are remedied
- Knowledge and ability to write reports and develop schedules of works
- Experience of budget management
- IT Literate with excellent knowledge of Microsoft products, data management and database systems
- Good understanding of Health and Safety and Compliance regulations within a construction and housing setting includingan understanding of the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS)
Skills & Abilities
- Good communicator, able to work effectively with different groups (including residents, staff, contractorsand other stakeholders)
- Highly organised and able to work with minimal supervision
- Flexible and approachable with an attention to detail
- Ability to meet competing deadlines by prioritising and setting targets
- Self-motivated with initiative, and a record of achieving agreed objectives within time and resource constraints
- Naturally collaborative and enjoys working with people from diverse backgrounds
- Ability to travel and work flexibly
Qualifications & Training
- Construction-related qualification (e.g. HND in construction, or degree) with relevant construction-related experience
- Valid UK driving license
- This role will require a basic DBS check
Desirable
- An appropriate professional qualification (e.g. RICS/CIOB/IET/IMechE or similar)
- Experience of specifying and managing works using a schedule of rates contract (NHF or similar)
- Knowledge and understanding of older persons/Retirement Housing
- Basic experience/understanding of M&E within a residential setting
- Knowledge and experience of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
Note:
Our portfolio of homes is spread throughout England with a small number of homes located in Wales. As far as is practicable you will be allocated a primary region (South West, South East, Mid and North) based on your home location. However, given the nature of the project work it is likely that not all work will be within your primary region and you may therefore be required to manage works throughout England and Wales and need to travel regularly toundertake site visits and in person meetings whist making best use of remote working technology.
About the National Church Institutions (NCIs)
The Pensions Board is one of the National Church Institutions (NCIs) which comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation – a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.
We Include. You Belong.
Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the NCIs to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.
Living out our values in all that we do, we:
- Strive for Excellence
- Show Compassion
- Respect others
- Collaborate
- Act with Integrity
We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.