Head Of Operations, People & Retail

Estates and Operations Manager

Location: Any CHAS site, (Hybrid with base in Edinburgh, Balloch or Kinross, travel expected between sites, see below for more detail)

Contract:               Permanent Full Time (35 hours per week)

Are you an experienced Estates and Operations Manager?  We are looking for an experienced individual who understands our goals, to join our dynamic team of professionals.

At CHAS, we provide unwavering care across homes, hospices, and hospitals for children who may die young.  We create moments of joy and support families at every step on this hardest of journeys. 

The role

Children's Hospices Across Scotland is seeking a dedicated and experienced Estates and Operations Manager to ensure the smooth functioning of our properties and facilities across the organisation. In this critical role, you will oversee a dedicated internal team and external contractors, while ensuring compliance with statutory, legislative and Health and Safety requirements. You will lead a team, coordinating all hard facilities management services, day to day property management, implementing planned and preventative maintenance strategies and maintaining high industry standards for CHAS facilities. You will procure and lead on small projects working closely with our internal teams. Additionally, you will work closely with clinical and non-clinical staff in our hospices to meet the ongoing needs of children, families, staff, volunteers and visitors.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a robust planned and preventative maintenance programme to ensure the safety, operation and compliance of the CHAS estate.
• Manage reactive maintenance activities, effectively prioritising requests and allocating resources.
• Oversee the development and delivery of the Asset Management plan and works programme, including condition surveys, informing budgeting and financial planning processes.
• Plan and execute capital works projects, from tendering to commissioning and overseeing project teams.
• Specify, tender, negotiate, and manage Estate, Hard FM contracts and services.
• Monitor and report on the assigned Estate Management and Hard FM budget, ensuring adherence to financial guidelines and preparing multi-year forecasts.
• Ensure statutory compliance, conducting assessments, audits, and inspections while maintaining relevant records.
• Lead sustainability and energy management efforts, promoting environmental action plans and managing utility contracts.
• Oversee security procedures and systems for all CHAS sites.
• Develop and maintain effective systems for estate data management.
• Manage the Hard FM Team, supporting staff development.
• Communicate effectively with Operations Manager Soft FM and Head of Facilities Management & Projects to address site issues and prioritise actions.

Requirements

• Degree/HNC/HND in a Property or Building Services discipline or five years' relevant experience in a similar role.
• Possess IOSH Managing Safely Qualification.
• Proactive with a positive attitude and excellent planning and prioritisation skills.
• Highly developed communication and collaboration skills with the ability to simplify technical information.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities, including the ability to make decisions under pressure.
• Knowledgeable in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook).
• Wide and detailed knowledge of Hard FM Services, including electrical and mechanical systems.
• Experience in managing multi-site estates with both owned and leased premises.
• Demonstrated team management and organisational skills in a multi-disciplinary environment.
• Experience in contract management of outsourced services and suppliers.
• Detailed knowledge of statutory compliance and legislative requirements in property and facilities management.
• Experienced in the use of building management systems and project management.
• Budget management skills and experience.
• Ability to travel to each of our sites across Scotland.

Why CHAS?

At CHAS, we care for dying children and their families. However, we also care about you. Some of the benefits of a career at CHAS include:

• A robust induction programme.
• Development opportunities for your career and leadership progression, and the time to prioritise your personal development.
• A supportive and collaborative work environment.
• Opportunity to make a real impact on the community by delivering best-in-class services.
• Working across different parts of Scotland with diverse stakeholders.
• Flexible and hybrid working available.
• The opportunity to continue paying into existing NHS pension schemes (subject to eligibility), or membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme.

You can view the full range of benefits in the attached benefits document.

Further Information

CHAS support families across the whole of Scotland. Our Head Office is based in Edinburgh, and we have two hospices: Rachel House in Kinross and Robin House in Balloch. We also have our fundraising office in Glasgow, dedicated bases in Aberdeen and Inverness, and Shops in Dunfermline and Kinross.

As this role will closely support our hospices, we would like to speak to candidates who could base themselves from either Edinburgh, Kinross or Balloch and we do expect regular travel across these sites with predicted 3 days onsite/week, varying as needed. The remaining days can be worked remotely.

As a team we work flexibly and are happy to discuss how we can meet business needs while accommodating individual working patterns and requirements.

We are open to hearing from applicants who feel they could excel in the role but may not have all the skills listed above. If you have a strong core skillset within Estates and Operations Management and are eager to learn, we encourage you to apply

This post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Scotland check.

We expect interviews to take place on 1st May 2024.

Interested?

If this sounds like you, then we would love you to apply!

Follow the link to find more information including:

·       Full job description

·       Full list of benefits

·       Contact details to arrange an informal chat with the hiring manager.

·       Contact details for support with the recruitment process.

To complete your application you will be asked to answer a couple of questions and submit your CV or complete our full application form.