Candidate brief November 2013

Property Services Director

Contents

We want the best – Andrew Lycett, Chief Executive, RCT Homes 3

The RCT Homes group – We’re more than a landlord 5

Our first five years – We’ve come a long way in a short time 7

The road ahead – The Property Services Director will play a key role 9

Our homes and neighbourhoods – The demand for housing is changing 11

Where the role sits – The directorate and Executive Management Team 13

We love it here – A spectacular area only minutes from Wales’s capital city 15

Job description 17

Person specification 23

Terms and conditions 25

Candidate brief

Thank you for your interest in the post of Property Services Director at RCT Homes.

The role will be crucial to us in the years to come as we consider the long-term needs of our communities. Not only will you need to deliver our Asset Management Plan, you will find yourself playing a key role in helping to shape a new corporate plan for the RCT Homes group as a whole.

The organisation was set up as Wales’s first housing community mutual in December 2007, so we are still a young organisation.

I know from personal experience that joining a team early in the life of a new organisation provides the best challenges and rewards as the pace of change is swift and progress can be achieved more quickly.

RCT Homes is already a strong organisation (more than 5,500 tenants have become members – in effect, our shareholders) and improving homes and housing services is only a part of the transformation we have in our sights.

Crucially, we must develop and empower our staff to be able to lead the process of change. Everyone at RCT Homes is driven by our shared values and, above all, a passion to make a real difference in our communities. Our Vision recognises that we will achieve the highest standards only if we work in partnership with our tenants and service users.

This information pack gives an overview of the job and provides some general information about the RCT Homes group. As this is a relatively new organisation, you may want to find out more about our aspirations and intentions as an employer. The ‘Jobs’ section of rcthomes.co.uk provides more information on some of the important aspects of our terms and conditions and future employment policies and practices.

But please don’t stop there. Have a good look round the whole website. The ‘How are we doing?’ button on the home page will take you to detailed information about our performance and, in particular, the ‘More than a landlord’ section will give you a good idea of the kind of organisation RCT Homes is and the types of leaders we need.

We believe our tenants and their communities deserve the best, which is why we want to recruit the cream of the crop.

Andrew Lycett, Chief Executive

We want the best

Having begun with only 290 staff, RCT Homes has quickly expanded to become a group with a total workforce of more than 500. Its total turnover in of more than £49 million in 2012-13 made the RCT Homes group one of the top five non-public sector businesses in the whole of Rhondda Cynon Taff.

(Turnover: £44m) In December 2007, RCT Homes became Wales’s largest social landlord overnight when it took over the ownership and management of Rhondda Cynon Taff Council’s entire housing stock.

RCT Homes was established as a housing community mutual. This is a uniquely Welsh model that enables tenants to become voting members – in effect, the organisation’s shareholders and owners. Tenants are actively encouraged to take part in operational decision-making on everything from choosing the colour of tiles for their bathrooms to selecting contractors for multi-million pound framework agreements.

On top of rental income, RCT Homes receives funding from the Welsh Assembly Government (£219 million over 30 years) and it also has a facility to borrow £113 million from Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets.

RCT Homes is much more than a landlord – it aims to become a prominent player in the housing-led regeneration of the communities it serves. It has already established a number of important subsidiaries that play a crucial role in helping to achieve this.

(Turnover: £0.42m) This is RCT Homes’ regeneration charity. Largely funded by RCT Homes’ suppliers, it was set up to support community capacity-building projects including youth work, workplace employment programmes and projects that help people to cope with the financial pressures of living on low incomes. It also looks to support community-based renewable energy projects and – a particular focus for 2013-14 – the development of social enterprises.

The RCT Homes group

(Turnover: £2.34m) This award-winning social enterprise has provided employment, training and workplace volunteering opportunities for more than 1,300 local people since it started in 2010. As the levels of access and support for placements from UK government programmes has reduced, so GrEW’s business model has been adapted to put greater emphasis on workplace volunteering opportunities. GrEW’s education services arm, Young Wales, offers learning and training in the creative industries, building trades, catering and service sector to young people who are not in mainstream education. It now works with six local authorities across South Wales.

(Turnover: £1.5m) This gas repairs and servicing company continues to perform exceptionally well and its workforce has grown to thirty. Homeforce has now begun to expand its business, taking on work such as heating installations and electrical works for RCT Homes, and it is beginning to trade externally.

This new development company aims to enable the building of new, affordable homes for rent. It has already secured backing from the private sector, which could reach as much as £1 billion to support housing organisations and local authorities to build anything up to 11,000 new homes over the next seven years or so.

Tenants voted in favour of transferring the ownership and management of their homes to RCT Homes based on an ‘offer document’ published by Rhondda Cynon Taff Council. This made eighty promises about improvements in homes and services that RCT Homes had to deliver in its first five years.

More than a dozen of these promises related to the mammoth job of bringing homes up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. This is the benchmark that the Welsh Government said tenants’ homes should reach by the end of 2012.

The programme involved making 59,840 improvements in 9,958 properties – 97 per cent of all tenants’ homes – and an investment of more than £140 million. It also included bringing more than 500 empty properties – some of which had been vacant for more than a decade – back into the housing stock.

RCT Homes became one of only five providers of social housing in the whole of Wales to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard by the end of 2012.

In the spring of 2013, RCT Homes took the unprecedented step of writing to every tenant offering them the chance to challenge our assessment that their home met the standard. So far, we have identified only a handful of homes where significant new work has had to be scheduled.

The refurbishment of tenants’ homes has not stopped. Millions of pounds will be invested in a planned maintenance programme every year to keep tenants’ homes up to the standard.

In 2013, we completed the first new houses to be built by RCT Homes, in Cwmbach in the Cynon Valley. Through our innovative development company Porthcwlis, we plan to build hundreds more new, affordable homes for rent over forthcoming years.

In addition, we have undertaken a multi-million pound programme to modernise our fleet of sheltered housing complexes. A number have been remodelled, expanding communal kitchens and lounges, replacing outdated bedsits with self-contained flats and adding lifts – taking RCT Homes’ investment in its sheltered housing complexes to more than £12 in its first five years.

We are now taking forward our plans to build a new, state-of-the-art complex in Rhydyfelin and to agree proposals for new, modern accommodation with residents at Trem y Cwm in Beddau.

Our innovative process of involving tenants in the selection of contractors and suppliers led to the creation of nearly a hundred new, local jobs during RCT Homes’ five-year Major Improvement Programme to bring tenants’ homes up to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

We have invested millions of pounds in improving our in-house repairs service since RCT Homes began operations.

We streamlined the process for assessing repairs, tightened up the timescales to which we work and, at the request of tenants, we introduced an appointments system. We have made wide-ranging changes to training, communications, computer systems, the way materials are ordered and even our vehicles.

Our first five years

The result has been a sea change in the service provided to tenants. In 2012-13, 97 per cent of the 28,000 repairs requested were completed before the promised deadline. Tenant satisfaction with the service rose to 99 per cent, putting RCT Homes’ repairs service among the most valued by its tenants in the UK.

Homeforce – RCT Homes’ gas servicing company – continues to achieve excellent standards. For the second year in succession, all tenants’ homes had a valid gas safety certificate at the end of the twelve months and a remarkable 99.9 per cent of gas repairs were completed before the promised deadline. The company is now branching out into new work including heating installations and electrical works.

Our social enterprise, Grow Enterprise Wales – which now employs more than a hundred staff – has expanded its work to include decorating and cleaning empty properties. A new service, GrEW Roses, began providing decorating, gardening and odd-job services for vulnerable tenants.

The huge strides made by RCT Homes in its first five years have not gone unnoticed. A national UK Housing Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2011 is just one of a string of accolades covering areas such as communication with tenants, environmental sustainability and tenant empowerment.

In 2012, RCT Homes became the first housing organisation ever to be named as Business in the Community Wales’s Responsible Company of the Year. Most recently, our innovative process to select contractors for multi-million pound ‘framework agreements’ – designed with tenants – won a Welsh National Procurement Award. More than 70 per cent of firms selected are local small and medium-sized businesses. The ‘framework’ has also enabled us to establish a number of new trade apprenticeships to be managed and supported through Grow Enterprise Wales.

RCT Homes has come a very long way in a short period of time, but we recognise that we still have a long way to go to achieve our ‘Vision’ of delivering the best services.

We have set ourselves the goal of being pioneers in the housing-led regeneration of the communities we serve and the new Property Services Director will play a key role in helping to shape a new corporate plan for the RCT Homes group to deliver this.

These are challenging times for RCT Homes, our tenants and their communities. The UK government’s Welfare Reform programme, significant cuts in local authority budgets, spiralling domestic energy costs, rent reform and a stagnant local construction sector are just some of the issues to which RCT Homes must adapt.

Asset Management Strategy

The ‘five-year horizon’ within which we needed to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and turn around the performance of our repairs service has been replaced by the need to consider the long-term future of our homes, neighbourhoods and communities.

Rather than being driven primarily by short-term business imperatives and deadlines, we now have the opportunity to consider the long-term needs of our communities and to use that knowledge to inform our future decisions about investment in our housing stock.

The Property Services Director will be charged with delivering the agreed Asset Management Strategy that brings together data about the Net Present Value of all of our stock and the forecast sustainability of each of the neighbourhoods served by RCT Homes. This enables us to develop Neighbourhood Plans that ensure that our future investment in our housing stock (including in voids) and the local environment benefits the long-term sustainability of an area.

This neighbourhood-based approach is designed to bring together our investment in housing services and in the physical environment to improve the capacity of our tenants to sustain their tenancies and make a long-term commitment to their local community.

The strategy also considers how making decisions about future investment based on a long-term view will enable us to increase the proportion of repairs that are addressed by planned maintenance programmes rather than responsive repairs.

The road ahead

Social inclusion

The creation of sustainable, local jobs and training opportunities has been the cornerstone of our award-winning procurement process. The Property Services Director will be responsible for making sure that RCT Homes’ investment in tenants’ homes delivers tangible social inclusion benefits. The role will also have responsibility for ensuring that contractors selected to join our multi-million pound ‘framework agreements’ fulfil their commitments to support shared apprenticeships managed by Grow Enterprise Wales and other schemes designed to deliver benefits to the wider community.

Repairs service

Tenants have consistently highlighted repairs as the most important service RCT Homes provides. The performance of our in-house maintenance service has been transformed since RCT Homes began operations, but we need to continue to drive improvements to productivity and customer service.

The group

It is our group structure that enables us to be so much more than just a landlord. The Property Services Director will be expected to help Homeforce, Grow Enterprise Wales and the other organisations in the RCT Homes group to develop the services they provide to RCT Homes and to take advantage of opportunities to expand their businesses externally. The ability to integrate teams and work streams will be crucial to the role.

RCT Homes owns some 10,200 homes (plus related assets including 1,718 garages and 620 leaseholder properties) on more than sixty housing estates throughout the former mining communities of Rhondda Cynon Taff. These range from more than 360 properties in Penywaun at the top of the Cynon Valley to two in the rural village of Groesfaen.

4,241 homes are situated in the Taff-Ely area; 3,129 in the Cynon Valley and 2,884 in the two Rhondda Valleys. The narrow steep-sided geography of the valleys gives each its own distinct character.

RCT Homes properties account for more than ten per cent of Rhondda Cynon Taff’s 93,000 households. Overall, the borough’s population of 234,000 is forecast to increase steadily in future years. Rhondda Cynon Taff's age profile is already older than the UK average (20 per cent of the population is aged over-65) and it is among this age group that the largest increases are forecast.

Current trends suggest the number of households will increase but the average household size will reduce. The majority of RCT Homes’ properties were built in the immediate post war period or in the 1960s and 1970s to house the traditional ‘nuclear family’.

Local housing market assessments estimate the need for between 600 and 870 new affordable housing units a year, mostly for one and two bed properties near the M4 corridor and around the towns of Pontypridd and Aberdare.

Rhondda Cynon Taff as a whole suffers from high levels of economic and social deprivation. More than a quarter of the working age population is economically inactive and more than 40 per cent have no qualifications.

In general, economic deprivation increases the further north you travel within Rhondda Cynon Taff. A number of RCT Homes estates are situated in some of the most economically disadvantaged wards in Wales.

Our homes and neighbourhoods

Approximately a third of tenants’ homes are flats.

A third of tenants’ homes are of non-traditional build spread across 15 different construction types.

Executive Management Team

The Property Services Director joins the Chief Executive on the six-strong RCT Homes Executive Management Team alongside the Commercial Director, Homes and Neighbourhoods Director, Finance Director and Organisational Development Director.

This is RCT Homes’ principle operational decision-making forum, ensuring that the work of RCT Homes, and of the group as a whole, is integrated efficiently and making sure that we react appropriately to the fast-moving world in which we work.

The Property Services Directorate

The Property Services Director leads a directorate of some 150 staff, most of whom transferred from the local authority when RCT Homes began operations. Highly experienced with great knowledge of the local area and of our housing stock, they have undergone a significant – and on-going – period of change.

The Housing Maintenance Unit (HMU) is our in-house repairs service. From a service losing a million pounds a year with a backlog of more than two thousand uncompleted repairs, the HMU has been transformed into a modern and efficient service. It now generates a surplus and achieves average tenant satisfaction ratings of 99 per cent.

However, we still face a testing challenge to improve efficiency still further to the level of the UK’s best-performing in-house teams, to increase the proportion of repairs completed in one visit and to reduce the amount of work sub-contracted externally.

The Technical Services Team led the management of RCT Homes’ Major Improvement Programme to meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard. Not only did RCT Homes become one of only five providers of social housing in the whole of Wales to meet the standard before the end of 2012, the team overcame the setback of one of our major contractors going out of business mid-contract.

Where the role sits

Our Major Improvement Programme was delivered using ‘open book’, collaborative working methods and our on-going planned maintenance framework agreements operate under similar principles.

The Technical Services Team continues to be responsible for managing our work to modernise RCT Homes’ fleet of sheltered housing complexes and to maintain our compliance with the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

Most of our staff live in Rhondda Cynon Taff itself where Wales’s world-leading skills in land reclamation has seen the industrial landscape of the mining era transformed into often spectacular open moorland, secluded meadows, woodland, farmland and an intricate network of country paths. While there are six small towns in Rhondda Cynon Taff, it could more accurately be depicted as a network of more than 70 villages. Each community has its own distinct character, from Llantrisant in the south – with its arts and crafts centre surrounded by streets that still retain their original 13th Century layout – to bustling Treorchy in the north where the mile-long High Street is still dominated by traditional, family-owned shops including Morris the Butchers, Davies the Drapers and Jones the Chemist. The borough boasts some of Wales’s top-ranked schools, a leading university, two major museums, centres for mountain biking, angling and equestrianism and seven top-quality golf courses. All roads lead down to Pontypridd where RCT Homes’ modern offices at Tŷ Pennant overlook the busy town centre that still plays hosts to a traditional weekly Wednesday Market. Tŷ Pennant is only a ten-minute drive from the suburbs of Cardiff, Europe’s youngest capital city. Having undergone a physical transformation, Cardiff is now one of the fastest growing economies in the UK. With its dynamic knowledge-driven businesses, diverse culture and world class sport and entertainment venues, the city was recently named as one of the top ten destinations in the world by National Geographic magazine, which described Cardiff as “a great gem.” The M4 – which sweeps through both Rhondda Cynon Taff and Cardiff – means that the beautiful Glamorgan Heritage Coast is only minutes away, while Heathrow and west London can be reached in less than two hours.

We love it here

Overall objectives

To develop and deliver our approach to asset management, sustainable investment, environment, commercial property management and support new build development.

To develop and maintain robust stock condition data on which to plan planned maintenance activities.

To develop a fully integrated, customer-focused, best-performing Property Services Team, including in-house maintenance contract delivery capacity.

To ensure that all investments are planned and monitored with tenants and communities to ensure sustainable development in conjunction with the Homes and Neighbourhoods Director

To ensure that all services are developed to achieve best in class performance and value for money.

To develop the commercial activity proposition and activities of the Property Services Team to deliver scale efficiencies and net contribution to RCT Homes, working directly or through Homeforce as agent/ delivery vehicle.

To contribute to the delivery of sustainable community regeneration through:

• Strategic leadership of the Property Services Directorate incorporating planned, responsive and void and cyclical property maintenance.

• Effective strategic management of the procurement process for planned works as identified within the Homes and Neighbourhoods Strategy.

• Development of strategic alliances with other organisations and stakeholders to maximise the impact of investments made and available funding from external sources.

• Development of community initiatives directed at improving the capacity and sustainability of communities within Rhondda Cynon Taff.

• An efficient and effective delivery of the physical improvement and regeneration programme.

To play a full role in the Executive Management Team and contribute to business development, improvement of services, achievement of high performance and targets and overall success and growth of business through the application of leadership, business and professional technical skills.

To work with the Finance Director to effectively plan and control the delivery of the asset management services in accordance with the Business Plan.

To ensure that RCT Homes achieves high standards of performance in all areas of responsibility with particular focus on maintaining compliance with the Welsh Housing Quality Standard, audit and inspection, KPIs, the financial plan, corporate strategic objectives and effective financial processes.

To establish and maintain appropriate and robust arrangements for Health and Safety as they apply to the areas of property, maintenance, and contractors including support provided new build projects developed by RCT Homes.

Act as the in-house client for services provided by Homeforce Ltd, RCT Homes’ gas servicing and external trading company.

Job description

Key performance indicators

Improving levels of customer satisfaction across all services

Ensure regular and periodic servicing of the building and the assets

Deliver savings on real costs of service delivery year-on-year in planned and responsive repairs and improvement programmes

Deliver added value through the partnering contracts

Deliver the gas servicing programme

Welsh Housing Quality Standard compliance

Improve the environmental performance of the stock and increase the average SAP rating year-on-year

Generate income through rationalisation of the use of assets

Health and safety of residents

Budgets achieved

Accountabilities and responsibilities Property Services

1 To act as an inspirational leader to foster a customer-focused approach to the delivery of promises made to tenants and future customers, with particular regards to property matters and related opportunities to promote regeneration through involvement in planning, supporting local supply chains and through job and training initiatives.

2 To professionally lead the procurement process for all planned investment in homes and neighbourhoods ensuring value for money, sustainability and accountability.

3 To develop the Homes and Neighbourhoods Strategy to ensure the achievement and maintenance, where practicable, of the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

4 To ensure the maintenance of effective and fully integrated systems and procedures to plan and record work undertaken by the Property Services Directorate.

5 To ensure the integration of tenant involvement within the investment planning and procurement process including contract specifications, programme priorities and service delivery standards.

6 To work closely with the Homes and Neighbourhoods Director to deliver effective tenant engagement and liaison across all programmes of work to RCT homes and neighbourhoods.

7 To work closely with the Commercial Director to deliver effective tenant engagement and liaison across programmes of work to open spaces and new build.

8 To have regard for modern methods of contracting and construction in delivering asset management services, in particular applying the principles of the Egan and Latham reports on ‘Rethinking Construction’ and ‘Constructing the Team’.

Accountabilities and responsibilities

Property Services (cont.)

9 To develop an effective range of key performance indicators to effectively manage the full scope of Property Services Directorate activities.

10 To demonstrate a commitment to the principles of effective and efficient service delivery.

11 To demonstrate a commitment to minimising the environmental impact of RCT Homes’ activities through use of waste and carbon reduction and energy efficiency measures.

12 To support the Finance Director in the delivery of a financial inclusion strategy incorporating RCT Homes’ response to tackling fuel poverty.

13 To act as a member of the Executive Management Team in planning the strategic and operational delivery of all RCT Homes’ services.

14 To plan and control the delivery of the Property Services Team in accordance with the Business Plan including the recovery of service charges from tenants and leaseholders, working with the Finance Director as necessary.

Commercial Activities

1. Develop internal and external business opportunities to maximise the potential of:

• professional services provided by RCT Homes

• the in-house repairs service provided by RCT Homes

• gas servicing and related activities provided by Homeforce.

2. Work with other RCT Homes and the Homeforce Boards and executive Management to ensure the effective resource, marketing and tax planning for external contract delivery across the RCT Homes Group.

3. Develop an effective series of strategic alliances and partnerships to deliver community regeneration through:

• Setting expectations for local employment with contractors incorporating training, education and apprenticeships

• Seeking opportunities to support other community-based initiatives led by recognised partners

• Identification and support of mutual objectives with other local social enterprises, including Grow Enterprise Wales

• Working with Rhondda Cynon Taf Council and other agencies to improve the local external environment

• Encouraging RCT Homes’ staff to become involved with other local social enterprises

Accountabilities and responsibilities

Health and Safety

1 To ensure that the requirements of health and safety as they relate to repairs and planned maintenance activities – including those undertaken by contractors – are properly discharged, monitored and issues addressed.

2 To ensure that the CDM role is properly fulfilled on all projects whether in repair, renovation or new build or undertaking the role of client, designer, CDM co-ordinator, principal contractor or contractor.

3 To ensure fire risk assessments of RCT Homes’ communal and commercial buildings areas are undertaken, and that remedial works are planned and delivered to ensure compliance.

4 To inform and advise the Chief Executive and Group Health and Safety Manager on issues of concern to permit the effective discharge of the Responsible Officer role.

5 To advise on compliance with the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and statutory requirements as they relate to premises owned and occupied by RCT Homes’ staff and tenants, or let to third parties including but not necessarily limited to asbestos management, contractor management, electrical and gas safety, legionella, fire risk assessment.

6 To ensure as Director that the duties with respect to providing gas safety services are fully complied with at all times and that all activities and staff are properly regulated and registered.

7 To ensure that RCT Homes effectively plans for prospective changes to legislative requirements as they relate to the construction sector and landlord roles.

Financial responsibilities

1. As a member of the Executive Management Team to participate in the annual budget setting exercise, including providing accurate information as required for the budget within the timescale required.

2. To assume responsibility as budget holder for the repairs, void repair, planned and cyclical maintenance budgets, ensuring costs are controlled within budgets and to standards agreed with the Homes and Neighbourhoods Director as service recipient.

3. To monitor and control expenditure in accordance with the budget procedures and levels of delegated authority and financial control, taking appropriate action where variances occur or expenditure levels appear inappropriate for the business.

4. Working with the Finance Director to ensure that systems and processes are established which secure the ability to recover financial contributions from leaseholders, grant-aiding bodies and others bodies as appropriate.

5. To ensure the highest levels of probity among staff involved in the procurement of goods and services.

Leadership

1 To assist in the development of a culture that is consistent with the RCT Homes’ group Vision and Values particularly those relating to the delivery of a customer-focused service and the development of continuous improvement and an efficient and growing business.

2 To ensure that all staff reports are recruited, retained and motivated by RCT Homes Group Vision and Values, as expressed in relevant organisational plans and personal objectives.

3 To ensure that all staff are trained, managed, appraised and developed in accordance with established procedures and demonstrate commitment to delivering a customer focused service promoting significant customer involvement through the development of RCT Homes Group.

4 To meet monthly with staff individually and as a team to ensure that agreed policies, practices and procedures are being implemented, and that performance indicators are being achieved through the setting and monitoring of individual and team targets.

5 To ensure that staff are kept informed on issues and consulted as appropriate and to ensure their integration and participation in RCT Homes’ initiatives and service improvement planning.

6 To ensure that best use is made of information technology within the team, integrated with other business directorates to ensure information sharing promotes the ability of the business to operate effectively and efficiently for the benefit of colleagues and tenants.

7 As a member of the Executive Management Team, to participate in the development of corporate and business plan objectives, sharing in the achievement of these objectives and in the general management of the RCT Homes group.

8 To ensure the development and improvement of Performance Information Reporting Systems as they relate to repairs and planned maintenance activities.

9 Represent the RCT Homes group professionally and positively, delivering a message of excellence in all situations.

Risk management

1. As a member of the Executive Management Team, take an active role in the development and monitoring of RCT Homes’ risk management procedures.

2. To ensure the effective management and minimisation of strategic and operational risks as they relate to the maintenance of RCT Homes’ property assets and related services.

General

1. To promote the best interests of RCT Homes and its policies in all areas of work.

2. To promote a positive image of RCT Homes through the development and maintenance of excellent professional working relationships with customers, partners, colleagues and key stakeholders.

3. To keep abreast of developments in legislation and good practice and update RCT Homes' policies and practices accordingly.

4. To fully implement, utilise and promote new technology in all areas of work and ensure accurate records are kept.

5. To keep abreast of developments in legislation and good practice in the construction, repair and renewal and regeneration sectors and update the RCT Homes' policies and practices accordingly.

6. To comply with RCT Homes' Health and Safety Policy, taking particular responsibility for organisational related matters.

7. To comply with and promote the RCT Homes' Customer Care Charters.

8. To comply with data protection policies and practices.

9. Any other duty commensurate with this post as requested by the Chief Executive.

10. To attend any of RCT Homes' offices as required.

Equality and diversity

To actively promote RCT Homes’ Equality & Diversity Policy and practices in all aspects of duties relating to staff, tenants, contractors, consultants and external partners.

Education and qualifications

Relevant professional qualification e.g. RICS or CIOB

Evidence of continuous professional development

Experience

Evidence of leading the development of strategy, policy, research and analysis

Management of planned, cyclical and responsive maintenance programmes across a range of property types and tenures

Experience in contract management including partnering

Track record of developing strong relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders

Evidence of successfully delivering improved outcomes

Senior level experience of influencing and negotiating

Management and development of multi-disciplinary technical service teams

Leading teams through organisational change and team building

Target setting, monitoring performance and benchmarking

Track record of achieving and exceeding challenging targets and objectives

Budget setting and financial management

Business planning and risk management

Person specification

Knowledge and skills

Detailed knowledge of statutory and regulatory frameworks affecting planned, cyclical and responsive maintenance programmes

Strong business acumen with a balance of social and commercial awareness

Strong leadership skills

Evidence of effective management of poor performance

Evidence of effective project management skills

Highly developed finance and IT skills

Excellent verbal communication with the ability to adapt to different audiences

Excellent written communication skills, sufficient to write complex strategic reports

Ability to carry out stakeholder analysis and apply it to policy and decision-making

Knowledge and experience of Health and Safety issues as they affect the delivery of property and estate service. E.g. Asbestos management, CDM

Attributes

Sets high standards for self and demonstrates drive to meet targets

Excellent customer focus

Demonstrates RCT Homes’ values and leadership behaviours

Respect for all with a commitment to equality and diversity

A natural networker and team player

Effective planner and organiser, able to work under pressure

Receptive to change, resilient and adaptable

Able to motivate, empower and develop others

Good decision-making; able to use initiative

Able to develop strategies to drive RCT Homes forward to achieve long-term goals

Able and willing to work evenings and weekends when required

1. Position

Property Services Director

2. Salary

£85,000 per annum, plus 10 per cent car allowance.

3. Place of work

You will normally carry out your duties from Ty Pennant, Mill Street, Pontypridd, CF37 2SW, the premises of the Company’s customers or such other location as the Company may reasonably request. The nature of the Company’s work is such that you may be expected to work away from your normal place of work anywhere in the UK and may include overseas travel. This will be arranged by mutual agreement between you and the Company.

The Company reserves the right to alter your normal place of work to such other place or places within the RCT Homes area of operation as the Company may require. This will be done in discussion with you and our aim will be to ensure any such move is as reasonable as possible, both in terms of notice and attempts to avoid or minimise any financial loss.

4. Annual leave

Your annual leave entitlement for a full year is based on 30 days plus statutory public holidays.

5. Hours of work

You are contracted to work 37 hours per week. However, you are expected to work those hours necessary to fulfil the requirements of the post including attending out of hours meetings and on call duty as required. No overtime or flexitime is applicable to this post.

6. Pension

Your employment will automatically terminate without notice and/or compensation upon you reaching the Company’s normal retirement age of 65, unless an extension has been agreed in advance

You will be eligible to join the Local Government Pension Scheme. A contracting out certificate is in force for the purposes of SERPS.

Terms and conditions