Facilities Assistant

Job Description

Facilities Assistant

Responsible to: Estates and Facilities Manager

Salary: Grade 2 – £25,077.00 – £27,063.00, commensurate with the level of skill and knowledge of the applicant.

Hours of work: Full time, 37.5 hours per week – As per shift system, 5/7 days.

Job Purpose

The position of Facilities Assistant at St Leonards School is one of responsibility, requiring a person of high standards, service and efficiency. The duties include day to day setting up in preparation of school events, deliveries around school campus, mail runs, supporting school out of hours commercial activities and other general duties required within a busy and faced paced independent school. The remit of the Facilities Assistant is to provide a high level of customer service; assisting the teaching staff with movement of teaching aids and furniture, setting up assemblies and parent evenings etc. This role forms part of the Support Team and is ultimately responsible to the DFO through the Estates and Facilities Manager.

Daily Duties

• Ensure the school buildings are open in time for staff and pupil arrivals.
• Work in compliance with the school Health & Safety policy and ensure this is carried out by other members of the domestic cleaning team.
• Monitor the Janitorial Helpdesk, minimum of twice daily, and complete requested tasks in a timely manner to support school requests and functions.
• Work with other team members with regards to 3 weekly shift patterns: day shift, weekends and evenings.
• Monitor the school diary for events and functions and facilitate setting up of furniture and tables as appropriate.
• Engage with the catering team and support delivery of refreshments as required by the Catering Manager.
• In the absence of the Cleaning Supervisor, oversee and liaise with the domestic cleaners on daily issues that may arise.
• Carry out weekly testing and recording of building fire alarms as directed by the Estates and Facilities Manager.
• Support the domestic cleaning staff with delivery of cleaning supplies, washroom supplies and cleaning equipment.
• Out of hours cleaning as required, including responding to emergencies such a child having been sick, to support commercial lets and school events. Post clean up from school events and post cleaning from commercial activities before school resumption.
• Regularly monitor both inside and outside areas, including parking areas and around boarding houses for build up of unsightly litter and clear up appropriately.
• Assist and give guidance and directions to school visitors. Maintain up to date parking signage and display visitor signage as requested by the school management teams.
• Escort tradesmen or inspectors around buildings as directed.
• Deliver mail and packages to the boarding house community as required.
• Liaise with the Cleaning Supervisor on any cleaning related issues.
• Carry out weekly inspections, including cleaning both inside and out of the minibus fleet and facilities assistants van and deliver reports into the Commercial Operations Manager in a timely manner.
• Engage and respond to residential commercial lets guests as required.
• Respond to emergency out of hours requests from duty staff outside of normal school hours.
• Provide cover to other facilities assistants in times of absence.
• Ensure availability to commercial users of the school premises to arrange access to campus, access to appropriate buildings and represent the school to handle any queries.
• Monitor who is on campus during shift hours and approach and challenge anybody who cannot be identified.
• Monitor behaviour and any damage on campus and report expeditiously to the Estates and Facilities Manager.
• Notify the Estates and Facilities Manager of any material problems or contentious matters under your area of responsibility.
• Secure the school premises at the end of the day ensuring buildings have windows closed, lights switched off and doors secured by both combination lock and main lock.
• Attend and complete training courses pertinent to the role. This may include minibus driving assessor, swimming pool plant water testing and other commercial supporting training deemed required.
• Carry out other duties as may be pertinent to the successful function of the school as directed by members of the school management team.

Person Specification

Education, Training and Qualifications (Essential)

• Retired member of HM Forces.
• Trained in various aspects of Health & Safety and manual Handling.
• Conversant with Google Docs, Microsoft Office Word and Excel.

Education, Training and Qualifications (Desirable)

• Knowledge of working within an educational environment.
• Experience of supervising cleaning staff.

Skills (Essential)

• Ability to understand and comply with work instructions (written and verbal).
• Ability to multi task.
• Understanding the operational needs of the school ahead of personal arrangements.
• Prioritising helpdesk tasks around operational requirements of school and commercial activities.

Knowledge

• Working knowledge and familiarity with commercial cleaning techniques.

Health

• Physically fit to be able to undertake the range of duties outlined above.

Other (Essential)

• Ability to work independently or as part of a team.
• An enthusiastic and positive manner.
• Demonstrates a flexible approach to the needs of the School and the Support team.
• Ability to deal with a variety of cleaning situations.

Other (Desirable)

• Service driven.

Competencies

Communication (Essential)

• Able to communicate clearly in a way people understand.
• Values the importance of open communication.

Communication (Desirable)

• Deals with enquiries and problems in a prompt manner.
• Is willing to go the extra mile to exceed customer expectations.

Motivation (Essential)

• Keen to do things well and work steadily to meet targets.
• Enjoys challenges and is reliable under pressure.

Customer orientation (Essential)

• Treats customers fairly and consistently in a polite, professional manner and provides a high quality service on time.

Customer orientation (Desirable)

• Deals with enquiries and problems in a prompt manner.
• Is willing to go the extra mile to exceed customer expectations.

Attitude (Essential)

• Is happy to embrace and engage in new ideas and new ways of working.
• Is able to see the good that change can bring.

Self Development (Essential)

• Is willing to undertake training and keep up-to-date with new techniques, knowledge or skills.

Self Development (Desirable)

• Will share knowledge with other colleagues.
• Will seek opportunities to learn and develop.

The postholder will be expected to promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young people and ensure all operational practices align with the School’s safeguarding policies and procedures, including the management of contractors and visitors working across the estate and boarding environment. This role is subject to enhanced PVG clearance and all safer recruitment requirements including two satisfactory references, one of which must be the current employer.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK.