Disrepair Manager.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Directorate: Place

Grade: PO6

Salary: £52,584 - £55,620

Retention Bonus/ Market Supplement: N/a

Contract Type: Permanent Full time

Working hours per week: 36

Weeks per year: 52

Application Deadline: 31/01/2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): Week Commencing 03/02/02025

Reference:1562

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

We are looking for a dynamic and experienced Disrepair Manager to lead our efforts in providing exceptional repair services for our residents. Your primary focus will be on the swift resolution of issues related to damp, mould, and general disrepair.

As the Disrepair Manager, you will oversee the operational management of housing repair contracts, ensuring that all remedial work is of the highest quality and that repair services are delivered efficiently. You will collaborate closely with various teams to enhance service delivery, maintain compliance, and drive continuous improvement.

This is a fantastic opportunity to play a key leadership role in delivering high-quality, responsive repair services that directly impact the well-being of our residents. If you are a proactive, solutions-oriented leader with a passion for improving service delivery, we would love to hear from you.

Replace this wording with a few paragraphs identifying the post's key duties and responsibilities. Ensure that you include sufficient information for a potential applicant to understand what the role involves as you will not be attaching a copy of the job profile to the advert. If there is more than one post available, please ensure that you include details of how many posts are available.

You will manage individual cases with works valued up to £50K, ensuring optimal value is achieved from contractors while minimising legal costs. This high-profile role requires strong stakeholder management skills to ensure satisfaction among both internal and external parties. The focus will be on delivering cost-effective repair services, promoting proactive investment in housing stock, and maintaining high living standards for residents.

Direct Reports:

• Two Legal Disrepair Surveyors
• One Legal Disrepair Coordinator
  

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage a professional legal disrepair service, ensuring high-quality repairs within budget.
• Collaborate with Council stakeholders to develop and implement service improvement plans.
• Effectively manage and report on the disrepair budget, adhering to financial controls.
• Ensure compliance with Lambeth Council's financial procedures and regulations.
• Lead service improvement strategies to minimize liability and enhance delivery.
• Develop strategies to manage and reduce legal disrepair cases, aligning with Council policies.
• Supervise the Housing Disrepair Team to ensure high-quality repairs and minimize legal exposure.
• Ensure compliance with all statutory, legislative, and health and safety requirements.
• Manage legal disrepair contracts, focusing on contractor performance, budget control, and policy decisions.
• Foster relationships with legal advisers, contractors, and stakeholders to support claim settlements and enhance repair services.
• Lead the team in adopting innovative solutions and best practices by collaborating with other London Boroughs and Social Housing Landlords to reduce disrepair claims and costs.
• Use data insights and predictive modelling to identify service improvements and reduce disrepair claims.
• Support the strategic action plan and demand reduction initiatives.
• Manage contracts in line with KPIs and Waltham Forest Contract Management Model, collaborating across departments to improve services and customer experience.

To be considered for an interview supporting statement should clearly evidence:

• Experience as a contract manager in a maintenance environment with knowledge of Housing Disrepair Protocol.
• Knowledge of housing finance and budgetary control.
• Understanding of maintenance contract delivery in an urban environment.
• Knowledge of landlord/tenant matters, leaseholder consultation requirements, and contract dispute resolution.
• Strong written, oral, presentation, and data analysis skills.
• Experience leading an operational team in a housing environment.
• Experience in repairs and maintenance service delivery, sustainability, and construction at a senior management level.
• Experience administering building-related contracts at a senior level.
• Experience managing and monitoring budgets.
• Experience supervising and developing staff.
• Strong budget management, risk management, monitoring, and financial control skills.
• A relevant housing qualification or demonstrable experience.

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements: Essential duties and responsibilities of the role

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Proven experience in managing housing repairs or disrepair services.
• Strong understanding of financial management and budget control.
• Excellent leadership and team management skills.
• Ability to develop and implement service improvement plans.
• Knowledge of legal and regulatory requirements related to housing repairs.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Problem-solving and decision-making abilities.

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;
• Satisfactory declaration of interest;
• This role is subject to safer recruitment practices as it involves work with children and/ or vulnerable adults;
• Satisfactory DBS check;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Sharon-Leigh Gordon AD -Housing Repairs and Planned Works at sharon-leigh.gordon@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.