GDST - Head of Estate Management

GDST - Head of Estate Management

Head of Estate Management Candidate Information Pack

CONTENTS About the GDST

4

The GDST Estate

6

The Estates Vision and the Estates Programme

8

The Capital Investment Programme

10

The Role

12

Person Specification

17

Application process

20

About the GDST

The GDST is a charitable trust which owns and operates 25 schools across England and Wales. Our schools are mainly girls only, with the GDST ethos to ‘reach as many girls as possible’ permeating everything we do. Most schools are Junior, Senior and sixth form, with some having nurseries as well; one of the school’s remains a boarding school. The Council of Trustees oversee the strategic direction of the Trust, with an Executive Board who run the day to day operations, based at the Trust Office in Victoria, London. The Heads of the schools report into the Chief Executive, and all have Directors of Finance and Operation (DFO’s) who help to run the 23 schools and 2 academies. The GDST owns most of its property freehold, although there are certain leasehold landholdings, plus other property retained for investment purposes. There is also an outward bound centre in north Wales. Each of the schools and academies are run separately, with central services including Estates, Finance, HR and IT located in Trust Office. This is also where the strategic Education and Innovation strategy is set, along with most of the teacher and staff training, reinforcing the GDST ethos.

The GDST Estate

Our Estate is diverse, both geographically and chronologically, with buildings dating back to the 1800’s up to the present day. A significant number of the older properties are listed or locally listed and sit in Conservation Areas. Many of our properties are converted residential buildings, others are purpose built as schools; some since the 1960’s. All of our current schools are in England and Wales and amount to over 200 buildings, predominantly owned by the GDST, plus also Trust Office in central London. Most of our properties are occupied for educational purposes, although some sites also have residential accommodation for staff, in addition to the one boarding school in Bath. Further investment properties are let out to external occupiers.

A list of the main schools and sites are given below: 1. Blackheath High School, London 2. Brighton and Hove High School 3. Bromley High School, London 4. Croydon High School 5. Howells School, Llandaff, Cardiff 6. Kensington Prep School 7. Newcastle High School for Girls 8. Northampton High School 9. Northwood College, Middlesex

10. Norwich High School for Girls 11. Nottingham Girls High School 12. Notting Hill & Ealing High School 13. Oxford High School 14. Portsmouth High School 15. Putney High School

16. Royal High School, Bath 17. Sheffield High School 18. Shrewsbury High School

19. South Hampstead High School, London 20. Streatham & Clapham High School, London 21. Sutton High School 22. Sydenham High School 23. Wimbledon High School 24. Belvedere Academy, Liverpool 25. Birkenhead High School Academy, Birkenhead

The Estates Vision

Our Estate is the physical representation of the schools and the GDST; with the Estates Strategy a reflection of the Trust’s strategic vision. It is the responsibility of the Estates department to deliver against this context. Although primarily for educational purposes, our schools host numerous events for the school community plus for the wider public benefit within their local communities. We aim to provide an appropriate quality of environments, infrastructure and buildings to support the educational and recreational needs of our schools; working to deliver sustainable and innovative spaces for our students to enjoy, whilst enhancing the GDST’s reputation as a leader in girls education.

The Estates Programme

Our mission is to provide an integrated customer service, providing strategic leadership and well as technical support and advice across the Estate, ensuring consistency of approach and critically ensuring compliance with all statutory requirements across the Estate at all times. The Estates department under the Director of Estates, hold the delegated responsibility from the Trustees to assure, maintain, enhance and develop the estate to ensure it is fit for purpose to provide innovative education and learning facilities as well as the breadth of functions that allow the schools to operate, including external spaces and sports fields. Our primary aim is to keep our Estate safe for our students, staff, visitors as well as members of the public. The Estates department run a continuous programme of maintenance programmes, minor works, refurbishment and new build projects, varying in scale from £100,000 to over £20 million. Each school also has a delegated maintenance budget, directly managed by the school, used to address minor repair and maintenance works. The Estates team act as the central Technical and Trusted Advisors for the schools, supporting them in all Estates related decision making, scoping and delivery.

The Capital Investment Programme

The GDST invests over £30 million in capital programmes across the Estate; based on a prioritisation of compliance and condition related works, educational need, as well as improvement and expansion of the Estate, as appropriate.

In the last few years, the following works have been undertaken:

A large scale redevelopment of the senior school at Blackheath High School; The redevelopment of the senior school at Newcastle High School; A new pavilion and sports pitches at Howells in Cardiff; A major external refurbishment of the Royal High School Bath;

Significant projects currently underway include:-

A new STEAM tower, dining room and Sixth form centre at Wimbledon High School; A new STEM facility at Putney High School; A new Science and Arts facility at Oxford High School; An extension to Bromley High School; The refurbishment of Waterlow Hall at South Hampstead High School into a high quality performance space. In parallel, there are a significant number of refurbishment and improvement works across the Estate, infrastructure works and maintenance programmes covering both fabric and mechanical and electrical works.

Head of Estate Management – The Girls’ Day School Trust

Location:

10 Bressenden Place, Westminster, London, SW1E 5AE

Accountable to:

Director of Estates

Grade: G1 Job Purpose / background

The Estates Department acts on behalf of the Trust and deals with all property related matters to ensure that the Trusts interests and its estate are developed and maintained to agreed standards. The estate consists of 23 schools, two academies and the Trust Office based in Victoria. Reporting to the Director of Estates the postholder will act as the lead on all Estate Management issues within the Directorate with regards to the preparation, prioritisation, co-ordination and delivery of assigned projects and programmes, including – Planned works, Long Term Maintenance, one-off projects and compliance work-streams. Key aspects of the role include liaising and working collaboratively with Project Teams, the Infrastructure and Sustainability team, Head of Compliance and others to provide technical advice/support and the development/application of design briefs, technical standards etc. The post holder will be a senior member of the Estates team and will demonstrate the behaviours and culture expected of this team which include; • Leadership – both directive and supportive. • Excellent written and oral communications. • Team Player. • A strong collaborative approach to work and colleagues. • Utilising the Estate systems and processes to support evidence-based decision making. The post holder will manage, direct and advise a team of Estate Managers providing services primarily, but not exclusively, to designated Schools, departments or geographic zones.

The post holder will follow the GDST Strategic Vision, the Estate Strategy and the school business plans to: • Support the Director of Estates to deliver a professional Estates focussed knowledge base to implement strategic investment for the Trust whilst enhancing best practice. • Support the GDST vision to be leaders in girls education through its charitable objectives, maximising the use of estates assets for the benefit of existing and future students, as well as the local communities in which the schools sit. They will also act as the primary point of contact on property and maintenance issues for all Schools / departments and be seen as a trusted advisor. Accountabilities • The Estate Maintenance & Condition specialist across the GDST estate. • The Property Management specialist across the GDST estate. • Maintaining a level of service and accountability that is in line with the requirements of the GDST. • The key interface for risk management across programmes of work responsible for with Finance, Legal & IT teams within GDST. • Advising on effective procurement, award, administration and management of maintenance programmes and minor works related contracts. • Approach to risk accross projects, programmes and the GDST estate. • Advising on the effective management of external supply chain of consultants and contractors delivering maintenance and minor works to the GDST estate. • Provide the Estate Management business partner function for 2 schools and 2 academies. • Manage the Trust Office facilities management team.

Key Responsibilities • Manage the effective deployment of Estate Managers in line with agreed priorities established via the Asset Management >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20

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