JOB DESCRIPTION Organisation : London Borough of Waltham Forest Directorate: Place Grade: PO10 Salary: £66,651 - £70,152 Retention Bonus/ Market Supplement: N/A Contract Type: Permanent Working hours per week: 36 Hybrid Weeks per year: 52 Application Deadline: 20/01/2025 Proposed Interview Date(s): January 2025 (TBC) Reference: 1536 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 seeking a dynamic and experienced individual to lead the delivery of an exceptional repairs service for our residents, focusing on the quick resolution of damp, mould, and disrepair issues. As Head of Repairs Partnering, you will oversee the operational management of housing repairs partnering contracts, ensuring high-quality remedial work and smooth delivery across all repair services. You will work closely with various teams to enhance service delivery, maintain compliance, and drive continuous improvement. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key leadership role in delivering high-quality, responsive repairs services that directly impact the lives 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. >> Click here to download the Role Profile Key Responsibilities: Operational Leadership: Lead day-to-day operations of repairs and maintenance contracts, ensuring high standards of service delivery. Contract Management: Act as the lead officer for commercial management, procurement, and retendering of repair contracts. Quality Assurance: Monitor contractor performance through KPIs and ensure the delivery of excellent quality repairs. Collaboration & Partnerships: Build and maintain strong relationships with contractors to ensure mutually beneficial partnerships focused on resident satisfaction. Oversee the management of the legal disrepair service, speedy resolution, ensuring consistent, high-quality repairs within budget. Oversee and report on the disrepair budget, ensuring adherence to financial controls and procedures. Develop and implement service improvement plans in collaboration with Council stakeholders to achieve operational excellence. Ensure effective budget management and compliance with Waltham Forest financial regulations. Damp and Mould Management: Oversee the control and management of damp and mould, ensuring preventative measures and effective remediation. Resident Support: Ensure a smooth and accessible repairs service for residents, particularly focusing on vulnerable individuals and providing excellent customer service. Financial Management: Monitor costs against budgets and implement necessary actions to maintain value for money. Building Safety: Support the Head of M&E and Building Safety Operations to ensure the safety and regulatory compliance of housing structures. Complaint Handling: Manage service-related complaints and inquiries, ensuring timely and professional resolution Qualifications and Requirements: Significant experience in managing housing repairs and maintenance. In-depth knowledge of repair services, disrepair management, and regulations relating to housing, health and safety, and building compliance contracts, with a focus on service delivery and contractor management. Experience in managing partnerships with contractors, ideally in a social housing or local government environment. Strong understanding of damp, mould, and disrepair issues in housing. Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders. Demonstrable experience in commercial management, procurement, and contract re-tendering processes. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a focus on resident satisfaction and service improvement. In-depth knowledge of housing finance, budgetary control, and financial management. Expertise in delivering maintenance contracts in urban environments. Strong understanding of landlord/tenant issues, leaseholder consultation requirements, and contract dispute resolution. Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and data analysis skills. Proven experience leading operational teams in a housing setting. Extensive background in repairs and maintenance service delivery, sustainability, and construction at a senior management level, with substantial experience in administering building-related contracts. Experienced in managing and monitoring budgets effectively, risk management, and financial controls. Strong track record in supervising, developing, and performance managing staff. Relevant housing qualification or equivalent experience. A commitment to quality, safety, and compliance in all aspects of repairs and maintenance services. Familiarity with data-driven decision-making, such as managing KPIs and service-level agreements (SLAs). Indicative Qualifications and Requirements: Relevant Building qualification, NVQ, ONC, Degree or equivalent or vocational qualification in relevant subject or area Evidence of Continuous Professional Development Experience in working for a social housing landlord in either a local authority or a housing association. Terms and conditions: The below terms and conditions apply to this role: Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks; Satisfactory declaration of interest; 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.gordonwalthamforest.gov.uk. If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitmentwalthamforest.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 recruitmentwalthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method. Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice .