About the job

Job summary

Home Office Property Services (HOPS) are responsible for providing expert property services to the department. The estate comprises of  office, warehouse, residential, detention and public access properties. Our property teams work with many stakeholders within the department, across Government and with a range of external suppliers. Alongside the provision of accommodation for staff and contractors, our teams manage the budget (c.£220m p.a)  for the estate and oversee a portfolio of change and improvement projects. 

This role leads the Facilities Management and project delivery function across the Department. The role will lead all aspects of Facilities Management (FM) contract award/renewals and is accountable for the delivery of technical services and will ensure effective contract governance is in place and maintained.  

The post-holder will actively engage with all partners to align and deliver a service that supports and enables value for money business operations and ensures a timely resolution to customer issues.  

The role is also responsible for Technical Services and Technical FM providing support for buildings and systems, ensuring alignment with relevant legislation. The role will be responsible for leading and delivering change within the function to respond appropriately to wider Government initiatives and developments. 

Job description

Running the estate

• Delivery of all hard and soft Facilities Management services and major project delivery across the Home Office estate. Delivered to the appropriate contractual standards and assuring the quality and compliance across the contracted services.
• Technical compliance management, reporting and audit processes, discharging the duty-holder responsibilities.
• Leading the governance of the FM contracts and the provision of monthly reporting to the Estates Investment Committee/Property Forum.
• Maintaining a safe and effective estate, ensuring compliance of the built environment and controlling property-related health and safety (H&S) and fire safety.
• Financial oversight of all FM contracts and associated budgets.
• Commercial oversight and input into Business Continuity Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plans.
• Provide support and advice to the Department on technical health and safety and property compliance matters.
• Professional delivery of Fire, H&S legal roles in terms of ‘duty holder’ and ‘responsible person’ for electrical systems and water systems (legionella).
• Development and training of the technical services function to provide direction and management arrangements for legal and technical buildings compliance across the estate

Technical services 

• Management and development of systems and processes across all contracts to record and lead the compliance of the estate.
• Ensure end-to-end processes are adopted and refined as requirements change, working closely with colleagues across the directorate and cluster partners to develop a Centre of Excellence for Technical Services advice.
• Delivery of appropriate audit activity across non-custodial properties to ensure property compliance is being achieved by the supply chain.

Leadership and decision making 

• Resolve complex issues, some of which may have conflicting deliverables that need trade-offs and compromises. 
• Prioritisation of outputs that drive cost efficiencies and service improvements through the stages of the FM contract. 
• Identify and any manage risks associated with FM and property delivery functions. 

Government-wide initiatives 

• Support development of the FM profession across central government. Represent the Home Office at cross-government property forums as necessary.

Customer and stakeholder/supplier management 

• Responsible for leading, maintaining and generating key relationships across the Department, Other Government Departments, supply chains and industry.
• Develop and cultivate a collaborative working approach with the FM service providers. 
• Through effective contract and commercial management, maintain an efficient and competent supply chain for FM; work with Commercial Property team and Crown Commercial Services to ensure good value for money with major projects and establish new contract arrangements as legacy contracts are phased out. 
• Set standards and monitor performance of Facilities Management contract delivery.

Managing people and resources

• Build capability within the team through effective review of roles and the development of appropriate training and workforce plans. 
• Develop a programme to professionalise and enhance capabilities of teams in Facilities Management service delivery and management.  
• Accountable for the budget expenditure for Facilities Management contracts. 
• Ensure internal governance procedures are in place for procuring and authorising spend to ensure both value for money and appropriate contract delivery.

Person specification

Essential Criteria 

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate their knowledge, experience, capability and behavioural approach to a high standard against the following key criteria: 

• An experienced Facilities Management (FM) professional with an in-depth knowledge of asset and estates management.
• Track record of leadership with an ability to work collaboratively and drive results with senior customers and leaders.
• Industry experience and proven ability to take data-driven decisions.
• Excellent communications skills, including writing, editing, and verbal communication. Strong skills and experience advocating and communicating with a broad and diverse audience.
• Able to manage multiple tasks with competing timelines and deliverables; proven effectiveness and interest in leading and coordinating colleagues from across various subject areas in a complex organisation.

Desirable Criteria 

• Substantial experience in a leadership and/or management position within the FM sector.
• Degree level or equivalent qualification in a property-related discipline.
• Member of a relevant professional technical body for commercial, contract management, FM and other relevant property fields (e.g. RICS, BIFM, IET, CIBSE, CIMA, CIPFA, CPA etc).

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Home Office contributes £20,250 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Please see the attached candidate pack for further information.

Please follow the Job Advert instructions on the Civil Service Jobs website to apply online, no later than 23:55hrs on 24th March 2024. 

Provide some basic personal information;

1.A CV - setting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role, including details where budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant achievements in recent posts, together with reasons for any gaps within the last two years;

2.A Statement of Suitability – (limited to 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification. 

3.Diversity Monitoring - as part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity-related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'. See the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022 to 2025 (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

It is essential that in your written application you give evidence, using examples, of proven experience. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited for interview.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.