3,575 Jobs

About the Borough

Found in zone 6 with good transport links in and out of London, Kingston is a vibrant and diverse university town which creates the rich sense of community shared across the borough and its Residents. Kingston boasts an idyllic riverside location, good shopping and great restaurants, as well as a mix of modern and historic town centre. Kingston has lots of open parklands and cycle routes that help connect the district town centres into an enjoyable place to live and work.

We are passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

About the Service and Team

The Council is focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for its communities. To do this, the Council needs employees who thrive in an agile and networked organisation and who can support continuous improvement within a constructive organisational culture.

The role reports directly to the Estate Caretaker Supervisor and is responsible for ensuring council estates, communal areas, grounds, and external environments are maintained to a high standard, providing safe, clean, and welcoming environments for residents and visitors.

The role will sit within the Estate Services Team and support a wide range of estate-based activities, including grounds maintenance, inspections, removal of fly-tipping and excess waste, minor repairs, emergency response duties, and supporting cleaning operations where required.

The post holder will operate Council vehicles, including trucks and vans, to remove excess waste and support estate improvement activities across the borough.

The range of services the team will deliver are:

• Grounds maintenance and environmental upkeep.
• Leaf clearance during the autumn season.
• Sweeping of roads, pathways, parking areas and communal spaces.
• Removal of fly-tipping and excess waste.
• Minor communal repairs and maintenance works.
• Estate inspections and health and safety grounds monitoring.
• Supporting cleaning teams where authorised.
• Emergency response and risk-assessed special duties.
• Reporting repairs, defects and health and safety concerns to its supervisor.
• Maintaining estate standards across all housing sites.

Key Activities

Performance

• Works with manager and colleagues to define outcomes, set targets and monitor performance within a culture of continual improvement.
• Supports operational plans to ensure that resources within the team are used to best effect and impact.
• Delivers estate caretaking and grounds maintenance services in accordance with service standards, schedules and performance targets.

Customers and Partners

• Builds strong internal and external working partnerships to enable the service to be delivered in an outcome-focused and efficient way.
• Supports Kingston's commitment to community cohesion and valuing diversity and social inclusion.
• Communicates effectively with residents, contractors and colleagues, responding professionally to enquiries and feedback.
• Promotes a positive image of the Council through high standards of customer service and estate presentation.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

About the role

The role reports directly to the Estate Caretaker Supervisor and is responsible for ensuring council estates, communal areas, grounds, and external environments are maintained to a high standard, providing safe, clean, and welcoming environments for residents and visitors.

The role will sit within the Estate Services Team and support a wide range of estate-based activities, including grounds maintenance, inspections, removal of fly-tipping and excess waste, minor repairs, emergency response duties, and supporting cleaning operations where required.

The post holder will operate Council vehicles, including trucks and vans, to remove excess waste and support estate improvement activities across the borough.

About you

In order to successfully deliver the responsibilities of the role, you will need to:

• Question and challenge ways of working, with an understanding of the bigger picture in terms of the corporate context and external environment.
• Demonstrate agility and adaptability in mindset and ways of working.
• Work successfully with key stakeholders within and outside of the Council.
• Demonstrate commitment to personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the role.
• Demonstrate innovation and creativity.
• Actively engage in positive cross-organisational communications and team working.
• Communicate clearly, confidently and appropriately with colleagues, residents and contractors using the most effective methods of communication.
• Understand the importance of health and safety in relation to estate services, grounds maintenance and social housing environments.
• Be able to travel independently around the Borough and work from different locations.
• Have experience of grounds maintenance, caretaking, environmental services or estate

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 25-32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
• Hybrid working (dependent on the role)
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Kingston we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our STAR values.
Here at Kingston we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.