
Facilities and Compliance Officer
Job summary
There are over 30+ built assets at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum including residential properties, high value commercial tenants including the Restaurant in addition to a number of buildings of varying age and condition from solid stone cottages to timber framed workshops. As a key member of the Capital DevelopmentTeam, you will focus on occupational health and safety of properties occupied by Forestry England whilst also assisting with the let portfolio. The core function of this job is to make sure that buildings and their services meet the needs of the people that work in them or use our buildings as part of the wider visitor experience. You will be responsible for ensuring that facilities are legally compliant, meeting the health and safety, environmental and security regulations and standards applicable to them.
Reporting to the district’s Building Surveyor you will be responsible for completing and overseeing building compliance tasks, to ensure buildings within the District are safe, efficient and operating as intended. As the Facilities and Compliance Officer you will be the vital link between site teams of operational, administrative and office staff and the Estates team.
Job description
Key responsibilities & accountabilities
- Responsible for leading on the delivery of statutory and mandatory compliance of the built estate at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum. Ensuring that day-to-day occupation is safe, efficient and secure, as set out in Health and Safety Legislation and Forestry England policies
- Be the Responsible or Appointed Person for statutory compliance including (but not limited to) fire, asbestos, legionella, electrical, DSEAR, gas and LOLER to the buildings within your remit, reporting any noncompliance or out of parameter testing to the Building Surveyor
- Undertaking routine monitoring tasks and to Contract Manage others where they are not completed in house such as servicing of mechanical and electrical equipment through designated contractors
- Regularly monitor and record contractor health and safety and environmental performance within the facilities management work area and some estates contractors; pro-actively manage H&S issues; ensure competent contractors carry out works using our H&S criteria and selection processes.
- Ensure facilities routine checks are appropriate and are being carried out in accordance with policy and recorded. Include reviewing checks, providing guidance and support and inspecting plant rooms and specialist items.
- Forecasting and managing budgets and processing invoices and purchase orders for relevant Works.
- Procure works via contracts and frameworks where required in accordance with our policies.
- You will be responsible for ensuring the in-house property management system is up to date and accurate (including record keeping) via our GIS system and Sharepoint.
- Lead on security risk assessment and oversee security arrangements at a building and site level.
- Working with operational teams to ensure security arrangements are proportionate to the assets and at times being the responsible officer and data controller for the operation of CCTV.
- To ensure private utilities to and from the site remain functional and monitored providing consumption reporting and overseeing routine planned preventative maintenance servicing.
- Proactively monitor energy and water consumption, check data collated by our Business Support Team and ensure utilities use is efficient and in line with our Net Zero targets.
- Assist with any breakdown or disruptions in supply of utilities including those that are private.
- Lead site staff who have tasks assigned to them and ensure they are familiar and instructed on what to do and when. Routinely visit all sites within your remit.
- Assisting with soft Facilities Management services (eg office fit out etc) when requested to and where capacity allows
- Assist with minor reactive estates works including; writing basic specifications for quotation, seeking quotes and overseeing contractors. You will be supported by the Building Surveyor in this work.
- The ability to persevere when presented with obstacles, to get the works completed.
And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.
Person specification
Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential professional and technical experience
- IWFM Associate member (or similar professional membership i.e. RICS or CIBSE) with delivery experience or demonstrable experience in delivery of professional building/facilities management, specifically compliance management.
- Good understanding of statutory property compliance and the associated H&S requirements
- An understanding of the CDM 2015 regulations, associated roles and responsibilities
- Supervising construction works on site related to facilities management
- Ability to prioritise and accordingly plan, organise and co-ordinate your workload without direction
- An excellent communicator, with demonstrable experience in clearly and concisely communicating both verbally and in writing, including in relation to technical information
- Ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with colleagues and contractors
- Demonstrable experience of being adaptable, taking your own initiative and problem solving, via a positive ‘can-do’ attitude and desire to get the job done
- Strong attention to detail and high levels of accuracy
- Experience of producing and reviewing risk assessments and method statements
- Competent user of IT packages including MS Office
Essential professional and technical experience
- Experience in GIS software
- NEC contract management experience
- Experience of Auto Cad
- Up to date with current United Kingdom, relevant legislation
Qualifications
Essential
- Level 2 qualification (GCSEs C/4 or above) and proven history of delivery of facilities management services focusing on building compliance and occupational Health & Safety OR IWFM Level 2 (Associate member) or similar / higher professional grade such as RICS, IFMA
Desirable
- City and Guilds (or similar) in legionella management and UKATA asbestos management training ie Duty to Manage Asbestos; Appointed Person
- Qualification in construction site supervision or relevant H&S eg SMSTS/ SSSTS
- A higher national qualification or degree in a relevant subject.
- A full driving licence that enables unrestricted driving in the UK
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Things you need to know
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.How to apply…
You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.
You will be assessed on technical skills either as part of a task or questions during your interview. You will not need to prepare a presentation for this interview.
The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.
If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.
If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.
Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.Medical
Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.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












