Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

The Church of England Pensions Board provide retirement housing and pensions, set by the Church of England, for those who have served or worked for the Church. We assist over 38,000 people across more than 450 employers, and we manage funds in excess of £2.3 billion.

We understand that retirement poses significant housing challenges for our clergy and offer modest and affordable retirement housing to those who need our help, through the Church's Housing Assistance for the Retired Ministry (CHARM) schemes. To ensure a smooth and easy transition from active ministry to retirement, we provide a range of support to our customers.

We are now looking for an experienced and customer focused Property Services Officer, with a clear understanding of property maintenance and management to join our f riendly and professional housing team. This roles is offered on a 12 month-contract basis.

Find more about the service we provide here: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/clergy-resources/retirement-housing

As Property Services Officer, you will work with Business Partners and other professionals to deliver an effective property and asset management service that meets the needs of our residents.

You will work collaboratively with our maintenance partners, resolving issues, managing priorities, and ensuring that work is completed to a high standard, on time and within budget.

To be successful, you will need excellent people skills, a positive and flexible approach, and the commitment to delivering an outstanding service to our customers at all times.

Although empathy for the aim and values of the Church is important, we are welcoming applicants from all faith or none.

We are taking a flexible approach to work, with many colleagues opting for a hybrid approach to their working week, with a mixture of home and office-based working. Further details will be discussed at interview.

The Church of England is for everyone, and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minority Ethnic Backgrounds.

The interviews are expected to be held on Friday 27 May 2022.

In return we offer a unique environmentwith opportunities for continuous learning, generous annual leave for work life balance, season ticket loans and a range of benefits including discounted entry to attractions and what we feel is a market leading package when it comes to our pension scheme.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage as part of a team the £1,000,000 property services budget of major unplanned works and repairs to over 1200 properties within the rental portfolio. You will primarily be assigned to one region (around a quarter of the Housing portfolio) to enable you to build strong relationships with our customers.
• Be responsible for the day to day effective management of retained property services activities ensuring consistent standards of service delivery and value for money. This includes engaging contractors and other service providers using standard procurement processes.
• Work with our maintenance partner to deliver a first-class service whilst maintaining best practise and value for our day-to-day repairs and some major works.
• Update residents on major works, complete case management referrals for internal approval and issue relevant documentation to the works contractors including orders and variations.
• Contribute to contract management with third party providers to build relationships, establish clear processes and guidance and develop clear decision-protocols.
• Provide customer support at all times with empathy and understanding, ensuring wellbeing and commitment to enabling them to remain in their home whilst managing expectations, communication, and engagement at all levels.
• Manage day to day property activities including insurance claims, planning applications, building control, Party Wall Acts and Section 20 notices, working with other professionals (where necessary seeking guidance from specialist parties) to resolve issues promptly and with minimum disruption.
• Work with housing managers and officers to safeguard residents and their families, at all times during major works (ad-hoc or planned) ensuring Health & Safety is paramount.
• Manage transitional change from unplanned major works to planned works programme whilst continuing with business as usual. Provide support and guidance as well as managing communications with customers and the Tenant Liaison Officer (third party provider).
• Manage the processing of payments within required timescales, to include all departmental accounting functions in relation to works orders, programme and framework orders, credit notes and invoices. Working collaboratively alongside our Finance and Resources partners to ensure prompt payment. Where necessary amend Housing system data or complete appropriate accounting process to reflect data changes.
• Review requests from residents for consents to undertake their own works. Manage process from application to consent/rejection. When site visits/technical advice is required refer to the complex Case and Void Manager for the Region.

The main duties and responsibilities of your post are outlined in your job description. This list is not exhaustive and is intended to reflect your main tasks and areas of work.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

Essential

Knowledge and Experience:

• Substantial experience of working within a Housing and/or Property Services environment

• Experience of Asset Management
• Knowledge of building construction and preventative maintenance
• Experience of delivering a customer focused service
• Experience of providing support to residents/tenants
• Genuine skills in engagement and communication including negotiation and persuasion.
• IT Literate with previous experience of using Microsoft Office and SAP Real Estate, Plant Maintenance and Finance platforms

Personal Attributes:

• Ability to work with minimal supervision, whist being organised and self-disciplined.
• Excellent people skills
• Flexible and approachable
• Confident and responsible, making decisions and being accountable
• Ability to cope with competing deadlines, to prioritise and set targets, working in a structured manner

• Self-motivated, have initiative and a record of achieving agreed objectives within time and resource constraints.

• Adaptable and innovative
• Ability to relate well to a variety of people and create, maintain, and enhance working relationships.
• Willing to learn new concepts and open to change
• deliver a first-class service whilst maintaining best practise and value for our day-to-day repairs and some major works

Education:

• A’ level standard or equivalent qualification or experience.

Desirable

Knowledge/Experience:

• Previous experience in a not for profit/charity environment.

ABOUT US:

Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

We in the National Church Institutions support the mission and ministries of the Church all over England. We work with parishes, dioceses (regional offices), schools, other ministries and our partners at a national and international level.

Excellence, Respect, Integrity

We follow these three values in everything we do, whether we are of Christian faith, another faith or no faith. To learn more about working for National Church Institutions and our benefits, please click here

As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.

As a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, we welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.

We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and to ensuring that everyone, job applicants, customers and other people with whom we deal, are treated fairly and not subject to discrimination. We will do whatever is necessary to provide genuine equality of opportunity. We continuously review our policies and processes to support our aim to create a workforce as diverse as the nation the Church of England serves.