Client Overview
The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) is one of London's leading further education colleges, providing vocational, technical and academic education to thousands of students each year. Operating across multiple campuses and serving a diverse community, the College plays a central role in developing skills, supporting employers and preparing learners for higher education and employment.
Maintaining a safe, compliant and well-run estate is fundamental to delivering a good learning experience. To strengthen its Estates function, CONEL partnered with Maxwell Stephens to recruit an experienced Head of Facilities & Estates to lead operations across its flagship Tottenham campus.
The Challenge
CONEL needed a senior Estates leader capable of managing a large, complex educational environment while delivering a high standard of customer service to students, staff and visitors.
The appointee would provide strategic leadership across every aspect of estates and facilities management, ensuring the College's buildings, infrastructure and support services operated safely, efficiently and in full compliance with statutory legislation. This was a highly visible leadership role requiring a balance of operational delivery, financial management and long-term estate planning.
Key responsibilities included:
- Leading the Facilities and Estates function across the Tottenham campus.
- Delivering a customer-focused estates service that supported teaching and learning.
- Managing significant operational and capital budgets.
- Ensuring full compliance with Health & Safety and statutory regulations.
- Overseeing planned preventative maintenance (PPM) and reactive maintenance programmes.
- Managing contractor performance across catering, cleaning, security and grounds maintenance.
- Leading procurement and tendering exercises.
- Developing energy management and sustainability initiatives.
- Managing campus security, access control and emergency planning.
- Implementing effective Helpdesk and CAFM processes.
- Supporting major refurbishment and capital works projects.
- Developing and mentoring the Estates team while creating succession planning opportunities.
The successful candidate needed to demonstrate strong technical knowledge, proven leadership skills and extensive experience managing large educational or public-sector estates. Heads of Estates who combine hands-on compliance and maintenance knowledge with budget ownership and capital project experience are a relatively small group, and those with a further education background are smaller still.
Our Approach
Maxwell Stephens worked closely with CONEL's senior leadership team to gain a detailed understanding of the College's operational priorities, estate strategy and organisational culture.
Given the complexity of the appointment, we conducted a targeted executive search focused on experienced Estates professionals with backgrounds in higher education, further education, healthcare and large public-sector organisations.
Our search prioritised candidates with expertise in:
- Estates and Facilities Management leadership.
- Educational and public-sector environments.
- Health & Safety and statutory compliance.
- Contractor and supplier management.
- Budget ownership and financial control.
- Capital projects and estate development.
- Planned preventative maintenance.
- CAFM and Helpdesk management systems.
- Business continuity and emergency planning.
- Team leadership and organisational development.
Each shortlisted candidate went through a comprehensive assessment covering technical expertise, commercial awareness, leadership capability and cultural fit.
The Outcome
Maxwell Stephens appointed a Head of Facilities & Estates with extensive experience managing large and complex estates.
The successful candidate quickly established themselves as a key member of the College's leadership team, providing strategic direction across the Estates function while delivering operational improvements that benefited students, staff and visitors alike.
Results Delivered
- Stronger Estates leadership. The appointment provided experienced leadership across all aspects of the College's estates operation, ensuring facilities supported both day-to-day teaching activities and long-term strategic objectives.
- Enhanced compliance and risk management. Health & Safety governance, statutory compliance and risk management processes were strengthened, so the College maintained a safe and fully compliant learning environment.
- Improved operational performance. The successful candidate introduced improvements across maintenance planning, contractor management and service delivery, increasing operational efficiency across the campus.
- Effective financial management. Robust budget management, procurement and tendering processes delivered greater value for money while maintaining high service standards.
- Better contractor and supplier performance. Close management of outsourced service providers improved accountability, service quality and performance across cleaning, catering, security and grounds maintenance contracts.
- Investment in people and continuous improvement. The Estates team benefited from improved leadership, structured development opportunities and succession planning, helping build a stronger and more resilient Facilities function.
The Impact
The appointment has strengthened CONEL's Estates and Facilities operation by providing strategic leadership across one of London's busiest further education campuses.
By combining technical expertise, commercial awareness and a strong customer-focused approach, the successful candidate has helped create a safer, more efficient and better-managed estate that supports both the quality of education and the College's long-term strategic ambitions.
This assignment reflects Maxwell Stephens' experience recruiting senior Estates and Facilities leaders for colleges, universities and complex public-sector organisations, where operational delivery, compliance and stakeholder engagement are fundamental to success. If you are recruiting a Head of Estates or a comparable senior facilities role for an educational or public-sector estate, get in touch with our team.