Background
Ormiston Academies Trust is a multi-academy trust. It needed a Regional Estates Manager to oversee estates and facilities for a portfolio of schools, working with principals, site teams and the central estates team, and it asked Maxwell Stephens to find the right person.
The post reports to the Director of Estates and is home based, with regular travel to academy sites.
The Challenge
The job spans compliance, maintenance, data and projects. The post holder makes sure each academy follows the planned preventative maintenance and statutory compliance schedules held in the Trust's CAFM system, carries out building condition and site security audits, and supports capital funded programmes from briefs and funding bids through to contract administration.
It also carries people and contract responsibility: line managing a cluster site manager who looks after five London academies, overseeing estates budgets, reviewing cleaning, catering and grounds contracts and regional work on energy data, health and safety and fire risk follow-up. Management experience, contract management, building knowledge and health and safety awareness were essential; a school background and quantity surveying skills carried weight.
The role is also dispersed. The post holder works from home and travels between academies, sometimes with overnight stays, and has to earn credibility with principals and site teams without having a base at any one school. That makes independence, tact and resilience in a crisis as important as technical competence, and it narrows the field of people who are both technically credible and comfortable operating alone.
Our Approach
- We took a thorough brief on the balance between technical surveying, project delivery and people management, and on how much school experience was required.
- We searched across education estates, multi-academy trusts, local authority property teams and multi-site service providers for estates managers used to working remotely across a portfolio.
- We screened against the essentials: budget and contract control, building services knowledge, health and safety understanding and the willingness to challenge non-compliance.
- We presented the strongest candidates with detailed notes and supported the Trust through to offer and acceptance.
The Outcome
Maxwell Stephens made the appointment.
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