Property Strategy & Governance

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Peaks & Plains Housing Trust

Assistant Director - Homes

Recruitment Pack

March 2017

Peaks & Plains Housing Trust

Assistant Director - Homes

Contents

Welcome letter 1

About Peaks & Plains 2

Job description 4

Person specification 5

Terms and conditions 6

Recruitment timetable 6

Further information 7

How to apply 7

Appendix 1 | Corporate structure

Appendix 2 | Recruitment Monitoring Form

Appendix 3 | Advert

Page | 1

Welcome letter

Welcome to Peaks & Plains Housing Trust (Peaks & Plains) and thank you for your interest in

the position of Assistant Director – Homes.

At Peaks & Plains we pride ourselves on being more than just a landlord. Undeniably, we

operate in an affluent part of the country, but many of our tenants are very far from affluent and

the communities they are part of fall well below the norm when it comes to wellbeing. Against

this background, we do all that we can to help people thrive in the homes we provide and the

communities we work in. Our new Assistant Director – Homes will play a pivotal role in ensuring

that we achieve this aim.

Following an internal re-structure, we have created this role to lead our development and asset

management services and be a member of our Senior Leadership Team. The main focus of the

position will be to provide support and challenge to the team, ensuring that our existing assets

are used effectively while pursuing new opportunities.. Knowledge of the housing sector would

be an advantage but an entrepreneurial and commercially focused approach is more important.

I do hope that after reading this pack you will be inspired by our energy, ambition and hunger

for growth as well as the importance we place on our people. If you would like to discuss this

position further, please contact our retained recruitment consultants at Altair Ltd.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Pinder

Chief Executive

Page | 2

About Peaks & Plains

About us

Peaks & Plains is a housing association based in the east Cheshire town of Macclesfield. We

employ 230 staff, own and manage over 5,000 homes across Cheshire East and High Peak and

have a turnover of £30m. As an organisation, we build, let, manage and maintain homes to

customers on low incomes or in need of extra support. We also provide affordable services and

an effective customer experience in property repairs, maintenance and improvement works, not

to mention maximizing our asset portfolio.

The delivery of our asset and development strategies are key to our business success, we need

to be flexible, allowing us to respond to the changing market place, changing needs, and the

changing political and economic climate.

We have ambitious growth plans within our development strategy to build 500 new homes by

March 2021. This will encompass a variety of tenures including section 106’s, 50/50 shared

ownership, outright sales and rentals, whilst maximizing HCA funding where applicable.

Our Asset Strategy has been compiled to complement and inform the Trust’s business plan and

value for money strategy. It sets out the Trust’s approach to the physical care, improvement and

strategic development of its housing stock and neighbourhoods

Our customers are offered homes based on need and circumstance; no matter what the tenure,

we pride ourselves on the quality and standard of home that we provide. In support of improving

our homes, we have an in-house repairs and maintenance function.

The future for a range of our services, is evolving and the role technology has to play is key, in

delivering a modern multi-channel offering to our customer, where self-serve is a major feature.

The incoming Assistant Director of Homes will play a pivotal role in shaping and ensuring the

successful delivery of our Development and Asset strategies.

Our corporate structure can be found at Appendix 1.

Page | 3

Our purpose and mission

Peaks & Plains is so much more than just a landlord. Undeniably, we operate in an affluent part

of the country, but many of our tenants are very far from affluent and the communities they are

part of fall well below the norm when it comes to wellbeing. Against this background, we do all

we can to help people thrive in the homes we provide and the communities we work in. Our

core purpose and mission is ‘Helping Improve Lives’ and is intended to help bridge this gap.

Together with partner agencies, we work with tenants in maximising their own life chances,

seeing significant improvements in their health and wellbeing supporting them. Our purpose is

translated into deliverable actions through our vision. This is reflected in our current Five-Year

Plan which has just three clear, distinct objectives, namely:

▪ To be a great landlord

▪ To be a valued partner to help improve lives

▪ To be innovative and grow our business responsibly

You can find out more by reviewing our Five-Year Plan, which includes more information on our

objectives and how we will achieve them.

Our core values and key behaviours

We are in no doubt that our objectives will only be met if our staff take to heart and demonstrate

our core values. Following staff consultation, they themselves came up with six key behaviours

which we now expect all staff, regardless of level, to demonstrate; namely:

▪ Putting customers first

▪ Helping others

▪ Thanking people

▪ Taking responsibility

▪ Question what we do to find a better way

▪ Do what we say we do

These behaviours perfectly sum up our culture. They are the ‘glue’ that holds together

everything that we do. Our core values are inherent in everything we do. They guide us when

we are recruiting, carrying out staff inductions and holding catch up meetings, between staff and

managers. We do not just look at WHAT staff do and achieve in terms of objectives; we also

look at HOW they carry out their work, which we consider to be just as important.

For full details about our great organisation, please visit www.peaksplains.org

Page | 4

Job description

Position: Assistant Director - Homes

Directorate: Homes & Resources

Reports to: Director of Homes & Resources

Responsible for: Head of Development, Asset Manager, members of the Development and

Asset teams

Key purpose and responsibilities of the role: The key purpose of the Assistant Director –

Homes is to be a great leader of teams, delivering real quality and value for money services.

You will be resilient and decisive, and will effectively lead, manage and deliver a cultural change

within your teams to develop effective trust, challenge, commitment and accountability.

As an active member of the Senior Leadership Team you will develop, embed and implement a

strategic approach across the Trust to ensure the operational delivery of the Trust Asset

Management and Development Strategies whilst identifying and managing risk, bringing

curiosity and innovation to existing practices, and remaining alert to fresh ideas.

Main duties and responsibilities:

▪ Set clear objectives and priorities to deliver high-performance culture

▪ Develop effective managers to build positive relationships with their teams while being resourceful

▪ Effectively hold managers to account for their performance and behaviour

▪ Relentlessly initiate, drive and embed change, based on an innovative, curious approach to existing practices

▪ Deliver on our ambitious digital service offering and our internal paperless programme

▪ Deliver effective Development and Asset Management Strategies working with external stakeholders where applicable, ensuring operational delivery

Peaks & Plains reserves the right to alter the content of this job description to reflect changes to

the job or services provided, without altering the general character or level of responsibility.

Page | 5

Person specification

PART ONE

Education: 1. Degree-level education or equivalent through relevant training/experience 2. Professional or management qualification (desirable)

Knowledge and Experience: 3. Active Asset Management experience, including evaluating and redeveloping existing

assets

4. Experience of creating and delivering strategies, particularly relating to Asset Management and Development

5. Experience of contract management and working to tight deadlines

6. Experience of developing and leading a high-performing culture

7. Experience of building capacity and capability in a changing environment

8. Experience of delivering place-making initiatives with creative, assertive market interventions to secure legal interests in sites to facilitate development

PART TWO Skills: ▪ Effective budget management

▪ Self-sufficient in the use of MS Office for production of documents / presentations etc.

▪ Change & project management skills

▪ Clear & concise communication skills

▪ Stakeholder management

▪ Strong & decisive leadership skills

▪ Able to be innovative and creative in the delivery of services

Personal attributes: ▪ Takes responsibility

▪ Puts customers first

▪ Questions what we do to find a better way

▪ Disrupts the status quo

▪ Exercises judgement and balances risk

▪ Resilient, confident and resourceful

▪ Being curious, challenging the norm and being alert to fresh ideas

▪ Insightful, spotting connections between the people and ideas to create a vision wider than area of responsibility

Page | 6

Terms and conditions

The terms and conditions for the position of Assistant Director - Homes are below:

Salary £72,600 including car allowance

Pension Option to join final salary pension scheme – Social Housing

Pension Scheme (SHPS) or Career Average Scheme –

Cheshire Pension Fund

Location Macclesfield, Cheshire

Hours FULL TIME – 37 hours, normally working Monday to Friday

9.45am to 5.00pm with a flexible approach – however, we

pride ourselves on having great culture that supports work-life

balance

Annual leave Minimum of 33 days per annum – 3 for Christmas shut-down

plus all bank holidays

Flexi-time Any hours accrued outside of the above normal working hours

will build to a maximum of 1 day’s flex per 4 week period.

Recruitment timetable

Closing date Noon, Monday 27 March 2017

Preliminary interview stage w/c 3 April 2017

Referencing and online

assessments

w/c 3 April 2017

Final interviews w/c 10th April 2017

Page | 7

Further information

For an informal and confidential discussion about the Assistant Director - Homes position,

please contact one of the following advisors at Altair Ltd:

▪ Sarah Palmer, Head of Recruitment and Interim Management – mobile: 07806 602933 |

email: sarah.palmer@altairltd.co.uk

▪ Steve Douglas, Partner – 020 7934 0175 | mobile: 07810 152840 | email:

steve.douglas@altairltd.co.uk

How to apply

To apply for the Assistant Director - Homes position, please go to: www.altairltd.co.uk/job/PPadh

Complete our registration form and attach the following documentation (please save your files

with your surname first, followed by your first name and a description of the file):

▪ A detailed CV including details of positions held (and dates), size of budgets and teams

managed and key achievements

▪ A supporting statement explaining your motivation in applying for this position at Peaks

& Plains and also addressing each point in PART ONE of the person specification

(summarising how you think your knowledge and experience make you a suitable

candidate). Please give examples of specific achievements in the last five years which

demonstrate your competence for this role

▪ Full contact details (name, job title, organisation, phone and email) for three referees

(including your current employer if applicable). Please note we will not take up

references without your prior permission

▪ Completed Recruitment Monitoring Form (a Word version is available on our website)

and attached as reference at Appendix 2 of this recruitment pack

The closing date for applications is: Noon, Monday 27 March 2017.

The job reference code is: ALT164. Your application will be acknowledged and treated with

strictest confidence.

Property Strategy & Governance

Appendix 1 | Corporate structure

Customer & Wellbeing

Organisational Capability / Team Functions

Customer Contact – Customer Wellbeing

Tenancy Support, New Tenancy, Income & *Safeguarding &

ASB

Work Schedulers – Repairs Operatives - Admin

Human Resources

Organisational Capability / Team Functions

Organisational Development – Workforce Planning

Staff Engagement – Digital Comms – H&S – Admin

Resources & Homes

Organisational Capability / Team Functions

Surveyors Contract – Project Managers

Corporate Finance & Operational Finance – IT – Service

Development – Governance - Admin

Green denotes either change of reporting line, title and/or

change of responsibility

Blue denotes brand new position

Chief Executive

Director of Customers

Assistant Director of Customers

*Customer Service

Manager

New Tenancy Team Leader

Income Team Leader

CE Team Leader

Repairs Manager

Gas Team Leader

Planned Team Leader

Voids Team Leader

Improvements Team Leader

Responsive Team Leader

Assistant Director of Wellbeing

Wellbeing Manager

CE Control Team Leader

Lifelinks Team Leader

One you CE Manager

Indep Living Team Leader

Trustlink Team Leader

Assistant Director of HR

HR

Digital Comms

Director of Homes &

Resources

Assistant Director of HomesVacancy

Asset Manager

Estates Quality

Manager - LH

Estates Team Leader

Asset Team

Operations Support Officer

Head of Development

Development Manager

Assistant Director of ICT

Head of Service

Improvement

Transformational Lead

ICT Ops Manager

Assistant Director of Finance

Financial Accountant

Finance Manager

Finance Team Leader

Governance Officer

PA

Appendix 2 | Recruitment Monitoring Form

Equalities monitoring information form

Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form

Peaks & Plains Housing Trust is committed to Equal Opportunities in employment. All applicants for employment are asked to complete the following details. This information, which is used solely for monitoring purposes, will be treated as confidential and will be separated on receipt before consideration of applicants’ takes place.

Full name Date

Gender Male Female Date of birth

Vacancy applied for

Where did you see the vacancy advertised

Do you consider yourself to have a mental or physical disability which has substantial and long term adverse effect upon your ability to carry out normal day to day activities? Yes No

If yes, please give brief details, and any facilities or provision you require for attending the interview.

Ethnic Origin - Please tick the box which you feel best describes your ethnic origin

WHITE British Irish Gypsy or traveller Any other white background

MIXED/MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUPS White and Black Caribbean White and Black African White and Asian Any other Mixed/multiple ethnic background

ASIAN/ASIAN BRITISH Indian Pakistani Bangladeshi Chinese Any other Asian background

BLACK/AFRICAN BACKGROUND African Caribbean Any other Black/African/Caribbean Background

OTHER ETHNIC GROUP Arab Any other ethnic group

PREFER NOT TO SAY

Religion – Please tick a box which you feel best describes your religion

None Hindu Sikh

Christian (All denominations)

Jewish Any other religion

Buddhist Muslim Prefer not to say

Sexual Orientation – Please tick a box which you feel describes your sexual orientation

Heterosexual Gay Woman Other

Gay Man Bisexual Prefer not to say

Recruitment advertising monitoring - Job reference code ALT164

How did you find out about this opportunity?

Please indicate “YES” as appropriate

Altair e-bulletin

Altair website

Approached directly by Altair

Estates Gazette

LinkedIn

Online browsing

Inside Housing online

Peaks & Plains website

Word of mouth

Appendix 3 | Advert

Assistant Director of Homes Peaks &Plains Housing Trust Location: North West Salary: £72,600 including car allowance This is an exciting opportunity to shape a new role and team bringing together assets and development within one of the most creative HAs in the country. At Peaks & Plains we pride ourselves on being more than just a landlord. Undeniably, we operate in an affluent part of the country, but many of our tenants are very far from affluent and the communities they are part of fall well below the norm when it comes to wellbeing. Against this background, we do all that we can to help people thrive in the homes we provide and the communities we work in. Our new Assistant Director – Homes will play a pivotal role in ensuring that we achieve this aim. Following an internal re-structure, we have created this role to lead our development and asset management services and be a member of our Senior Leadership Team. Leading a team of circa 25 people and with responsibility for a budget of over £12 million, this is a great role for someone who thrives on challenging the norm. We are looking for an experienced and motivational leader who is able to shape delivery of our development and asset management strategies - maximising our opportunities and existing assets - against a backdrop of our ambitious growth targets. Knowledge of the housing sector would be an advantage but an entrepreneurial and commercially focused approach is more important. Further information For an informal and confidential discussion about this role please contact one of the following advisors at Altair Ltd:

▪ Sarah Palmer, Head of Recruitment and Interim Management – mobile: 07806 602933 | email: sarah.palmer@altairltd.co.uk

▪ Steve Douglas, Partner – 020 7934 0175 | mobile: 07810 152840 | email: steve.douglas@altairltd.co.uk

How to apply To apply for the Assistant Director - Homes position, please go to: www.altairltd.co.uk/job/PPadh. The closing date for applications is: Noon, Monday 27 March 2017 The job reference code is: ALT164. Your application will be acknowledged and treated with strictest confidence.