Caretaker & Maintenance Operative

About the Role
An exciting opportunity has arisen for you to work with Freeways Trust as a maintenance operative.

Based at our head office at Abbots Leigh, you will travel to our residential care and supported living services in Bristol, Weston-Super-Mare and the surrounding areas, where our sister charity, Freeways, provides support for adults with learning disabilities.

Having ideally come from a trade background, you will be required to undertake a wide range of caretaking and maintenance activities, including basic carpentry and plumbing, decorating and gardening across our properties.

Benefits

• Salary of £27,000.00 per year
• 28 days (pro-rata) annual leave entitlement (including public holidays), increases up to 35 days (pro-rata) with length of service
• Excellent induction and training programme
• Company sick pay
• Company pension scheme
• Life assurance cover of twice your annual salary (subject to rules of the scheme)
• Family friendly/work-life balance policies
• Free DBS check every 3 years
• Occupational health provision
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24 hour access to a counselling and legal helpline

About you

• You will ideally have experience of working within a trade (Carpentry, Plumbing, etc.) and a good standard of communication, literacy and numeracy. A basic level of IT skills will be required
• You should be proactive and self-motivated when working within a team and working independently
• A full driving license is essential as you will be required to drive company vehicles
• Experience of working within a health and social care setting in an environment dedicated to supporting vulnerable adults would be desirable, but is not a requirement

About Us
Freeways Trust is a local charity that provides residential care and supported living accommodation for adults with learning disabilities. Our sister charity Freeways is a highly regarded provider of supported living services and residential care. We are passionate about helping people to become as independent as possible by supporting them to make choices, learn new skills and make links with their local community.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds. This role is subject to an Enhanced DBS and Adults Barred List Check

Job Type: Full Time Permanent

Salary: £27,000 per year

Job Description

Job title: Caretaker & Maintenance Operative

Service: Maintenance

Location: Freeways Head Office, Abbots Leigh but required to travel to all Freeways Trust sites as necessary. (Company vehicle provided)

Accountable to: Maintenance Manager

Job Purpose

To carry out a caretaking role at Freeways Head Office (currently based at Leigh Court) this encompasses security procedures, grounds maintenance and other routine maintenance, repairs, cleaning and associated duties at Head Office.

To carry out routine and reactive repairs and maintenance of buildings, grounds and equipment across Freeways Trust (excluding any work involving electricity or gas) as directed by the Maintenance Manager and in support of the Lead Maintenance Operative.

Key Responsibilities and Objectives

Caretaker duties at Head Office

• Maintain security at Freeways Head Office, this includes routine and non-routine opening and closing of the offices and responding to alarm activation in accordance with the established procedure.

• Maintain the grounds and car parks at Freeways Head Office (including hard and soft landscaping) ensuring safe access to the premises in the event of snow, ice or other severe weather conditions.

• Carry out basic gardening duties when required e.g. grass cutting, strimming, weeding, pruning etc.

• Carry out routine and reactive maintenance and repairs at Freeways Head Office.

• Ensure that utility service areas (e.g. plant room and oil tank areas) are kept clean and tidy ensuring clear access to all services (e.g. oil, electricity, sewerage and water). Monitoring and ordering heating oil plus services required to maintain the sewage treatment plant.

Maintenance and repairs

In accordance with agreed areas of competence:

• Carry out planned and reactive repairs and maintenance of buildings and equipment as identified by the maintenance log and/or as directed by the Maintenance Manager and/or Lead Maintenance Operative, seeking to determine the most cost effective and expedient solution.

• Assigned tasks from the maintenance log to be updated on a daily basis.

• Carry out routine garden maintenance (e.g. grass cutting and hedge trimming) across the services as required.

• Refer any repairs and maintenance issues that go outside agreed competencies or budget level back to the Maintenance Manager.

• Carry out planned preventative maintenance checks on all fire doors throughout the service and maintain an up to date record of these checks.

• Carry out/ assist with furniture assembly, removal, rearrangement across the Trust.

• Undertake any other related tasks that might reasonably be requested by the Maintenance Manager.

• Some tasks may require appropriate use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Budgetary responsibility

• The post holder also has use of certain account cards to purchase items to carry out repairs and maintenance duties. Due regard, in securing best value should be considered when making such purchases. The maximum expenditure on account is £250.

General

• To ensure that all works are undertaken in a safe manner in accordance with good practice and current legislation.

• To carry out all work in a courteous and professional manner to ensure that the reputation and standing of Freeways and Freeways Trust is positively promoted.

• To observe and comply with Freeways and Freeways Trust policies and procedures including health and safety.

• The company vehicle provided to fulfil the role is for business use only.

Additional Responsibilities

This job description only contains the main duties relating to this post and does not describe in detail all the tasks required to carry them out.

Post holders may be asked to undertake any task commensurate within their pay band.

All job descriptions will be subject to review as appropriate and may be altered in line with the requirements of the post. Any proposed changes will be discussed with the post holder prior to change.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: £27,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person