Gardens Manager Location: Uppingham Working hours: 39 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Salary : £43 45k per annum, dependant on experience. We are recruiting an experienced and inspiring Gardens Manager to join the wider Estates team and lead the Gardens teams work across the Schools high-profile gardens. These are a mixture of private gardens and landscapes located across the estate as well as several smaller residential gardens, feature gardens and an arboretum. Job Purpose Uppingham Schools high-profile gardens form a vital part of the estate for pupils, parents, staff and visitors to enjoy. Within the estate there is a mixture of private gardens, landscapes, woodland as well as a number of smaller residential and feature gardens that require a high level of direction to ensure that they achieve their full potential. Reporting to the Head of Estates Services, the Gardens Manager will lead and support a dedicated gardens team, providing extensive horticultural and management experience to produce and oversee annual work schedules as well as to propose seasonal and long-term planting and maintenance strategies. Your accountabilities Develop and implement long-term landscaping, planting, and maintenance schedule. Including statutory compliance and proposals for the development of the gardens using the Estates CAFM System. Lead and inspire the Gardens team. We want all staff to feel valued and to have the opportunity to develop. Your role will include, effective allocation of tasks using the CAFM System to monitor the performance and identify development opportunities, ensuring compliance with all employment policies and procedures. Assess resources, review overall workload and put together detailed seasonal work schedules to ensure the care and maintenance of all Uppingham School gardens and woodlands. This includes ensuring that the many trees and hedges within the estate are kept in a safe and healthy condition. Ensure all footpaths, tracks and fences are appropriately monitored and maintained. Manage the Gardens Departments environmental impact, including energy and chemicals. Identify and coordinate external contractors (maintenance and service) for any specialist elements, including competitive tendering processes. This includes specifying work and ensuring compliance with health and safety or other statutory requirements. Take responsibility for the day to day health and safety needs of the department and compliance with relevant legislation. Prepare departmental risk assessments, COSHH documents and machinery maintenance records. Liaise with HR and Health and Safety Manager to ensure full compliance with all statutory health checks (including Audiometry, HAVs). The Gardens Manager forms part of the Estates Services Management Team that ensures that Uppingham School meets statutory and other requirements across the estate and responsible for submitting planning applications for tree works. This often involves liaison with statutory bodies e.g. with the Environment Agency and Planning Authorities in connection with parts of the estate that fall within the Conservation Area of Uppingham. Attend and contribute when necessary to meetings for departmental, estates and school matters. Ensure that materials, plant and equipment are procured and maintained effectively. This may include purchasing equipment on behalf of academic departments. Manage departmental expenditure and capital budgets, remaining within allocated budgets at all times. Skills and experience Demonstrable experience of running a similar department within an estate of a comparable size and diversity is essential. The post holder will be required to have qualifications and significant experience in horticulture and arboriculture, which will support the function of the department and the needs of the School environment. The postholder should have excellent interpersonal and communications skills. They will need to consult and liaise with a wide variety of people; this includes academic staff, finance, HR, local authority officers and members of the public as well as their own workforce. The post will require strong literacy and numeracy skills. The postholder will need to monitor and control the significant budget for the department and so will need to be financially competent. The postholder will need to be able to prepare short reports for committees from time to time. A knowledge and practical application of the Health and Safety at Work Act and its subordinate legislation is required. In particular, the postholder will need to be competent in the handling of chemicals or fuels and the safe operation of various types of machinery and plant. An interest in conservation management is required together with some knowledge of statutory compliance in this respect. The postholder should hold a full UK driving licence. Benefits Pension scheme Defined contribution scheme: employee contribution matched by School by factor of two, up to 10% maximum 50% contribution to premiums for Schools private health scheme Free Westfield Healthcare Free membership of dual-use Sports Centre (£25 annual joining fee) Free staff lunches in term-time School fee discount for children of Uppingham staff Retail, gym, supermarket, cinema and restaurant discounts Cycle to work scheme Employee Assistance Programme Occupational Health Services Free annual flu jabs Recognised as a Disability Confident employer Recognised as a Mindful employer Favourable rates and terms with local nursery Complimentary staff ticket to selected School performances Discount at local coffee shop for Uppingham staff. You may also have experience in the following: Habitat creation, Landscaper, Gardener, Landscaping, Gardening, Grounds Person, Horticulture, Trainee, Landscaper, Maintenance Gardener, Groundworker, etc. REF-225 668