Job Description and Person Specification
Grounds Maintenance Operative (Seasonal: April to September) Botton Village, Near Danby North Yorks
1
Job title:
Grounds Maintenance Operative – Seasonal: April to September
Location:
Botton Village, Near Danby. North Yorks. GOOGLE MAP
Purpose:
To support the grounds operatives in the running of the estate. Responsibility for the communal outdoor areas across the estate, maintaining the attractiveness of the grounds and properties
Salary:
£18,525 pro rata. (NB the hourly rate from April 1st will be a minimum of £9.50)
Hours:
08:00 – 16:00, 37.5 hours Monday Friday
Do you have ground maintenance experience or are you a very enthusiastic gardener? Are you a good handy person around the garden? If so, you may be interested in joining us for a seasonal fixed term contract to work in Botton Village across our beautiful and scenically inspiring gardens and estate. We’re looking for someone to join us for 6 months to help keep our inspiring grounds in pristine condition. You don’t need to be qualified but you’ll need to know the difference between a weed and a plant and hopefully have some experience of garden tools and machinery. It would also be useful if you have a driving license so you can drive our vans and grass cutters around the public roads. Would you love to have this as your workplace? Aside from the beautiful gardens, hedgerows and pathways, this is what we also have at Botton Village …
2
Who are we looking for? •
You’ll have an interest (and hopefully some experience) in gardening and general grounds maintenance
•
You’ll enjoy working outdoors: this is a spring / summer fixed term contract
•
Someone who is OK with working alone but will also enjoy the company of others: Botton Village is a fun place and all of our colleagues enjoy a laugh
•
You’ll have a supportive and encouraging natural approach to people: Botton Village is home to around 100 people who we support who may have learning difficulties, disabilities or be elderly with dementia. You’ll regularly say hello to the people we support …. everyone is really friendly and loves living at Botton
What do we offer you? Our other benefits include: • 33 days holiday (including bank holidays) raising to 35 days at two years’ service (pro rata) •
An opportunity to ‘cash in’ 1 week leave a year
•
Employee assistance scheme that is also available to your immediate family
•
Free on-site parking
•
Pension Scheme: we contribute to a pension scheme along with your personal contributions
•
Death in Service benefits: payments made to your beneficiaries should the unthinkable happen
All of our employees will require a DBS criminal record check. We can do this for you if you’re not already on the DBS update service.
A bit about us: We’d love you to join our fantastic and dedicated team to be part of the community, working closely with the people we support. We’re quite unique: our 1,000-acre estate has multiple living accommodations but loads of additional features. There’s a village shop, café, supported homes, a walled garden, woodworking and creative studios, a lego studio, massive greenhouses, a 200 seater theatre and stunning scenery at every turn. Many of the people we support have been with us for many years. Our longest resident, June, has been living at Botton Village for 50 years. We are a charity and have been in existence for almost 70 years.
3
Duties and Responsibilities: Under the direction of the Grounds Maintenance operative to be responsible for all work in allocated areas. The role will involve working across Botton Estate, ensuring the estates grounds are well maintained and attractive. This is a demanding but varied role looking after the communal horticultural areas of the estate including the village green, café courtyard, car parks, footpaths, amenity areas and some properties gardens.
Main responsibilities: ❖ Undertake grounds maintenance as directed, including, for example, leaf collection, grass cutting, strimming, spraying, drain jetting / pumping, drainage repairs, fencing, walling, hedge laying, tree planting, weeding, pruning, cleaning gutters/sheds, minor building repairs and painting ❖ Implement maintenance works within the grounds or buildings as instructed by and under the direction of the Grounds maintenance operative ❖ Undertake basic machinery maintenance and keep all machinery, equipment and premises clean and tidy. ❖ Adhere to all health & safety policies and procedures ❖ Driving the sit on lawnmowers and our vans. We’d like you to have a full driving license (maximum 6 points) as there will be times when you have to drive on public roads, but this isn’t essential
What type of person are you? ❖ You’ll need a good level of fitness as there will be plenty of walking and handling machinery during the day: you’ll certainly keep fit as we have a lot of lawns to cut and hedgerows to manage ❖ It helps if you have a good sense of humour, open demeanour, hard working but above all friendly: you’ll be working within the community of people we support, this is their home and they love living here ❖ You don’t need to be an expert gardener or know the Latin names of every plant at Botton Village (although it would be fun if you do know some) … just as long as you know the difference between a weed and a plant (training will be provided)
A couple of other things …. ❖ We’d like you to have a basic knowledge of first aid but if not, we’ll give you training ❖ We’ll provide safety footwear, a hi-vis vest and a branded fleece … these are yours to keep
4
A bit more about the role, what we have at Botton Village and some great pictures …
We have our own dairy herd of 20 cows who produce over 100,000 litres of milk each year to make our award-winning Dale End Cheddar cheese
We have lots of green open spaces that need regularly cutting. If you love a ride on lawnmower, you’ll be in your element here!
With lots of walkways, fences and hedges, you’ll help repair or build across the estate. You’ll need to be handy with basic tools
Botton Village is nestled in a huge valley on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. If you love being surrounded by the most stunning and inspiring scenery, you’ll love it here
Some of the people we support also help around the village, cutting grass or helping to tidy up. George often helps with some of the grass cutting
5