Premises Lead

Working for Essex; Chelmsford; On-site; GBP 34,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

Essex County Council invites applications for the Premises Lead to manage ACL centres, outreach venues and facilities across Essex, ensuring safe, inclusive, high-quality learning environments. You will drive customer experience, digital inclusion and learner engagement in line with EIF/DfE standards.

The role requires leadership of premises and café staff, health and safety compliance, and collaboration with curriculum and digital teams.

Qualifications

• Educated to Level 3 or equivalent or equivalent by experience with evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience managing customer-facing, operational or learning-support services in a complex environment.
• Strong working knowledge of health and safety, safeguarding and compliance in public or learning settings.
• Understanding of adult learning environments, digital inclusion and learner-journey principles.
• Proven leadership and people-management skills, with the ability to motivate, coach and develop teams.
• Strong organisational and communication skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and operational demands.
• Experience of working collaboratively with internal teams and external partners.
• Commitment to equality, accessibility, safeguarding and continuous professional development.

Responsibilities

• Lead the operational delivery of centres, cafes and community outreach venues, ensuring facilities are safe, welcoming and inclusive, and that opening times meet service and learner need.
• Provide overall responsibility for health and safety, safeguarding and security across locations, ensuring compliance with legislation, ECC policies and inspection / audit requirements.
• Act as the operational lead for premises management, including access control, room scheduling, space utilisation and equipment availability.
• Manage and coordinate community outreach operations, including venue relationships, contractual arrangements, health and safety compliance and financial administration.
• Promote digital inclusion by ensuring learners can access and use technology safely and confidently within centres.
• Provide effective line management for premises and café staff, ensuring high standards of customer service.
• Work collaboratively with Curriculum, Sector, Exams, Digital and Learning Support teams to enable smooth delivery of learning programmes.
• Monitor learner feedback, engagement data and service performance metrics, using insight to drive continuous improvement.
• Oversee contractors and external personnel working on site, ensuring work is planned and delivered safely and with minimal disruption.
• Actively promote ECC’s customer service framework, equality, inclusion and continuous improvement culture.

Skills

Leadership

Customer service

Health and safety

Digital inclusion

Communication

Project management

Education

Level 3 qualification or equivalent

Job description

Premises Lead

Permanent,Full Time

£33,711 to £39,659 per annum

Location:Essex*

Working Style:Fixed-base worker

Visa sponsorship is not available for this role, so applicants must have current, unrestricted right to work in the UK. *Please note: This job is countywide; managing our Premises and Cafe teams. Whilst your contractual base would be your local ACL centre. There is a requirement to travel across all our ACL sites, in line with business need. The post holder will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle, or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means. There is a requirement to be flexible with hours, this could include evenings/Saturday working, in line with business need.

Adult Community Learning (ACL) is ECC’s provider of lifelong learning experiences for Essex residents. ACL offers qualifications to help people move nearer to, enter or progress within the workplace or gain skills to enhance life chances. The service focuses many of its programmes and activities on the hardest to reach communities within Essex. ACL learners have access to a diverse range of accredited and non-accredited courses which encourage creativity, healthy lifestyles, social inclusion and engagement.

The Premises Lead is responsible for the day‑to‑day operational leadership and management of ACL centres, outreach venues and associated facilities, ensuring they provide safe, inclusive, accessible and high‑quality learning environments.

The role ensures that learners receive a positive, consistent customer experience, supports digital inclusion, and enables progression through the learner journey in line with current Ofsted EIF, DfE requirements and ECC standards.

Working collaboratively with curriculum, digital, learning support and corporate teams, the postholder ensures that centres operate efficiently, compliantly and in a way that enhances learner engagement, community impact and the reputation of ACL.

Accountabilities

• Lead the operational delivery of centres, cafes and community outreach venues, ensuring facilities are safe, welcoming and inclusive, and that opening times meet service and learner need.
• Provide overall responsibility for health and safety, safeguarding and security across locations, ensuring compliance with legislation, ECC policies and inspection / audit requirements, including Martyn’s Law where applicable.
• Act as the operational lead for premises management, including access control, room scheduling, space utilisation and equipment availability to support effective learning delivery.
• Manage and coordinate community outreach operations, including venue relationships, contractual arrangements, health and safety compliance and financial administration, maintaining positive partnerships and ACL’s reputation within local communities.
• Promote digital inclusion by ensuring learners can access and use technology safely and confidently within centres, working alongside Digital and Learning Support teams to meet Jisc and digital‑access requirements.
• Provide effective line management for premises and café staff (including supervision, performance management, coaching and development), ensuring consistently high standards of customer service in line with ECC procedures and values.
• Work collaboratively with Curriculum, Sector, Exams, Digital and Learning Support teams to enable smooth delivery of learning programmes and a coherent learner journey.
• Monitor learner feedback, engagement data and service performance metrics, using insight to drive continuous improvement in customer experience and operational effectiveness.
• Oversee contractors and external personnel working on site, ensuring work is planned and delivered safely, compliantly and with minimal disruption to learning activity.
• Actively promote ECC’s customer service framework, equality, inclusion and continuous improvement culture across all centre operations.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to Level 3 or equivalent, or equivalent by experience with evidence of continuing professional development.
• Experience managing customer‑facing, operational or learning‑support services in a complex environment.
• Strong working knowledge of health and safety, safeguarding and compliance in public or learning settings.
• Understanding of adult learning environments, digital inclusion and learner‑journey principles.
• Proven leadership and people‑management skills, with the ability to motivate, coach and develop teams.
• Strong organisational and communication skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and operational demands.
• Experience of working collaboratively with internal teams and external partners.
• Commitment to equality, accessibility, safeguarding and continuous professional development.

To read more about us please visit: Policy, Economy, Investment and Property - Working for Essex and www.aclessex.com

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview allveteransandcare leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

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If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email [e-mail]

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