About Us

Are you seeking working arrangements that enhance your work life balance?

Are you looking to join a dynamic and supportive team?

Do you have previous experience of monitoring school contracts?

If yes, we want to hear from you!

We are looking to recruit a full-time Contracts Officer to join our dedicated team ensuring that catering and cleaning contracts let on behalf of schools in Wandsworth are performing to the best of their ability.

We are a small dynamic team who work supporting each other for the benefit of the schools in the cleaning and catering contracts. We embrace our SSA values, and our priorities include the high maintenance of standards, and liaising with school staff and contractors to resolve identified issues swiftly.

Your role it is to visit schools and review contractor performance. Feeding back to both the contractor and schools to make sure that standards are upheld.

We are looking for an individual not only with skills and knowledge in catering and cleaning monitoring, but someone who is enthusiastic in promoting the whole school approach to food in schools, to have a positive impact on children’s education via healthy eating.

You will need prior experience of monitoring contracts across a large number of sites, knowledge of relevant legislation in relation to catering and cleaning and hold an Intermediate Food Hygiene training certificate.

Catering visits require the successful applicant to attend schools during lunch times, and cleaning visits before or after core school hours. 

At Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, we care more about how you work and what you achieve, rather than where you work on any given day. The difference you can make to our local communities is what really matters most to us, service delivery must always come first. We have carefully considered agile ways of working to provide the best experience for residents, stakeholders and our staff. Our agile working strategy actively supports and encourages a dynamic work environment and daily working experience. Agile working helps put the needs of our staff at the centre of everything we do, so if specific flexible working arrangements helps you with this, feel free to let us know. 

Your wellbeing and the flexible way in which you can work is and will remain a key priority for Richmond and Wandsworth Councils. We want you to thrive and feel empowered in your work!

We do everything we can to accommodate flexible working including, working from home, job shares and other arrangements, subject to the needs of the service. Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process if these are options you’d like to explore.

We also offer a generous holiday allowance of 40 paid days (pro rata) including bank holidays and a wide range of learning and development opportunities. In addition, we offer a comprehensive range of staff benefits such as membership of the Local Government pension scheme, Employee Assistance Programme, new technology scheme, interest-free loans on annual travel cards, and discounts with many leisure activities, restaurants, shops and other establishments.

In addition, we offer a comprehensive range of staff benefits such as membership of the Local Government pension scheme, childcare vouchers, new technology scheme, interest-free loans on annual travel cards, discounts with many leisure activities, restaurants, shops and other establishments.

Indicative Recruitment Timeline

Closing Date: 11:59pm on Sunday 15th October

Shortlisting Date: Monday 16th October 2023

Interview Date: Friday 20th October 2023

Useful Information:

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Important Information:

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils