Centre Manager – Leeson House

Dorset Outdoor Education Service are looking for an exceptional person to become the Centre Manager
of Leeson House Field Studies Centre. The centre provides high quality primary outdoor education in
addition to secondary and A-Level fieldwork. Groups visit seven days a week and throughout the
whole year. This can be a residential visit with up to 80 students plus staff accommodated within
the house or as a day visit. 

The centre is part of Children’s Services and is committed to working
with children, young people and families from Dorset providing incredible opportunities to
experience what the county has to offer. This could be through community events with links to our
environmental and ecological work. We also work with children who require Alternative Provision and
provide Short Breaks for disabled children. 

The Centre Manager will lead a fantastic team of staff
including a Deputy Centre Manager, tutors, House and Catering Manager, Administrators, Site Manager
and the rest of the team who keep guests fed and sleeping comfortably. It’s a varied and demanding
role in terms of the required depth of experience. It would suit a qualified teacher with
significant management experience, or an experienced Centre Manager with a detailed understanding
of schools and education. 

Leeson House is one of the four Outdoor Education Centres run by Dorset
Council and you will work closely with the Centre Managers and Senior Tutors from the other
centres. We are “One Team” with the aim of providing the very best service to all users and
aligning with the visions of the Council. We collaborate extensively across the centres with staff
regularly helping out at our other sites and supporting colleagues as required. We pride ourselves
on responding quickly to enquiries and providing services at short notice when needed. In order to
do this the manager must have a breadth of relevant experience to call upon when talking to our
service users or planning for new and innovative projects. You must be an effective communicator
and an inspirational leader; the team must want to trust and respect you. The centre has an income
target and you must have sound experience of budget management to maintain the centres continued
financial growth. 

Further Information

To arrange for an informal discussion about the role please contact Paul Burrows Strategic Lead – Outdoor Education via email [email protected]. There will be a requirement for candidates to give a ten minute presentation at interview. Full details will be provided when an invite to interview is sent. Closing date for applications is Sunday 7th July. Interviews are planned for Friday 19th July and will take place at Leeson House, there is no option for online interviewing. This post involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults and/or having access to significant information about them. It will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.

See our policy
on safeguarding children and young people.

About Us

We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us
should be no exception.

At Dorset Council we:

• provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
• have ambitious aspirations
• are excited about our future
• care about Dorset and all the people who live here
• know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success. 

You
will:

• have access to a range of employee benefits
• be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
• have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal
  development and career progression

We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise
that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds
will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We
have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.

We are proud
to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a
disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.

We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have
a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.

We also look for applicants who share our
commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them
as part of the selection process.

If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will
use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously
improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or
employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further
details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights,
can be found at www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.

This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the
appointment process.

We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any
attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in
a context statement if relevant.

Find out more about how to apply.