Job vacancy: Vehicle Maintenance Technician - Medway, South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, Gillingham

Job summary

Main area: Fleet Maintenance
Grade: Band 5
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (37.5 hours per week)
Job ref: 278-VMTM-0525-NNR

Employer: South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Medway Make Ready Centre
Town: Gillingham
Salary: £29,970 - £36,483 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 22/06/2025 23:59

Vehicle Maintenance Technician - Medway

Band 5

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has a vision to ‘support our staff to provide a caring, high quality and efficient urgent and emergency care service to our communities’. We are rated ‘Good’ for care by the Care Quality Commission and while the other areas under their most recent report require improvement, our aim is to continually improve and to reach outstanding across all areas of the Trust.

Our 4,000+ workforce provide services to 4.9m people across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and North East Hampshire. We handle over 1 million calls to 999 and 1 million calls to NHS 111 every year. More information regarding our services and locations can be found on our website.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

A member of a small team carrying out both planned and unplanned work, preventative maintenance and repairs at all level of fleet of over 700 core fleet of ambulances, SRV’s, 4x4s plus a variety of support vehicles from a diverse range of manufacturers. Working shifts on a 37.50 hour working week.

• To examine, inspect and report thoroughly on the condition,
roadworthiness or safety of any vehicle or equipment, including testing and
use of diagnostic techniques.
• Regularly communicate technical information with line managers,
colleagues, other SECAmb staff by phone and e-mail.
• To arrange appointments and prepare vehicles for Ministry Testing at Class IV and VII as per the Ministry of Transport testers manual

To service, maintain, adjust or repair vehicles, equipment or any component using the necessary tools, equipment and facilities in a
safe and efficient manner, within the manufacturer and core ICME repair times including:
o Electrical work
o Welding
o Fabrication
o Hydraulics
o Air-conditioning
o Heaters

• Technical skill in diagnosing faults using state of the art computer diagnostic tools i.e. Mercedes Star and the correct reading of
diagnostic fault codes.
• To interpret and implement service data and statutory maintenance standard to ensure all work is to a standard to support emergency
service work.
• To recover any broken down or immobilised vehicle or equipment in a safe manner without a risk to staff and public or additional
damage to SECAmb property in accordance with accepted legislation.
• To apply SECAmb policies in respect of safety, maintenance practice and standards, to ensure that maximum benefit is obtained in
terms of vehicle availability and minimising maintenance costs.
• To account for all parts and equipment used by means of booking out on the fleet software package
• To order and receive parts from external suppliers.
• To complete all required SECAmb documentation and other documentation as required in a legible manner.
• To supervise and instruct, where required, apprentices, semi-skilled staff, and to attend any training courses as required by SECAmb.

Person specification

Qualifications/ Training

Essential criteria

Maths and English at GCSE or Functional Skill Level
Hold a recognised qualification in motor vehicle maintenance such as BTEC / HNC level or City & Guilds level 3 and above
Must have driving licence with no more than 3 penalty points

Desirable criteria

(C1 driving licence)

Experience

Essential criteria

Extensive experience in the repair and maintenance of petrol and diesel vehicles, with the ability to work unsupervised on a diverse and specialised fleet.
To have comprehensive knowledge of vehicle electrical systems, including modern vehicle electronic management, and of computer based workshop diagnostic equipment e.g. Tech 1, Tech 2 and Star Diagnostic.
Ability to repair and maintain to the required standard Service vehicles which have specialised bodywork/livery and fittings.

Desirable criteria

Experience with light commercial vehicles and small plant and machinery
Working on ambulance type vehicles

Please note that the salary range noted on the vacancy is in line with agenda for change (AFC) pay scales. All successful applicants would be placed automatically at the bottom of the banding, unless proven, relevant NHS or equivalent experience can be demonstrated.

Following the revision of current national legislation (Vaccine as a Condition of Deployment), the Trust has reviewed our requirements relating to staff uptake of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination.

Going forward, for patient facing positions, we strongly recommend that new starters will be appropriately vaccinated unless medically exempt in order to offer greater protection against exposure to the virus for front line staff.

In line with this recommendation, if you are successful in your application for a front line post, we will seek information from you in relation to your vaccine status, including exemption status, as applicable.

Please note, all positions come with a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check relevant to the post. This will either be a basic, standard, or enhanced check depending on the role. The level of check will be outlined in the conditional offer letter sent to successful applicants.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to declare any unspent/unfiltered convictions. If you are shortlisted you will then be sent a self declaration form, which must be completed prior to attending interview. for any queries relating to declarations, please contact the Recruitment Advisor listed on the vacancy.

The Trust is passionately committed to being an inclusive employer - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. As an employer we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement networks, facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.

We actively support equality of opportunity for all our staff and welcome applications from individuals regardless of age, any disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief. The Trust is making progress towards its aim of becoming more reflective of the diversity of our community in our workforce and guarantees an interview to candidates with disability who meet the essential criteria specified. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and disabled applicants and those from other under-represented groups.

The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people - including those with long term health conditions, learning disabilities and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia. If you tell us that you have a disability we can make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any selection processes - including the interview - are fair and equitable.

We are a committed to offering opportunities to individuals with disabilities and offer on-going support, should you be successful, with any adjustments you may need when performing your role.

When completing the application please use your name as it appears on your passport and please ensure you include email addresses and contact numbers for your referees to avoid delay in the recruitment process.

Please note that under our Trust policies, we're unable to employ anyone under the age of 18 years old.

The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes. If the vacancy you’re applying for includes work related travel, you will be required to ensure that you hold and have covered the cost of suitable car insurance to support this.

Should you require an application form in an alternative format including large print or braille, please contact [email protected] stating the vacancy reference number and we will be happy to provide this.

When completing the reference section, please include details to cover the last three years’ history.

Due to the high volume of applications at SECAmb, we regret that we will only be able to contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interview. If you have not heard from us within 10 working days of the closing date, then please assume you have not been shortlisted for interview on this particular occasion.

Please note that we contact all applicants via Trac Jobs and would advise you check your Trac Jobs account regularly.

Please be aware that the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient applications are received. For this reason we recommend completing your application as early as possible.

Follow our recruitment on Twitter @SECAmbRecruit and check out our Facebook page - SECAmb NHS Recruitment. You can also find us on Linkedin under South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

If you are a current SECAmb employee, by applying for this position, if successful you will move to the terms and conditions associated with the post. Any unsocial hours payments will be paid under the Section 2 agreement of agenda for change. Section 2 unsocial hours will need to be claimed via your monthly timesheet. More information regarding section 2 can be found in the Agenda for Change handbook and on the our dedicated Section 2 page on The Zone.