Glasgow Schools PFI
Glasgow Schools, the largest education PFI in Europe worth £1.2bn, was awarded to Amey plc and its consortium partners, Miller Group and Halifax plc in July 2000. Britain’s largest public-private partnership involves the building of 12 new schools, the modernisation of 17 schools and the provision of full support services for a 30-year period. Amey plc has taken a leading role in the project, providing a broad range of services including janitorial, cleaning, building and grounds maintenance, security, waste disposal and disaster management.
A core part of the operation is the Help Desk, for which Amey has formed a partnership with Service Works, utilising their system QFM, to provide 24 hour, 365 day a year support from Amey’s Headquarters. In addition to Amey staff, ten Glasgow based Amey Facilities Managers and two Glasgow City Council personnel have full access to the system and each school has access to QFM over the Web to view their own jobs and oversee the whole process of service response within their establishment.
With QFM in place, Amey can manage the service delivery for the contract, and the client, Glasgow City Council, can simultaneously monitor the activity of Amey. Amey links their principle contractors into QFM, so that they too have visibility of their contract performance.
“It was crucial to all parties involved that only one system was in operation to minimise administration and maximise service delivery,” says Grant Henderson, Amey’s Head of Facilities Management for Glasgow Schools, “because most of the events have to be closed down within a matter of hours. Half an hour’s delay because a fax hasn’t been transmitted, can mean the difference between meeting a service level agreement and incurring a penalty. The implementation of QFM has resulted in a staggering 70% improvement in contractor service performance.”
Prior to using QFM, the Audit Office within Glasgow City Council had to sift through paperwork to accurately monitor the service from Amey. QFM now provides immediate access to this information. “Without QFM, Glasgow City Council would undoubtedly have incurred significant additional costs to audit the FM service accurately,” reports Grant Henderson. “This information is now available at the touch of a button.” The Audit and Monitoring Team also use QFM to review the status of events and highlight recurring faults within a given school. “Amey has an ‘open book’ policy with Glasgow City Council, so as events unfold, they have the ability to view and interpret the information immediately. This drives both parties to be far more proactive and ensures that Amey, inline with its policy, is client driven, offering solutions rather than problems,” he explains.
“In addition to providing building management for the schools,” reports Grant Henderson, “QFM also manages much more important issues such as security. Security has become a priority for schools over recent years and the QFM Help Desk provides an important link between the schools and Amey, ensuring that security is maximised and breach is minimised.” QFM provides extensive reporting for Amey, including operational reports, performance statistics, financial reports, KPI’s, and reactive maintenance reports The reports also calculate if any penalties are liable for failed events.
Amey and Service Works have developed a highly productive and mutually supportive relationship for the Glasgow Schools contract. “So much of the process is managed by QFM, not just the failures but also the requirements,” says Grant Henderson. “Both Service Works and the product, QFM, provide excellent response times. The relationship that we have established for the contracts is virtually seamless and has undoubtedly assisted us in being short listed for other PFI projects.”