Facilities and Property Service Operational Report - to Committee
Renfrewshire Council · 13 June 2024
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 13 June 2024 and its agenda
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To: Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board On: 13 June 2024 Report by: Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Heading: Facilities and Property Services - Service Update Report 1 Summary 1.1 Environment, Housing & Infrastructure brings together a range of Council services and activities, with both strategic and operational responsibilities. This report provides an operational performance update on Facilities Management (Hard and Soft Services), Building Services and Property Services delivered by Environment, Housing & Infrastructure since the last Policy Board in April 2024. 2 Recommendations It is recommended that members of the Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board: 2.1 Notes the content of this report. 3 Operational Update Hard FM 3.1 Compliance – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 3.1.1 Overall performance continues to meet 90% target; however, ongoing governance is required to ensure this trend remains. To help deliver this, and to drive contractor performance and best practice, Officers continue to hold regular contractor review meetings (monthly) to ensure planned tasks are met and certification is issued timely.
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New separate maintenance contracts are now in place for smoke vents, sprinklers systems and dry risers. The current performance is 87% due to delays in the fall arrest contract award which has impacted the overall performance. Officers continue to work with colleagues in procurement to ensure the new contract is in place. 3.2 Public Buildings Repairs data 3.2.1 The repairs profile remains as expected, as detailed below for 2023/24: 2023/24 Repairs Education Core Prestige OneRen Total 7,209 2,765 726 271 10,971 3.3 Capital/Lifecycle Projects 3.3.1 Work is underway to develop and prioritise capital/lifecycle works across the Council portfolio. Given that some of the works will be undertaken in the learning estate, these need to be planned well in advance of work starting and can often only be undertaken during holidays to minimise disruption. 3.3.2 In addition to routine capital/lifecycle works, options are being reviewed for upgrades from the Council budget announced in March 2024, in particular: • £800k for the provision of artificial playing surfaces through investment and match funding bids from external grant providers. • £130k for the further refurbishment and repair work within Community Halls. 3.3.3 A further update will be provided to the appropriate Policy Board once the process and projects are known. 3.4 Lifecycle Replacement works 3.4.1 The following commissions have been progressed/completed since the previous Board: • Hillview Nursery – Intruder Alarm renewal • St Mary’s Primary School – Boiler renewal • Paisley Pre 5 Centre – Boiler renewal • Brown Institute – on-going demolition of unsafe structure 3.4.2 The Hard FM team are currently working on the following commissions: • Gallowhill Primary School - Refurbishment of all pupil toilets • Park Mains High School – field drain/flooding remediation works • Council wide Passenger Lifts – Upgrade of alarm signalling from BT to GSM (analogue switch off)
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3.5 Fire Safety 3.5.1 A new group has been formed with service partners and Health and Safety colleagues to focus on fire safety within properties with sleeping accommodation. This will involve an overall review of fire safety management and mitigation within Care Homes and Children’s Homes. Works are currently ongoing to review fire/smoke travel prevention and fire stopping within these properties. To date, Beech Avenue Children’s Home, Weavers Linn, Barochan, Linwood and Arkleston Children’s Home have been actioned. 3.6 Building Responsible Persons 3.6.1 A review of the responsible persons for properties is currently underway. An internal Officer Group has been established between Facilities and Property Services (Hard FM, Soft FM, Property Services), Corporate Health and Safety and HSCP. This will ensure that all responsibilities are understood, and maintenance is actioned quickly via the Corporate Asset Management Information System (CAMIS). This is ongoing, with the service liaising with senior managers with properties details having been sent to services for them to populate and return. 3.7 Responsive Repairs 3.7.1 The chart below shows the overall volume of repairs for 2023/24 for responsive repairs reported by tenants. In total there were 73,413 individual repairs for housing clients with 27,550 of these being classed as an emergency (attendance within 4 or 24 hours) of these 7,415 were attended out of working hours. These are only the repairs that Building Services attended as there are other repairs that will be issued directly to other contractors.
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3.7.2 Comparing 2022/23 to 2023/24 the total numbers of repairs has reduced by 5%, however, this decrease is entirely within the emergency category and can be directly attributable to a milder winter in 2023/24. 3.8 Domestic Gas Servicing 3.8.1 In quarter 4 of 2023/24 the domestic gas servicing and repairs team carried out 3,701 gas services. The overall number of gas services carried out in 2022/23 was 12,644 and in 2023/24 the total number was 12,757. Total number of services Financial Year Quarter 2,952 2022/23 Quarter 1 3,533 2022/23 Quarter 2 2,379 2022/23 Quarter 3 3,780 2022/23 Quarter 4 Total number of Services Financial Year Quarter 3,083 2023/24 Quarter 1 3,202 2023/24 Quarter 2 2,771 2023/24 Quarter 3 3,701 2023/24 Quarter 4 3.9 Voids 3.9.1 Building Services continue to work closely with our colleagues in Housing Services to maximise the number of houses that are returned to the letting pool. Some of the new interim voids team are now located within Underwood Road with a view of working closer together to enable more houses to be returned to the letting pool quicker. The team will cover pre-terminations, void inspections and voids being completed by Building Services. 3.9.2 The figures below are only for Building Services and does not include any external Total number of repairs Financial Year Quarter 16,482 2022/23 Quarter 1 17,282 2022/23 Quarter 2 21,413 2022/23 Quarter 3 22,121 2022/23 Quarter 4 Total number of repairs Financial Year Quarter 16,340 2023/24 Quarter 1 16,989 2023/24 Quarter 2 19,397 2023/24 Quarter 3 20,687 2023/24 Quarter 4
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contractors who also carry out void works for Housing Services. Comparing 2022/23 with 2023/24 shows that there has been an increase of 25% in the number of completed voids despite the 15% increase in the installation of new central heating systems within void houses. Financial Year Quarter Total number of completed voids *Inclusive Gas Central Heating (GCH) install *Inclusive Asbestos Removal (ASB RE) Preliminary Works 2022/23 Quarter 1 183 25 27 176 2022/23 Quarter 2 199 38 22 138 2022/23 Quarter 3 144 19 20 126 2022/23 Quarter 4 208 19 3 210 3.10 Electrical Testing programme 3.10.1 As part of the on-going electrical compliance requirement of landlords, Building Services, and other external contractors, have been working in partnership with Housing colleagues to carry out the statutory 5-year check of electrics within every tenanted household across Renfrewshire (approx.12,200 houses). 3.10.2 On behalf of Housing Services, Building Services have fully electrically tested 2,361 houses since the start of the programme in 2021. It should also be noted that following these tests there are often remedial electrical works requiring to be undertaken. This follow on work is carried out on an appointment basis with the tenant. Financial Year Quarter Total number of completed voids *Inclusive Gas Central Heating (GCH) install *Inclusive Asbestos Removal (ASB RE) Preliminary Works 2023/24 Quarter 1 245 26 13 141 2023/24 Quarter 2 208 25 25 145 2023/24 Quarter 3 243 34 9 190 2023/24 Quarter 4 225 31 32 264 Financial Year Quarter Number of electrical tests competed 2022/23 Quarter 1 639 2022/23 Quarter 2 280 2022/23 Quarter 3 42 2022/23 Quarter 4 187 Financial Year Quarter Number of electrical tests competed 2023/24 Quarter 1 77 2023/24 Quarter 2 163 2023/24 Quarter 3 471 2023/24 Quarter 4 382
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3.10.3 Building Services complete the electrical testing based on the number of appointments booked in by the tenants via the letter process carried out by our colleagues in Housing Services. 3.10.4 Unfortunately, there are now a number of houses that have been through the whole lettering process and have failed to book an appointment for the electrical check to be carried out. A forced entry process in now in place in line with the gas servicing process. Capacity for forced entries to carry out EICR tests has been increased to over 30 per week from April onwards due to the number of tenants that have failed to engage in the process. 3.11 Apprentices 3.11.1 Building Services recent advert for 7 youth apprentices and 1 adult apprentice attracted 97 applicants for the youth apprentice positions and 11 applicants for the internal adult apprenticeship. These applications have been shortlisted and interviews were undertaken at the end of May. The successful applicants will complete the recruitment process for a college start in August 2024. Soft FM (Facilities Management) 4.1 Capital Works 4.1.1 Additional Capital award from Scottish Government of £1.5 million has been received to facilitate provision of FSM to pupils in P6-7 whose families are eligible for Scottish Child Payment (SCP). 4.1.2 This additional Capital funding proposes kitchen upgrades focusing on 5 schools: • Heriot Primary School, Foxbar • St Margaret’s Primary school, Johnstone • Our Lady of Peace Primary School, Linwood • Kilbarchan Primary School, Kilbarchan • Howwood Primary school, Howwood 4.1.3 Work is underway with colleagues within Property Services (Technical Unit) to assess the resource required to commence work as quickly as possible, with a proposed completion date of August 2025 (resource dependent). 4.2 Assist Awards 4.2.1 Facilities Management (Soft FM) was shortlisted for 2 Assist awards and winners were announced at the Assist Conference on 17 May 2024. One of the staff was runner-up in the category for Outstanding Contribution to Catering Services. The Soft FM Team won the Digital & Technology award the Suited Locks project, which allows easier access to properties.
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4.3 Fairer Renfrewshire Group - Lived Experience Panel 4.3.1 Officers from Soft FM attended a session with the Lived Experience Panel as part of the Fairer Renfrewshire Sub-Group. This talked about the work undertaken by staff to introduce menus across Renfrewshire Schools whilst meeting the requirements of national legislation and guidelines on nutritional values (including salt and sugar). To assist, a taster session was undertaken with the group on 21 May 2024 to show the work undertaken and the challenges in producing a balanced menu for pupils. 4.4 Collaborative Robotics (Cobotics) 4.4.1 Over the last 6 months, Soft Facilities Management has been exploring the use of Robotic Scrubber Dryers and Sweepers. The service has been working with contractors to identify the best machines currently on the market. A facilitated demonstration of two machines has been undertaken to date, with both machines performing well during the trials. 4.4.2 The plan would be to use the robotic machines to clean large areas, such as games halls, dining halls, corridors, and large vestibules areas in larger school premises. This has been shown to provide a better clean of the area and this would also allow current staff to focus on other areas within the premise. A business case is currently being worked on to demonstrate the benefits of the additional cost and detail the long-term benefit of the change to Renfrewshire Council and the associated properties. Property Services 5.1 Current Commissions 5.1.1 Officers within Property Services continue to work across the Renfrewshire Council’s property portfolio and given the workload, major projects are reported to the respective Board e.g. Education and Children’s Services Board. 5.2 Castlehead High School - RAAC 5.2.1 As previously reported to the Board, the tender for strengthening the RAAC has been awarded, the pre-start meeting undertaken with work beginning in early June 2024. Work will continue throughout the Summer to complete the works as quickly as possible. 5.3 Paisley Arts Centre 5.3.1 Work has been completed with the Paisley Arts Centre and the building has been handed back to OneRen as the building manager. Final snagging works continue with the contractor and the Arts Centre is now fully operational for events.
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5.4 McKillop Institute 5.4.1 Officers have been liaising with Elected Members and hall users to improve the acoustics within the hall wherever possible. Designs have been undertaken by one of the Council architects to install curtains/drapes on the wall opposite from the stage to minimise reverberation of sound. These works are being progressed in conjunction with the lets team to minimise disruption. Implications of the Report 1. Financial – Any financial elements referenced in this report will be progressed through the Council’s financial & budget planning process. 2. HR & Organisational Development – None 3. Community/Council Planning – the report details a range of activities which reflect local community and council planning themes. 4. Legal – None 5. Property/Assets – As detailed within the report in relation to work on the Council property portfolio. 6. Information Technology - None 7. Equality & Human Rights – The recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety – Advice and guidance is being given to protect the health and safety of employees and service users when carrying out priority services for the Council in line with government and health guidance. 9. Procurement – As noted within the report. 10. Risk – None 11. Privacy Impact – None 12. COSLA Policy Position – None 13. Climate Change – None
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List of Background Papers – None Author: Gordon McNeil, Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Email: gordon.mcneil@renfrewshire.gov.uk