FM Operational Performance FRS (Feb 23)
Renfrewshire Council · 9 February 2023
Back to Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board — 9 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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To: Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board On: 9 February 2023 Report by: Director of Environment & Infrastructure Heading: Facilities Management Operational Performance Report 1 Summary 1.1 Environment & 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 - including Building Services) and delivered by Environment & Infrastructure since the last Policy Board in November 2022. 2 Recommendations It is recommended that the Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board: 2.1 Approves the content of this report. 3 Operational Update 3.1 Supplies and Materials Building Services continue to operate normal day to day business and our emergency out of hours repairs. However, the service continues to experience delays in the provision of some resources and materials. This is being managed within the programming of works.
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3.2 Responsive Repairs The chart below shows the volume of responsive repairs reported by tenants on a weekly basis for the third quarter of this year. This shows that on average 40-47% of all repairs reported within this period are classed as ‘Emergencies’ or ‘Qualifying repairs’ that require either a same day or next day visit. This makes planning repair works outside of these categories challenging. Of the emergencies / qualifying repairs that were reported, 25-30% of these were out of normal working hours and required a standby operative to attend. 3.3 Service provision – weather impact In the week beginning 13 December 2022, Renfrewshire experienced a very cold snap of weather. Building Services attended over 1,700 emergencies reporting no heating and hot water and colleagues in Hard FM attended calls across the public buildings portfolio, including schools. As the weather warmed and thawed, the service worked 24/7, 7 days a week to keep schools open, address heating problems and resolve plumbing issues across the Council public building estate and housing stock. Most staff gave up planned annual leave to help ensure every call was responded to as quickly as possible. 1581 1708 1554 1463 1671 1621 1611 1480 1588 1790 3020 1668 658663 688 662 571 587 683 699 698 738 841 2238 864 559 160 171 151 144 116 164 160 211 193 251 522 204 343 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 WC 3-10-22 WC 10-10-22 WC 17-10-22 WC 24-10-22 WC 31-10-22 WC 07-11-22 WC 14-11-23 WC 21-11-24 WC 28-11-22 WC 5-12-22 WC 12-12-22 WC 19-12-22 WC 26-12-22 Repairs reported Quarter 3 - 2022 total number of repairs total emergencies
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3.4 Domestic Gas Servicing In quarter 3 (October - December) 2022/23, the domestic gas servicing and repairs team carried out 2,379 gas services. Of these, 189 services were not able to be completed due to no access being granted at the time of the visit. These 189 services will move forward in the Housing Services process so the Council can gain access to the properties prior to the 1-year anniversary of the gas service and ensure full compliance. It should be noted that during the winter months, Officers profile to have less gas servicing to allow the resources to realign onto responsive and emergency calls as these calls rise substantially as the weather gets colder. The figures for quarter 3 are in line with the same quarter last year where the Services carried out 2,436 gas services with 287 instances of no access. 3.5 Aids and Adaptations In the third quarter of 2022 (October – December), Building Services completed 30 full adaptations and currently have 13 live jobs at various stages. These are currently booked in across early February. 3.6 Voids 3.6.1 Building Services continue to work closely with Housing Services to maximise the number of houses that are returned to the letting pool and prioritise houses based on current needs of those requiring housing. A total of 144 voids have been completed and returned to the letting pool in quarter 3 of 2022/23. This makes a total of 526 voids returned to the letting pool in 2022/23 to the end of quarter three. 3.6.2 The volume of works within void houses remains high, often due to the age of the property or the condition that it has been left in by the vacating tenant. As at the 31 December, Housing Services have 170 void properties. This is a reduction of 39 since the previous board report. Void Returns Quarter 3 – 2022/23 Full Void Works* *Inclusive Gas Central Heating (GCH) install *Inclusive Asbestos Removal (ASB RE) Preliminary Works 144 19 20 126 In addition to routine voids there is an additional SHQS programme which carries out more extensive works within the properties. In the last quarter there has been 25 SHQS properties returned, in total 94 properties have been returned to housing since April 2022. In conjunction with Housing Services there is a collective agreement to pause SHQS properties passed to Building Services to allow resources to be targeted at routine voids.
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3.7 Electrical Testing programme As part of the on-going electrical compliance requirement of Landlords, Building Services, and other external contractors, have been working in partnership with Housing Services to carry out the statutory 5-year check of electrics within every tenanted household cross Renfrewshire (approx. 12,500 houses). 2022 - 2023 Quarter 1 - 639 Quarter 2 - 280 Quarter 3 – 42 Since the beginning of 2021 a total of 3,853 houses have been fully electrical tested by Building Services. Where it has not been possible to gain access to carry out the statutory checks, a process has been implemented to ensure continued compliance standards are met. The pilot process commenced on the 12 December 2022. 3.8 Streetlighting In the third quarter of the year the Street Lighting Team performed well with 99.35% of all reported dark lamps attended within the 7-day timescale. In addition, they attended 123 emergencies. Overall, in the first 3 quarters of 2022/23, April to December, the Street Lighting team have attended 455 emergencies. 3.9 Capital Works across Public Building Portfolio 3.9.1 The £1.5 million extended school toilet upgrade programme is progressing well with 11 schools now completed and 2 others in progress with completion of all programmed for February. We are also carrying out an additional refurbishment at Ferguslie Pre 5’s centre and works commenced in late January. 3.9.2 Works have now been completed on the replacement of two full kitchens in the specialist HSCP young person’s facilities in Blackhall, Paisley. 3.9.3 Building Services have prepared quotes for the replacement of five kitchens in Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) care home premises. It is anticipated that this work will commence in mid-February 2023. 3.10 Work Hub Extensive work continues implementing the new Work Hub application across Building Services. A patch and upgrade has been applied to the system in January 2023 which will allow all operatives in Building Services to use the digital job management system in February 2023 following appropriate testing of the system. Training has also been undertaken with colleagues in Housing Services on the data information application - Info Suite. This will allow reporting to be undertaken timeously.
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Work also continues to manually reconcile all invoices to the ledger to ensure accurate financial planning for the end of the financial year. 3.11 Energy Installation of LED Lighting The installation programme is now complete with a reduction in electricity usage being noted at each of the completed schools. To date Renfrewshire Council has spent £1,588,465, with the remaining balance due to be invoiced imminently. Officers continue to work across the Council and also with colleagues in the PPP schools to ensure systems are working at their optimal performance. Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) The recruitment of an officer to implement the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) for Renfrewshire is underway. The Officer will come into post and working alongside a consultant, look to work with partners to deliver the statutory requirement of a strategy and action plan by the end of December 2023. Funding has been provided by the Scottish Government to allow work to be undertaken and works will align and feed into the wider Renfrewshire Council Net Zero targets. CO2 Monitoring CO2 monitoring within teaching spaces continues with 1,765 monitors installed and monitored. The funding for the 2 monitoring officers ends in May 2023, by which point it is expected that the process will be become part of the “business as usual” running of the school. Discussions remain on-going between Facilities Management and Children’s Services with a meeting being arranged with the Teaching Trade Unions in early February to discuss the monitors. 4 Soft FM (Facilities Management) 4.1 Project Search Placements Project Search is an employability programme designed specifically for young adults with learning disabilities and/or autism. The aim being to assist young adults into full- time employment through providing skills, coaching and work experience. Soft Facilities Management are pleased to be working alongside Project Search to provide work placements for candidates over a period of 10 weeks within school settings. Project Search candidates have been undertaking tasks such as catering for school lunches, cleaning of premises and assisting with compliance related duties. Each candidate has been allocated an onsite mentor within Soft Facilities Management who has been overseeing their progress and helping with their professional development. The initial candidates have now completed their full 10-week programme with some wishing to return to gain further experience within facilities management. The service has been thrilled to be able assist them on this continued journey. Soft Facilities Management staff have been excited to welcome the next group of candidates who started their placements in January 2023.
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4.2 Suited Lock system Soft FM, in conjunction with the approved contractor, have installed a suited lock system in all Renfrewshire schools, ELCC’s and Community Centres. The system works using programmable keys and cylinders to help the service have increased control of building access rights. Soft FM can update each key remotely, removing or granting access privileges for the key holder in real time. By ensuring only those with the necessary access rights can enter a property, this eliminates the security risks associated with lost and stolen keys. In addition, the ability to update access rights remotely ensures the building can be opened even if the Senior Facilities Operative usually onsite is not available due to absence, annual leave etc. The contractor had not considered using the system in this way and felt that this was an innovative approach to improving the security of Council buildings. The project recently won Security Project of the year at the Fire & Security Matters Awards. 4.3 Recruitment of Strategic Facilities Manager (Soft FM) Following the above post becoming vacant, Environment & Infrastructure has undertaken a recruitment exercise with the new Officer taking up post in late February 2023. 4.4 Capital Works The Scottish Government capital funding award of £876,000 will enable full redesign of kitchens within Barsail Primary School, Erskine, Bushes Primary school, Glenburn and Mossvale/St James Campus, Paisley. Soft FM have been working in partnership with Property & Technical Services and Corporate Procurement to progress the tender award. With an end date of late 2023 for completed development, 75% of primary schools will have returned to fully functioning production kitchens. These developments will support the delivery of meals to the remaining school premises and early years establishments. Further capital award funding from the Scottish Government may provide scope to increase this number further along with further improvements to established premises. Since the introduction of Universal Free School Meals (UFSM) in Aug 2021, production facilities in primary schools have increased from 12 to 23 kitchens, with a further four scheduled to be producing meals by March 2023. The increase of production kitchens has created eleven full time Senior Facilities Operative - Production Catering positions and 39 part time Facilities Operatives positions throughout Renfrewshire in 2022. It is expected that further recruitment will be required as works progress in 2023. Implications of the Report 1. Financial – Any financial elements referenced in this report will be progressed through the Council’s financial & budget planning process. Capital funding projects e.g. £876k for school kitchen upgrades are highlighted with the budget allocated to be spent delivering the project, with appropriate financial monitoring in place.
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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 - None 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 – All capital projects detailed within this report have been discussed with Corporate Procurement to ensure compliance with national legislation and guidance. 10. Risk – None 11. Privacy Impact – None 12. COSLA Policy Position – None 13. Climate Change – The work undertaken by the Energy Management Unit detailed in the report assists with Renfrewshire’s Net Zero targets. Close liaison is maintained with the Climate Emergency Lead Officer to help drive targets, actions and outcomes. List of Background Papers - none Author: Gordon McNeil, Director of Environment & Infrastructure