A new name in educational cleaning
Under its new name, Kindred will focus on social value in cleaning educational facilities.
Kindred is a radical refresh of a trusted name in UK educational cleaning. Formerly Ridge Crest Cleaning Services, established in 1988 and a company already well respected in the education sector, the team at Kindred has relaunched the company in order to reflect a brand- new approach to cleaning in the sector, with the emphasis squarely on social value.
Why Kindred? Simon Wrenn, Kindred’s Managing Director, explained: “If the last two years have shown us anything, it’s that the key measure of success in educational cleaning is the quality of the customer partnership and the importance of communication at every level of a contract, whether that’s between ourselves and our school, or between ourselves and our frontline teams.
“The pandemic threw up what seemed like endless challenges, but by developing bespoke solutions for all our schools, and by staying in close contact with our school business managers, we managed to weather the storm and come out the other side with every single one of our contracts intact.
“We found that what our customers wanted was a no- nonsense, straight-talking approach where they put their trust in the solutions we delivered. We hit on Kindred as it perfectly sums up our new offer, which is all about community spirit, partnerships and transparency.”
Running like a thread through Kindred’s whole approach is a commitment to social responsibility and doing the right thing by the company’s staff, by its customers, and by the environment. As a national contractor with close to 200 school contracts and over 1700 staff, lockdown signified a period of intense activity for the company, particularly because of the large number of schools that stayed open for keyworkers.
The company invested heavily in staff welfare, removing all budgetary restrictions on stores, quadrupling expenditure
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on PPE, collating all health conditions and directing all staff over the age of 70 to shield on full pay. Not a single member of staff on school contracts was furloughed, nor were any management. WhatsApp groups were set up for every school in order to cascade information to the frontline. The net result was a sense of togetherness with all parties pulling in the same direction.
This has set the agenda for Kindred going forward. Under the three banners of People, Community and Environment, a comprehensive series of initiatives is in place, both internally generated and in conjunction with third party organisations, which target staff welfare, charitable giving and carbon neutrality. Each initiative contains specific features designed to offer benefits that are distinctly mutual, with an emphasis on working in partnership to create sustainable contracts that will reward Kindred and its customers in the long term.
Supporting Kindred’s philosophy is the company’s continuing status as a Recognised Living Wage Service Provider, which has contributed to a recent contract win at Hart Learning Group. New contracts have also been secured with the Academies Enterprise Trust and the Fairfax Multi- Academy Trust in the Midlands.
Not surprisingly, a lot of work has been going on to communicate the new approach. December saw the brand and new strapline ‘All together better’ launched to the entire complement of Kindred staff nationwide. This was followed up with notifications to all customers and in early January a new website, where the story of Kindred is explained in more detail.
All in all, it’s a very exciting stage in the company’s development. As Simon concluded: “The company is buzzing with anticipation and we can’t wait to share our vision with customers and prospects alike.”
www.kindredfm.com
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