EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
term time. However, across the sector, universities often use the facilities to secure commercial funding streams, and downtime must be kept to a minimum for the university to exploit its estate.
Lancaster University has one of the best university halls of residence in the UK, according to the National Student Housing Survey. Lancaster earned the title of ‘Best University Halls’ for the sixth year running in the survey, which measures levels of student satisfaction.
AM Services Group (AMSG) has built a partnership with the university’s facilities team since the company was brought in to work with them in 2007. Lancaster University’s Facilities Division supports all aspects of the built environment, commercial activities, the provision of sports activity, and environmental sustainability. Around 600 core staff manage the diverse portfolio of award- winning services.
“IN THE 2014/15 ACADEMIC YEAR, UNIVERSITY SECTOR
MAINTENANCE COSTS AMOUNTED TO £2BILLION PER YEAR.”
AMSG was initially brought in to provide temporary cleaning staff to support the university’s in-house cleaning teams. Since then, the contract has been extended to also cover specialist cleaning, carpet and upholstery cleaning, washroom services and cleaning the nine campus bars on site. Over the three-month summer holiday, AMSG’s small, dedicated team provides a deep cleaning service in the residential blocks. The cleaners are specially trained to carry out the heavy duty work, using very high standard chemicals and steam cleaners.
Working alongside the university’s core cleaning team, AMSG’s cleaners also support the planned deep cleaning programme over the summer and Easter holidays by carrying out deep cleans of kitchen areas, student rooms and studio flats, as well as providing a hotel-standard cleaning service for the conference centres.
Planning is also a key component for success for complex cleaning tasks with very tight completion deadlines. Detailed schedules and in-depth risk assessments are therefore agreed well in advance of the holiday period with the university, while uniforms and chemical orders are placed, and staff are recruited and thoroughly trained and inducted before they start the job to ensure that they are highly skilled and motivated.
American writer Elbert Hubbard said: “the best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today’ and, working in close partnership with Lancaster University’s facilities team AMSG achieves the high standards that neither could have achieved alone. This long-standing partnership has been built on good communications and relationships with key heads of department and supervisors so that AMSG has become an integral part of the team.
www.tomorrowsfm.com TOMORROW’S FM | 47
The pre-planning of the university’s scheduled deep cleaning programme is essential to successfully protect assets and support sustainability, but another important factor is selecting the right partner with the same ethos and goals to make the job a success. When selecting and working with a partner of choice, academic institutions should look for:
• trusting relationships - to develop and foster an environment that values and emphasises long-term, trusting relationships based on mutual respect, common goals, and commitment
• engagement – to establish partnerships between campus business and academic units to foster a culture of shared participation and ownership of facilities
• collaboration and connection – to communicate what the facilities team can achieve for the university and campus community, and promote the team’s expertise and knowledge
• added value – to ensure the optimum use of resources and maximize the organisation’s assets. Being part of the University’s Framework Agreement demonstrates the optimum use of resources both for AMSG and Lancaster University.
Ultimately, it is vital to remember that it’s not just about the task but about the team.
www.amservicesgroup.co.uk
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