EDUCATIONAL/STUDENT FACILITIES
TOP MARKS FOR TEAM WORK
Charles Brown, Managing Director of Chartwells, explains why the partnership approach the company adopted during school closures was imperative to its success.
Throughout this tumultuous period, Chartwells has been supporting schools that have remained open for key workers and vulnerable children. With much lower footfall, we had the opportunity to implement new and enhanced procedures. As schools started to introduce the gradual return for some year groups, this meant the demand for our cleaning services began to increase, which has put us in a good position for September.
We’re working with each client on their anticipated full return and the support they need from us. What’s becoming clear is that schools are implementing various approaches to how they will operate - how people move around the buildings, timetabling differently and more and in-depth cleaning to accompany all the measures.
The decision-making process is generally determined by the number of children attending the school, the space available and the facilities. What’s working really well is that we can connect clients and share best practice, so that we’re all benefitting from each other along the way.
We’ve been working closely with relevant government departments on the return of schools and helping clients work within the official advice. Collaboration has been key and we’ve been having conversations with other companies in the market to share best practice.
We have enhanced our cleaning and hygiene regimes to ensure that high frequency touch points and communal areas are sanitised more frequently, using cleaning chemicals proven to kill viruses and bacteria. We are also seeing a greater demand for specialist deep cleaning services.
Before COVID-19, our services were generally limited to after school hours and behind the scenes, but now we are viewed as integral to stopping the spread of Coronavirus. We’ve changed rotas so that colleagues are working when there is greater footfall during the day, to encourage cleanliness during busier periods. This also means staff and pupils can find us easily to ask for support if needed.
As education settings look to fully reopening in September, our services offer a crucial part to doing so safely. The situation continues to evolve, and this is why a partnership approach is key to our continued success of efficient delivery.
www.compass-group.co.uk/meet-the-family/education-chartwells/ www.compass-group.co.uk 52 | TOMORROW’S FM
Case study Entrust works with schools, academy trusts and local authorities to provide expertise in several areas such as education, operations and staff support. Chartwells has worked with Entrust since 2015 to deliver services including soft facilities management, across the Staffordshire area to buildings including schools, fire stations and council offices.
During the pandemic, we have worked in partnership with Entrust to review our cleaning practices and generally this has increased with more sites being added to our roster, with a greater focus on in-depth cleaning. It goes without saying that some areas of the Entrust estate closed down during lockdown, and these required different levels of soft FM support during this period.
Entrust works with a wide range of schools, so each approach could be quite different. For example, in senior schools, pupils generally still need to move around to access various facilities for different subjects like science or music. By comparison, primary schools see children stay in one location and move around less. In terms of cleaning, this obviously means that senior schools need high frequency attention between the rooms being used by different people.
This has resulted in more daytime provision of our cleaning services and the need for it to be delivered in short time frames. To combat this, we have increasingly introduced new equipment, such as electrostatic dispersion and misting tools. These provide enhanced coverage and is therefore a higher standard cleaning solution that can be delivered with a quick turnaround.
As public spaces like libraries and council office buildings see the return of more people to them, we’re also experiencing increased demand for soft FM support there. This means we’re using our new processes and rolling them out across the estate to create consistency.
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