National Facilities Management Company Lets Down School
Schools Case Study
Frustration Sets In When You're Treated Like 'Just Another Number'
You'd probably expect a national facilities management company to be on the ball, proactive and efficient, wouldn't you?
Well, that's not always the way.
The Client
Clarendon Primary School in Bolton isn't your average primary school. An average primary school in England has 276 pupils. With 472, Clarendon Primary School is much bigger than most. And a bigger school tends to have greater demands in terms of property management and regulatory compliance services.
The Problem
Having worked with a National Facilities Management Company for several years, the school became increasingly frustrated with them. The Company were distinctly lacking when it came to being proactive, the school never had the same point of contact and always felt like they were being passed from pillar to post. The result of this extremely poor service left the school feeling like “just another number”.
It was so bad that statutory services such as Legionella Management, the Electrical Installation Condition Reports (EICR) - to name but two - were becoming increasingly out of date. Reports weren’t being sent through in a timely manner and/or were being misplaced and, as a consequence, there was a lack of evidence in place to demonstrate compliance in a growing number of areas.
This was far from satisfactory as the school were, of course, liable should anything go wrong.
Following attendance at the Lancashire Association of School Business Managers (LASBM) conference in Feb 2023, an informal discussion quickly led to a site meeting to discuss how Casserly Property Management could assist.
Our Solution
Following submission of a detailed proposal designed to meet the specific needs of Clarendon Primary School, Casserly Property Management were appointed in July 2023 and the school now benefits from a fully transparent and proactive approach to planned maintenance and regulatory compliance services. Here are a few things we put in place for the school:
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We made sure the school has a single point of contact, so they just have one person to deal with.
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We prioritised every area of compliance where inspections and reports were out of date and brought the school up to speed very quickly.
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We created a Planned Maintenance and Regulatory Compliance Calendar, so that all areas of compliance are now properly scheduled.
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We got the school set up on their online portal, which means all of their documentation, reports, inspections, quotations for any rectification work, purchsse orders, invoices and payments can all be manmaged in one place.
The result is, the school is now fully up to speed with all of their regulatory compliance services and are enjoying the use of their online portal, which is included as part of their SLA (Service-Level Agreement).
Whereas our designated Property Manager works off-site, behind the scenes, our simple user interface of our School Portal provides the school with a very simple system to access information, provides an up to date picture as to what services are due, what services have been completed and simple storage for the schools related service reports, inspections and certification. Our School Portal has been created to deliver improved communication and transparent management to schools.
