School Property Management Services Provide Efficiency & Cost Savings
Schools Case Study
The School Business Manager Was So Happy That We Were Asked to Quote for, and Were Subsequently Awarded, a Second School
When it comes to school property management services, more and more schools seem to be looking to move away from their current provider, even when their provider is the local authority. The reasons can be many and varied - from general disatisfaction at the level of service and challenges over specific issues to the ever increasing pressure on school budgets that drives the pursuit of better efficiency, better value and the need to get the whole process far more organised.
This is the story of how we were able to help one such school.
The Client
St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Primary School in Burnley is part of the Salford Diocese. The school became a Voluntary Academy on the 1st December 2019 and is part of the Romero Catholic Trust, which consists of 12 primary and 4 secondary schools.
The Problem
In 2022 the School Business Manager approached us to provide a quotation to take over the school's property management services as they were looking to move away from their current provider, LCC. Whilst there were a number of reasons prompting the move, pressure on school finances and their budgetary requirements was an important factor, as was a desire to have a much more streamlined and efficient management of the whole process.
A visit to the school was undertaken to meet with the School Business Manager and discuss the school's needs and, as we always do, a bespoke plan was put together that would ensure all the school's requirements were met.
After approving our proposal for taking care of the school's property management services, St John th Baptist Roman Catholic Primary School joined our Planned Maintenance Service SLA in Sept 2022, as that was the beginning of their financial year and we were able to fall in line with their budget requirements.
Our Solution
An important aspect of our service that drives improvements in efficiency and takes care of the administration, information, documentation and communication comes from getting our clients set up on our online customer portal.
Now that's happened, all compliance documents are stored online, all planned maintenance requirements are scheduled within the portal, the information and communication pertaining to each are of compliance or maintenance is kept in one place and our clients can communicate directly with us via their portal, as well.
Not only is everything running more efficiently and very smoothly, savings in excess of £600 were achieved in the first year. The School Business Manager was so happy with the service received that in her second year she requested an additional quotation and subsequently appointed us to take care of the property management services for a second school (Sacred Heart RCPS, Colne), at which she also acts as business manager.
We're all looking forward to further improvements in efficiency and more cost savings as we move forward.
