Central governmentInterserve's experience of working with central government covers the whole life cycle from consultancy to investment, design and build, operation, maintenance and refurbishment. Increasingly our government clients are recognising the value in the integrated management of multiple services, and when we combine these skills with our advisory and sustainability knowledge we can play a significant role in assisting with their estate and services strategy. In addition to government departments and agencies operating in other sectors - see Defence, Education, Health, Highways and Justice - we work with: |
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Defra
The 15-year Sustainable Built Environment Workplace Support contract covering 186 sites throughout England and Wales. It involves three Category 4 laboratories, 39 Category 3 laboratories, 226 other laboratories and 162 offices and encompasses a number of core Executive Agencies including:
- Animal Health
- Food and Environment Research Agency
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science
- Government Decontamination Services
- Marine & Fisheries Agency
- Regulatory Science Agency
- Rural Payments Agency
- Veterinary Laboratories Agency
- Veterinary Medicines Directorate
- Natural England
The contract encompasses a broad range of ‘normal’ FM services such as buildings maintenance and waste management as well as more strategic services such as energy procurement and management, professional and project services and fleet management. Interserve is also analysing and presenting options to Defra in several other areas – for example, telecommunications, transport, travel and accommodation, and a detailed assessment of building layouts and occupancy.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
A seven-year contract to provide a range of hard and soft FM services, including planned and reactive maintenance, cleaning, catering, waste management, grounds maintenance and residential property services, to the FCO’s UK estate and 14 diplomatic missions in Europe.
Home Office
A five-year contract covering south-west, north-east and north-west England, Wales and Scotland. Interserve provides services ranging from maintenance, security, energy management, portering and reception to cleaning, housekeeping, catering and hospitality.
The portfolio, covering 575 buildings, includes offices, training centres, residential accommodation and approved premises for the Ministry of Justice (the National Offender Management Service including the National Probation Service), the Home Office and its sponsored bodies.
HM Revenue and Customs / Department for Work and Pensions
Interserve's PFI consortium financed and built the HMRC/DWP estate in Newcastle comprising 27 buildings on four sites and housing 16,000 staff. We provide a range of facilities management services there including mechanical and electrical maintenance, building fabric maintenance, window cleaning, pest control and grounds maintenance.
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) is Britain's leading industrial health and safety facility with over 30 years of research experience. HSL occupied around 100 buildings and structures on a site in Buxton and three large buildings in Sheffield. Many of these no longer met its needs and were in need of major refurbishment. HSL concluded that rationalisation of operations to one site and the creation of substantial new facilities would offer better value for money, improved effectiveness and greater intellectual exchange. It chose PFI as the best route to achieve these ends.
Interserve's consortium put together a package comprising a new laboratory at Buxton and the provision of facilities management services, both while the laboratory was being built and afterwards for a period of 30 years. During construction Interserve provided a range of services across both sites including building fabric repairs, mechanical and electrical maintenance, information technology, security and cleaning. On completion we took on responsibility for a number of further areas including catering, porterage, reprographics, stores, pool cars, registry archiving and reception.
The Buxton site covers 270 hectares, the equivalent of some 350 football pitches and while servicing this estate requires considerable logistical skill, the greater challenge was the need to manage the move of all staff from their facilities in Sheffield and to relocate those already at Buxton while minimising any impact on HSL’s operational effectiveness.
Migration planning began before we had won the contract, and these plans were developed in great detail once we were familiar with the sites’ operations and had liaised with every staff member concerned. The migration took place on consecutive weekends and involved moving first the Buxton staff and then those from each of the three Sheffield buildings. The intricate planning and the care that went into executing the process meant that all the services were transferred in the space of four weeks.
As Stuart Jones, Estate Manager at HSL, said, "I was very impressed with the way Interserve has continued providing all its services at the same time as overseeing an extremely complicated migration from our old premises to the excellent new facilities. The fact that we hardly missed a beat in the transfer was as much due to their planning and management as to the dedication and commitment of our own staff."
