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The Project
“To develop a first class grounds maintenance service designed and procured by the Tenants and communities of Wolverhampton.”
The Problem
An Audit Commission Inspection in November 2007 commented that the grounds maintenance service at Wolverhampton Homes was being delivered to the previous specification effectively. However, despite the Inspection results there was a desire within the association to change the service specification to more fully meet customer expectations, vastly improve service standards and provide a more consistent service across the City. This was driven by the Tenants of Wolverhampton Homes who were demanding a break away from the long term City wide Agreement with Wolverhampton City Council and their contracted service providers.
With the Agreement ending in 2009, Wolverhampton Homes were presented with the ideal opportunity to empower tenants and involve them in the procurement and appointment of a new contractor.
Wolverhampton Homes commissioned Plan B to manage a service review and procurement exercise with a brief that included fully embracing Tenants and empowering them to be involved in the procurement and service provision.
The Objective
“It is our customers’ space, so our customers should decide what happens to it!”
The project was to be undertaken with the above ethos as the main driver behind any service changes and to provide an opportunity for residents and communities to get involved and have a say about their local environment.
The Solution
The solutions was to completely redesign the grounds maintenance service, introduce a tenant designed specification and adopt a partnership working approach with the new service providers.
During the procurement process:
- we held a number of Stakeholder events to obtain the views, expectations, aims and objectives of Tenants
- we carried out a representative survey to capture the wider views and expectations of Tenants across Wolverhampton
- we held a number of workshops to design a tenant focused specification
- we produced a complete new set of tender and contract documents in conjunction with the Tenants
- we developed a tailored evaluation process led by the requirements of Tenants
Tenant Representatives were fully involved in evaluating the received tenders including:
- Scoring against tailored evaluation criteria
- Creating a final shortlist of three tenderers
- Visiting the shortlisted Tenderers’ other Contracts to view the standards they were achieving
- Interviewing the shortlisted Tenderers’ and questioning on issues such as:
- how Contractors would achieve high standards demanded
- were they going to provide local jobs for local people
- how were they going to involve tenants in the service
- how were they going to improve the sites to bring them up to the required standards
- Final selection of preferred contractor
By involving the Tenants throughout the project we ensured that they were given a genuine say in who delivers their grounds maintenance service and how it is delivered.
Project Outcomes
The results have been outstanding:
New specification designed/developed by the Tenants including:
- a move to frequency based operations allowing tenants to know when work should be carried out
- improved information flow and monitoring procedures through online facilities and hard copy publications
- implementation of local multi-skilled teams and apprentices
- introduction of an individual gardening service to more vulnerable tenants
- A “real” partnership working arrangement with our chosen service provider
- During the first 6 months of the new contract Tenant Satisfaction increased from 73% to 86%
- 95% Local Employment
- 60% of Land under the Contract Agreement has been brought up the new specification between July 2009 and January 2010
- 380 Sites identified by Tenants have had improvement works completed since the contract commenced in July 2009
- Comprehensive tree survey carried out with tree maintenance moving from a completely reactive service to an entirely proactive programme
- No increase in costs
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