The University of Manchester is Britain’s largest single- site University, with a proud history of achievement and an ambitious agenda for the future, providing world- class research facilities and undertaking research of international standing. The University employs over 12,000 staff and offers over 400 different degree courses. It comprises three faculties with 23 academic schools and hundreds of specialist research groups. The facilities are a mix of modern, historic and buildings designed and built in the 60s & 70s, with a substantial residential portfolio. The Directorate of Estates and Facilities forms part of the University’s Professional Services, and the Directorate manages the University estate and provides a safe, sustainable, efficient, and comfortable environment for staff, students, and visitors. The University continually improves the estate, constructing new and refurbishing buildings whilst developing imaginative and innovative landscapes. In addition, the Directorate of Estates and Facilities manages and delivers high-quality and customer-focused services in security, cleaning, waste disposal, grounds, building maintenance and car and cycle parking. The Directorate also provides food across campus, manages teaching rooms and the University conference centres and provides a comprehensive media support service. Environmental responsibilities are taken very seriously, and a sustainability team work closely with all areas of the Directorate to ensure all undertakings contribute to a sustainable environment.
Download Project Report HereAn area of focus for the University is around the sourcing model of the housekeeping services. There is currently a mix between in-house and outsourced.
The Directorate wanted to consider whether the University had the right balance and mix to support the effective delivery of service objectives in a cost-effectively while ensuring that the University keeps ahead of service trends with an ongoing focus on innovation and technological solutions.
There was a desire to understand the resilience of the current delivery of the housekeeping services, along with a need to analyse costs and value. As a result, the University believed reviewing the service delivery arrangements would be beneficial.
LitmusFM was appointed in early 2022 with the key objective to review the housekeeping services (which required an annual budget exceeding £12m) and report back on our findings.
Following on from initial discussions, LitmusFM provided support and consultancy in the following areas:
• Review of House Services with an analysis of the proposed Target Operating Model (TOM) and report our recommendations. The review covered the following important key areas:
• What tasks are covered and how well-defined are they?
• Is the balance between in-house and outsourced, correct?
• Is the right service delivery model for each building in place?
• How effective was the service being delivered and how does it compare with others?
• Are the most efficient methods, equipment and resources being used?
• Are there any environmental improvement opportunities and, if so, what is the cost impact?
• Are all the required policies and procedures in place?
• How well implemented are they on a day-to-day basis?
• How well is the service being measured?
• How is the current department structured and is it appropriately resourced in terms of both supervision and administration?
• How should the structure change if all services were in-sourced?
• How effective is staff recruitment, induction, and training?
• How effective are current shift patterns and service coverage?
• How effective is sickness absence management?
• Does the current model represent value for money?
• Are there direct monetary savings available?
• Where is the investment required and the cost?
• What are the implications of insourcing part of the contracted services?
Finally, deliver a comprehensive gap analysis and RAG (Red, Amber and Green)Report on the review outcomes.
We embedded our team, working with key stakeholders and the in-house and incumbent service providers to identify opportunities for improving service delivery, and then we managed the implementation of improvements via agreed workstreams.
Our initial review was based on the latest British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) standards, The Total Office Cost Survey(TOCS), The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and Building Costs Information Services (BCIS) and using our own LitmusFM managed comprehensive benchmark database.
This enabled us to help determine the following:
1. What is the optimum total costrequirement compared to the current costdeployed?
2. How the existing HouseServices provision mightbe best re-distributed to improve the consistency of the standardsacross the University estate
3. How the House Servicesmanagement model could befurther optimised
The review also objectively assessedcurrent House Service management performance as part of the on-site tour of all settings.
The report concludes with tacticaland strategic recommendations for improvement to the servicesat the time.
All findings were then collated into a detailed report that provided:
• A better understanding of what was being achieved - confirming where services were being delivered in line with the performance requirements and where they needed to be improved – in short, guiding the service delivery teams on whereto concentrate their efforts.
• A well-informed competitive understanding – giving clarity on how well the services were performing in comparison to other Universities.
• A straightforward way of tracking a change programme – in absolute terms, comparing the current delivery with that of a proposition from a new solution currently within the market sector.