Case study list

North Wales Police

01/10/2008

This was done without any increase in resources and staff within the Estates Department found it difficult to meet the heavy workload. As a result, the service was having to pay for consultancy advice on a range of professional services (e.g. architects, building services engineers, building surveyors). A number of other property-related areas were also identified which could be improved and developed given appropriate resources, such as environmental and energy management.

NWFRS considered a number of options including:

• increasing the resources within the Estates Department;
• outsourcing estates services completely; and
• collaborating with another public sector organisation to deliver estates services.

The opportunity was identified for NWFRS to utilise the skills that were already established within the North Wales Police (NWP) Facilities Management Department.

A feasibility study was subsequently carried out to establish whether both the NWP and NWFRS estates could be wholly managed by one department which would be funded by both organisations. A number of questions were considered as part of the feasibility study including:

• Would staff remain under their existing employment contracts?
• What additional resources would be required to meet the aspirations of NWFRS for a wider remit on estates/facilities issues?
• What funding was available for the NWFRS estate?
• Whose financial standing orders would be used for procuring contracts?
• Whose processes and financial system would be used for processing work requisition orders and invoices?
• To whom would the Head of Facilities Management be reporting?
• What agreements/contracts did NWFRS have in place for the estate?
• How would the costs of the department be apportioned?
• What was the scope of works required by NWFRS?
• What would be the duration of the arrangement?

A service level agreement (SLA) was scoped in which a dedicated Facilities Management Department would manage both fire and police estates on a fully collaborative basis using primarily in-house skills for a combined estate of 140 premises across North Wales with a gross internal area of 76,000sq metres.

It was agreed that existing NWFRS staff would remain as employees of the Fire Authority and existing NWP staff would remain as employees of North Wales Police. Any new staff joining the department following the merger would become employees of North Wales Police for a duration concurrent with the length of the SLA.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

The SLA commenced on 1 June 2006 for a period of five years and provides the following estates management services to NWFRS:

• management of capital projects;
• design services;
• asset management;
• management of repair and maintenance works;
• management of minor works;
• facilities health and safety management;
• environmental management;
• energy management; and
• cleaning and grounds maintenance management.

Benefits

The benefits of this arrangement for NWFRS are:

• increased access to a wider range of in-house technical skills;
• out of hours on call/call out service for facilities related problems;
• access to a facilities helpdesk;
• in-house project management and design team;
• access to computer aided design (CAD);
• access to an estates management database;
• access to NWP annual maintenance contracts and NWP contractors list;
• asset management planning;
• capital programme projections (AMP matrix);
• access to NWP 'Management of Health & Safety for Contractors' policy and procedures; and
• in-house environmental management and energy conservation management.

The benefits of this arrangement for NWP are:

• an opportunity to engage additional staff for a wider skills base;
• better defined roles and responsibilities;
• access to NWFRS contractors list;
• advice on fire risk assessments;
• use of NWFRS maintenance assistants;
• greater staff stability and security; and
• access to NWFRS annual maintenance contracts.

The benefits of this arrangement for both NWFRS and NWP are:

• increased in-house knowledge;
• collaboration on contracts;
• future joint developments; and
• collaboration on the 'stock condition survey' and planned maintenance.

In addition to the managerial benefits arising from the merger there are now more opportunities for collaboration on capital projects as both NWFRS and NWP capital programmes are managed by the Facilities Management Department. Opportunities for sharing accommodation in existing premises are also easier to assess.

Conclusion

The forming of one department to manage the estates of North Wales Police and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service meets the criteria of 'Making the Connections: Delivering Better Services for Wales'.

The merger has resulted in benefits for both organisations, including more awareness and potential to identify opportunities for joint capital projects and sharing of premises.

Although the financial efficiencies are not significant, the operational benefits have been of tremendous value since the SLA commenced.