Managing the risk of rocketing costs for essential building services in schools
Schools are like any other business or establishment in having to provide a safe and energy-efficient environment in the face of rising costs and, all too often, falling income. There is little scope to cut back on essential services, and so they risk being seen as easy pickings by service providers. The best defence is to ensure that you have a comprehensive understanding of your premises and your risks, so you can uncover ways of streamlining services.
There’s more to it than just reducing the number of suppliers you deal with: adjusting the frequency of inspections, up or down, to ensure that equipment continues to operate at its most efficient can also pay dividends says Andrew Steel of Airmec.
Schools converting to independent academy status were finding themselves particularly exposed to higher costs of goods and services as they emerged from under the collective buying umbrellas of local authorities. This was particularly true in the procurement of services that require on-site attendance by specialists for essential services such as air and water treatment. Where engineers used to be able to visit an area and cover several local authority schools in one day, they found themselves travelling the same distances for just one site visit, with obvious pressure on costs. We were finding that prices had the potential to more than double when a school was acting entirely independently.
It is probably only a matter of time before academies effectively organise themselves into buying consortia with the same leverage as the local authorities, with no compromise on their prized autonomy over teaching and learning; but there are ways of managing costs in the meantime.
The biggest savings of all come from having a comprehensive and a realistic specification of the services needed. Do you really need to pay for different visits to check water temperatures and kitchen extract systems, or can the inspection schedules be combined? Armed with an up to date asset register and risk assessment, you can plan and dovetail these services and visits. The up to date risk assessment is a mandatory requirement for Legionella control, and the asset register should be the bedrock of any risk assessment, so having these documents is not an extra cost, but how you use them can makes a big difference to your costs.
It is all the more surprising, then, how often we visit premises which have out of date risk assessments. The “ACOP L8” guidelines may not be law, but they do have special legal status, with the buck stopping with the designated responsible person at the premises. You cannot “outsource” Legionella responsibility, you are still the one who will be in the dock if it all goes wrong, and a half-day Legionella awareness course for your team is probably a good investment.
Asset register and risk assessment
The only way to gain a realistic view of requirements is an up to date asset register and risk assessment.
While inspection and flushing for water services is quite prescriptive under ACOP L8, the history of positive lab test results we see shows how important it is to understand where the risks lie. One day every building will come with its BIM model, showing ever nook and cranny, but for now we deal with systems that may have been altered over the years with, say, no central records of redundant pipes and dead legs that harbour infection. An up to date asset register and initial condition inspection report can be overlaid with an assessment of the risks, identifying the infrequently used tap outlets that could otherwise escape attention.
As the risk assessment is mandatory for Legionella control, and as it needs an asset register to underpin it, it is logical to include all services in the register while you are doing the job. In South Wales, this is an approach that is delivering savings in the kitchens run by local authorities, where Airmec’s team is managing the inspection and cleaning of kitchen canopies and associated fans and ductwork facilities at schools and social and care centres across the Vale of Glamorgan, Newport and Swansea.
We looked beyond the simple presumption of bi annual or annual cleans of past providers, and created complete asset registers that enable council managers to predict, plan and budget for maintenance and remedial work more accurately, as well as to develop an understanding of the actual, rather than assumed cleaning requirements.
We initiated interim grease reading checks to assess the rate of build-up site by site and build a true picture of the cleaning requirements. Cleaning intervals and inspections will then be adjusted accordingly site-by-site. Some sites may need more frequent cleaning to operate safely and at maximum energy efficiency, some may be suitable for longer cleaning intervals. Getting it right will maximise safety and minimise costs, but until you have measured the actual rate of grease build up, you cannot deliver these benefits.
The asset register will record past visits, as well as technical specifications of the installation, condition reports and recommendations for repair or and remedial work, such as adding new access doors, and be the foundation for better management for years to come.
I’ll leave the last word to Vale of Glamorgan strategic planning and performance officer Mary Hesford who said: “This approach is laying the foundations for effective and better-planned management of these services for years to come.”
Schools are like any other business or establishment in having to provide a safe and energy-efficient environment in the face of rising costs and, all too often, falling income. There is little scope to cut back on essential services, and so they risk being seen as easy pickings by service providers. The best defence is to ensure that you have a comprehensive understanding of your premises and your risks, so you can uncover ways of streamlining services.
There’s more to it than just reducing the number of suppliers you deal with: adjusting the frequency of inspections, up or down, to ensure that equipment continues to operate at its most efficient can also pay dividends says Andrew Steel of Airmec.
Schools converting to independent academy status were finding themselves particularly exposed to higher costs of goods and services as they emerged from under the collective buying umbrellas of local authorities. This was particularly true in the procurement of services that require on-site attendance by specialists for essential services such as air and water treatment. Where engineers used to be able to visit an area and cover several local authority schools in one day, they found themselves travelling the same distances for just one site visit, with obvious pressure on costs. We were finding that prices had the potential to more than double when a school was acting entirely independently.
It is probably only a matter of time before academies effectively organise themselves into buying consortia with the same leverage as the local authorities, with no compromise on their prized autonomy over teaching and learning; but there are ways of managing costs in the meantime.
The biggest savings of all come from having a comprehensive and a realistic specification of the services needed. Do you really need to pay for different visits to check water temperatures and kitchen extract systems, or can the inspection schedules be combined? Armed with an up to date asset register and risk assessment, you can plan and dovetail these services and visits. The up to date risk assessment is a mandatory requirement for Legionella control, and the asset register should be the bedrock of any risk assessment, so having these documents is not an extra cost, but how you use them can makes a big difference to your costs.
It is all the more surprising, then, how often we visit premises which have out of date risk assessments. The “ACOP L8” guidelines may not be law, but they do have special legal status, with the buck stopping with the designated responsible person at the premises. You cannot “outsource” Legionella responsibility, you are still the one who will be in the dock if it all goes wrong, and a half-day Legionella awareness course for your team is probably a good investment.
Asset register and risk assessment
The only way to gain a realistic view of requirements is an up to date asset register and risk assessment.
While inspection and flushing for water services is quite prescriptive under ACOP L8, the history of positive lab test results we see shows how important it is to understand where the risks lie. One day every building will come with its BIM model, showing ever nook and cranny, but for now we deal with systems that may have been altered over the years with, say, no central records of redundant pipes and dead legs that harbour infection. An up to date asset register and initial condition inspection report can be overlaid with an assessment of the risks, identifying the infrequently used tap outlets that could otherwise escape attention.
As the risk assessment is mandatory for Legionella control, and as it needs an asset register to underpin it, it is logical to include all services in the register while you are doing the job. In South Wales, this is an approach that is delivering savings in the kitchens run by local authorities, where Airmec’s team is managing the inspection and cleaning of kitchen canopies and associated fans and ductwork facilities at schools and social and care centres across the Vale of Glamorgan, Newport and Swansea.
We looked beyond the simple presumption of bi annual or annual cleans of past providers, and created complete asset registers that enable council managers to predict, plan and budget for maintenance and remedial work more accurately, as well as to develop an understanding of the actual, rather than assumed cleaning requirements.
We initiated interim grease reading checks to assess the rate of build-up site by site and build a true picture of the cleaning requirements. Cleaning intervals and inspections will then be adjusted accordingly site-by-site. Some sites may need more frequent cleaning to operate safely and at maximum energy efficiency, some may be suitable for longer cleaning intervals. Getting it right will maximise safety and minimise costs, but until you have measured the actual rate of grease build up, you cannot deliver these benefits.
The asset register will record past visits, as well as technical specifications of the installation, condition reports and recommendations for repair or and remedial work, such as adding new access doors, and be the foundation for better management for years to come.
I’ll leave the last word to Vale of Glamorgan strategic planning and performance officer Mary Hesford who said: “This approach is laying the foundations for effective and better-planned management of these services for years to come.”