Consultancy for Recalibration of Resources and Service Delivery of Cleaning Services - University of Aberdeen

Tender description

We require an operational review of how the centrally provided cleaning services are delivered, in the context of recalibrating the service to better fit the remaining resources available and to redefine and readjust cleaning frequencies delivered across the estate to increase consistency, efficiency and operational effectiveness. The review will therefore necessitate engaging a third party external consultant to undertake a granular analysis utilising BICs industry standards and principles to rewrite and modify the service. This should include - an assessment of whether the existing resources (in terms of operational delivery, supervision and management) are sufficient in terms of capacity to support delivery of the revised services on an ongoing basis, including identifying resilience, single points of failure and pressure points, and whether any changes to practice, procedures and resources are required to support the recalibrated service; and - a review and rewrite of the Service Level Statement and cleaning service schedules/rotas across the institution, including cleaning frequencies and the distribution and size of cleaning areas etc, to fit the overall cleaning hours and resourcing available. This will require analysing space data, space utilisation, footfall, and space types/categories; - make recommendations on any other changes necessary to ensure that an efficient and effective service can continue to be provided to the University (eg equipment, resourcing etc) We are seeking responses from those who may be interested in providing this service in order to gather more information around likely market appetite for conducting the package of work as well as the likely timescales and indicative costs likely to be involved. Lot 1: Market engagement to shape requirements and indicate likely required budget. BACKGROUND The system in its existing structure and service format has developed organically and reactively over a long period of time and has suffered periods of ‘boom and bust’, with several cutbacks to services taking place during the past 10-15 years. Service reviews were carried out in 2004, again in 2007 and in 2017. As a result of the Covid pandemic, the focus, perception and profile of the in-house service increased considerably amongst the University community and the enhanced level of services delivered was highly valued. CONTEXT Considerable change has been undertaken over the period since 2004 in terms of Service delivery – frequencies, timing, methodology, resourcing and service flexibility End user expectations Fluctuations in resourcing levels, impacting on end user expectation Estate size, location and distribution, including use of space eg normalisation of hybrid working, as a result of the pandemic Legislative and compliance requirements There has been a recent reduction in the operational workforce of 22%, as well as the removal of a key management post within the cleaning team, resulting in reduced operational resilience and a huge gap in operational, technical and service delivery knowledge and capability. The human resourcing of the operation has been stretched and despite service reductions to compensate, there is now inevitable disparity and inconsistency in service delivery with variances in resourcing across the whole estate. This manifests itself through irregular distribution of cleaning resources (more staff in some areas, less staff in others), poor service delivery, and lack of flexibility and capacity to support non-core service levels, such as additional support for events, especially when these take place outwith core hours. We would appreciate any responses from interested parties which are able to give indicative project delivery timelines and potential costs to be received by 18th September 2024. For any questions, please use the question and answer facility within PCS.