Birmingham Repairs & Maintenance

Contract: Birmingham City Council (BCC)
Service: Repair & Maintenance Partnering Contract - Out of Hours, Emergency Repairs, Non-Urgent Repairs, Vacant Properties, 24/7 Call Centre
Total Contract Value: £50M per annum
Service Stream Value: £25M per annum
Commencement Date: 2001
Contract Term: 7 years

Working in a Collaborative Way

In April 2001, BCC, the largest local authority in England, outsourced its housing repair, maintenance and improvement services. The contract covers the service provision to the north, east and central areas of the city and included the TUPE transfer of over 1200 employees. Within the partnership, we are responsible for delivering a number of services including:

• Management/operation of a call centre (24 hours a day, 365 days a year)
• Management, delivery and programming of repairs, maintenance and improvement works
• Out-of-hours emergency service
• Asbestos removal programme

Morrison manages all work from beginning to end. Customer satisfaction is monitored by regular quality checks, accredited to ISO 9001, and in line with agreed key performance indicators.

Morrison has built on the successes of the partnership with BCC and secured additional work, including modernisation work for occupied dwellings and new work with neighbouring local authorities, registered social landlords and other contractors.

Morrison FS and BCC have developed a value proposition that has moved away from schedule of rates and moved towards a fixed price open book model. The fixed price is per category of work, for example, a fixed price for a non-urgent repair or an emergency out of hours repair. The fixed price has been determined by benchmarking against costs of other top quartile authorities in the UK.

This variation to the original contract was to meet the objectives of providing innovative solutions to reduce costs and add value under one umbrella. This model removes cost risk away from BCC as the risk of exceeding the target cost is solely with Morrison FS. The mechanism rewards cost savings and the Morrison FS share is determined by our performance against KPI’s. This has focussed Morrison FS on continually reviewing the most efficient use of resources in areas such as:

• Better planning of the work to improve turnaround times
• Improving productivity of in-house staff to reduce subcontractor usage

As a result BCC receive better value for money and improved customer satisfaction. Tenants benefit from this approach as they receive a quicker service and see a partnership between BCC and Morrison FS that works.

We are committed to evolving a partnership to support BCC to achieve:

• A 3 star rated service
• Service delivery excellence

Improving Customer Service

Our project delivery and management in Birmingham has evolved to deliver a community based repairs and maintenance service by providing a one-stop shop for repairs, maintenance and improvement works for each of the areas. We have consolidated the call centre, planning, customer services and the audit team into one control centre for each area.

Through the control centre, we are able to demonstrate an enhanced service that:

• Delivers KPI’s and a common standard of service which promotes best practice
• An excellent front line service supported by an efficient ‘back office’
• A one stop shop for repairs and maintenance and decent homes
• Promotes partnership working between Morrison FS, BCC, customer and other partners

The repairs and maintenance service is provided by area based teams. Each team is spilt into control centre staff and service delivery operatives.

The principles of the change programme are simple and effective and have supported the development of Team Morrison, where everyone’s contribution and input is recognised. This approach has transformed our workplace and involves everyone taking responsibility for the delivery of a customer focussed service.

To support delivery of service excellence, we provide innovative IT systems that ensure the customer receives a confirmed appointment at their convenience.

A particularly successful feature of the Birmingham partnering relationship has been in the implementation of handheld technology, which has improved service efficiency and has led to considerable advancements in customer service.

The control centre is at the heart of service delivery and integrates such systems as:

• Graphical Diagnostics
• OPTI-TIME Appointments
• Handheld Technology
• Web Based Monitoring

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

All services delivered are measured under a range of KPI against which contractual targets are set. In respect of repairs and maintenance, KPI’s measure time, cost, quality and customer satisfaction in Birmingham. We have included some KPI results below:

Appointments Made & Kept

Emergency Out of Hours

Contributing to Neighbourhood Renewal

We are working in partnership with Connexions in Birmingham to promote opportunities for young people through our apprentice schemes. We are actively encouraging applications from all young people, supporting the communities in which we work and therefore making the service more accessible for employment from under represented groups.

Our workforce is drawn from the local communities we serve, representative of the city’s rich cultural heritage. By employing a balanced make-up from the local communities we are better able to understand the needs of our tenants and therefore adapt services to ensure access to all.

Customer service information is provided in a range of languages and we utilise Language Line within the control centre. Our Tenant Liaison Co-ordinators have been carefully selected to ensure we are able to communicate with tenants of all cultural backgrounds.

We support the West Midlands Police in an initiative called the ‘Gatewell Project’. The project has been set up to help and support vulnerable people in the Shard End area who have been victims of burglary. Over the next 2 years £280,000 will be available from the Neighbourhood Renewal fund to support this project. Following police surveys and assessments of homes that have been broken into the Morrison FS response team are fitting smoke alarms, windows, and door locks and chains, door mirrors and security bolts.

We recently undertook a ‘local clean up’ project in an area of Small Heath in Birmingham. This involved, graffiti removal, litter removal, removal of overgrow trees and plants, removal of broken glass from children’s playing areas and general litter clearance.

Training, Apprenticeships & Staff Development

The TUPE transfer of 1200 staff is considered by all parties to have been very successful and has extended the career development possibilities for all staff. Not only is a partnering ethos adopted between Morrison FS and the Council but is extended to the relationship with the Union of Construction, Alliance Trades and Technicians (UCATT).

We recruited 6 apprentice carpenters and 6 apprentice plumbers in September 2004. Under this scheme we have retained all of the apprentices recruited, confirming the excellent conditions of employment and the supportive environment which we create. Another 12 apprentices have been recruited this year (2 electricians, 6 plumbers and 4 carpenters).

The scheme is based on the Construction Industry Training Board [CITB] “Construction Apprentice Frame Work” and we work closely with the CITB and college providers.