Filing Expertise

Situated in Perth, the gateway to the Highlands is one of the first PFI projects to be set up, which has now been running for almost nine years.  The Council Offices at Pullar House are provided to Perth and Kinross Council for a period of 25 years and Morrison are responsible for all hard and soft services.

One of the more unusual aspects of this contract is the filing system within the building.  At any time up to 800 staff can be working from this one building and as you can imagine, due to the confidential nature of the work, the paperwork can tend to be overwhelming.  It was agreed that Morrison would organise and control all semi archive filing – any files which would not be used more than twice a year. There was in excess 4400 boxes to sort out.

Claire Carruthers had recently just completed a degree in Information Management and was looking for a position to give her experience in the workplace.  A job setting up a filing system would give her some insight what goes on in the working environment and would be an ideal short term position.  Nine years down the line and she is still here and still learning. 

Our Records Management Office stretches 100 yards with forty nine aisles, the full length of the building and now holds over 9000 boxes, almost 200,000 files.  All original boxes have now been returned to the staff and have been replaced with actual files and Claire works full time keeping the running and organisation of the records office going smoothly. Staff can request a file or box at any time and Morrison have a ten hour window to deliver the item to the staff member although most deliveries are made within two to four hours. 

As well as retrieving and returning files, Morrison have an obligation to inform Perth and Kinross Council of any files which have not been requested or have reached a review date.  These reviews are ongoing and the turnover of files and boxes can at times be almost overpowering.  It’s not unusual for Claire to arrive and find one of the Services requires 100 boxes of files to be destroyed as they need the boxes to send up new files.

A new file trail system was brought in two years ago and Morrison staff have improved the service through this.  Training had to be given to the users of the software by Claire and thankfully it is now up and running well.

In nine years we have had no deductions for late deliveries and we are pleased to say Perth and Kinross Council are very happy with the service they receive.