Royal Borough of Kingston Council

YBC provide a wide range of cleaning services to Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK) Council, delivering routine, periodic, reactive, internal, window, and washroom cleaning across various facilities. These include the Council’s main Guildhall civic centre, Children’s Learning & Development Centres, non-educational Council buildings, heritage buildings, libraries, sheltered housing, social services buildings. We commenced our operations at RBK in October 2022. Our services cover approximately 110,088 square metres, spanning more than 40 buildings within the Kingston area. In addition, we also do grounds maintenance, clean external parks and NCP car parks, and deliver a portering service for the Council involving 6 full time staff.

To prepare for transition of management, Ramuel Chhetri, the Contract Manager, created a Gantt chart depicting the precise schedule for mobilisation over a 5-week period. This was distributed to all relevant personnel, ensuring everyone was aware of their roles and responsibilities for a successful transition. We provided a copy of this to the client to ensure they are aware of our progress towards contract commencement.

During our contract mobilisation, YBC took a proactive approach to ensure a smooth handover. Being a multi-site diverse contract, RBK had a large number of potential TUPE staff. To ensure successful transfer of TUPE staff, communication with the previous provider was maintained until the transition took place. After the contract was awarded, we scheduled site visits to consult with the TUPE staff and arrange for their induction training while also ensuring that all necessary information was effectively communicated to them. During this process, we ensured we obtained all the necessary information. This includes uniform sizes, photos for staff ID badges, confirming contracts (pay rate, hours), DBS security checks etc. By ensuring human resources and administration aspects were addressed well in advance of the contract start, we created a positive impression on staff and avoided confusion.

From our experience with transferring 60+ TUPE staff with our similar contracts with Hampshire County Council and Reading Borough Council, we anticipated potential issues, as a precaution, and were able to address them as they emerged. There were originally 60 - 65 full time and part time TUPE staff but a few of the operatives did not transfer to YBC. We ensured these vacancies were filled by swiftly creating job postings online, arranging for interviews and ensuring enhanced DBS and security vetting prior to contract start. By recognising the importance of continuity of service, we made adequate preparations to ensure a seamless handover of services, enabling the Council sites to continue operating without interruption.

Our mobilisation team conducted an assessment of each Council site to develop site-specific plans. We grouped the sites by postcodes and arranged for training sessions to take place at various locations to ensure all staff were adequately trained. This arrangement enabled training to be delivered efficiently. Upon contract commencement in October 2022, we provided training to our staff on all topics, including health and safety, use of cleaning products, colour coding cleaning materials/equipment, and specifications for their relevant sites etc. This includes orientation sessions, where new staff members are introduced to our company policies, procedures, and expectations. Part of this is to also ensure the Site Team will follow RBK Council’s Recycling Policy and any other relevant policies.

Since commencement in October 2022, we have been flexible in meeting the Council’s needs as and when they change. With all contracts, we aim to provide our clients with anything they may require, even if it is not covered by the initial specification. The added benefit of YBC is that we are an all-inclusive company with the ability to provide additional services beyond the contract requirements, such as labour provision, grounds maintenance, window cleaning, portering services, and specialist cleaning. RBK were also in need of full-time porters and pest control services. Using our network of connections, suppliers, and expertise, we expanded our services to provide porters and pest control services for the Council.

Due to the urgent need for portering services by the Council, we made significant efforts and were able to mobilise within one day’s notice. Although it was not part of the original contract, these additional services were added to the contract to meet RBK’s needs. This demonstrates our flexibility and willingness to adapt to the evolving needs of our clients, while also providing high-quality services in a cost-effective manner.

Our local mobile team have been a great asset for Royal Borough Kingston Council. Our mobile teams are all trained to BICSc and NVQ equivalent standard, are enhanced DBS checked and security-vetted to ensure that they all have the requisite clearances to work at any our client’s sites. During unplanned absences, mobile operatives were available to provide cover for the site. We have endeavoured to use the same mobile operatives for absences so that they were familiar with the specific requirements of the sites.

With multi-site contracts, we have found that having a dedicated Contract Manager efficiently manage and oversee the RBK contract comes with many benefits. Ramuel acts as a central point of contact for any issues, resulting in streamlined and efficient communication between YBC and the Council staff. This has facilitated prompt resolution of any issues and concerns, which in turn helps to maintain the quality of service provided. The Contract Manager works closely with the client and meets with them on a regular basis to ensure our services meet their expectations and discuss any changes that may arise over the course of the contract, such as the portering services. Ramuel has been responsible for coordinating and managing all staff for the contract, ensuring cleaning standards are consistently high.

We have a strong management and supervisory structure consisting of a Contract Manager, Area Supervisors, mobile cleaning staff, and drivers. With this structure in place, we are able to pass any issues to relevant personnel, escalating it as necessary and seeing to its resolution. Where the Area Supervisors have identified any issues, the Contract Manager provides guidance and support to the cleaning team, as well as identifies areas of improvement. We engage with local Area Supervisors and Area Managers to deliver consistent cleaning standards across the whole estate. This allocation of resources and personnel promotes operational efficiency, maintaining high standards of service delivery which ensures that overhead costs are spread evenly across all sites. This is a cost-effective way to provide consistent cleaning services for multi-site clients.

We regularly carry out inspections and quality audits to ensure the standards are consistently upheld and identify areas for improvement. If the standard is below expected, the Area Supervisors provide training to staff on-site. By identifying training needs, the cleaning operatives can consistently meet the standards expected by RBK through the skills and knowledge they develop through the YBC training.

Alongside our contract with the Council, we also provide dedicated cleaning services for multiple sheltered & social housing sites (35 sites) which are within a 10-mile radius of Kingston. This involves a lot of emergencies / call out and ad-hoc work for specialist cleaning services.