Improving the levels of safety and security to Northamptonshire Schools

Amey is one of the UK’s leading public services providers employing more than 12,000 people to manage the vital infrastructure and a range of business services that people everywhere rely upon. From transport systems, to deploying and maintaining education establishments and supporting young people, Amey provides services that touch the lives of citizens across the length and breadth of the country. As part of its work within the education sector, Amey is responsible for the maintenance of 42 schools within a five-mile radius of Northampton town centre. The 30-year contract requires Amey to deliver and manage a range of services to each school, including fire, security and life safety, including the ongoing monitoring and maintenance of these systems. Quality of service and the safety and security of each school and its pupils and staff is of paramount importance to Amey, and with a desire to improve the level of service delivery, the organisation selected ADT to provide maintenance of critical systems, including intruder alarms, CCTV, fire alarms, access control, sprinklers and portable extinguishers. Consultative Approach to Meet Aggressive Timescales When the maintenance contract went to re-tender, Amey had to select a supplier that could meet the aggressive timescale between tendering and mobilisation of the project. ADT’s James Billson worked closely with Dave Jarvis and his team at Amey throughout the tender process and after being appointed as the chosen supplier, ADT was able to immediately take ownership of maintenance and reactive calls for each system. ADT also managed the transfer of alarm signals and re-chipping transmitters from the previous provider to its own specialist response centres in a limited timescale. Dedicated Service Engineer As part of its contract with Northamptonshire Schools, Amey must meet set SLA’s with regard to the timely repair of safety and security systems. Failure to meet these pre-defined levels could result in financial penalties. To minimise this risk, ADT appointed a dedicated and multi-skilled service engineer on this account; the engineer is based in the local area and has developed a specialist knowledge of each site and its systems, the engineer’s presence ensures an efficient response and repair process. Ensuring that all life safety and security systems are maintained by experts is vitally important to Amey. ADT has provided an up-front maintenance schedule to give clear information on when inspections would be carried out. This provides all parties with a clear understanding of which systems will be serviced and when. Electronic Data All ADT engineers have PDA devices giving them the ability to complete electronic dockets for each call out or inspection visit. Data is then submitted electronically to a central Amey helpdesk email where the information can be easily retrieved for compliance and auditing purposes. This system improves the efficiency of the previous paper-based process which led to lost dockets and delays in producing the documentation. Amey and ADT have developed an extremely close working relationship and regular review meetings are held to discuss lifecycle, product and maintenance issues and to ensure the required high level of service is being delivered. ADT is able to provide expert advice and works as a consultative partner to help Amey get the best from their Fire and Security systems. “Keeping the schools under our remit safe and secure is absolutely essential and to achieve this we required a provider that could deliver exceptional levels of service and go that extra mile to meet our needs,” said Steve Wise, Procurement Manager, Amey. “Bringing in ADT to maintain and monitor these critical systems gives us great peace of mind due to the excellent reputation the organisation has globally. ADT understands our needs perfectly and ensures quick and efficient responses to any problems we may have, as well as providing us with a dedicated engineer who has an intricate knowledge of each site and the systems we have in place.” “Throughout the implementation, mobilisation was well organised, as issues arose they were dealt with promptly and where necessary bespoke solutions were found. Additionally, the level of overdue events for Fire and Security Systems has greatly reduced and there have been no customer complaints with regard to any PPM or reactive works appertaining to Fire and Security systems since ADT began service provision,” said David Cross, General Manager for Amey.