Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Spirit of community - Brayborne's campus cleaning for Central Beds College

Managing the cleaning of schools and colleges demands the regular balancing budget against outcome - and then determining the most effective solutions for an educational environment. In most cases, this is an ongoing process that consumes too much time.

Outsourcing to a specialist brings a number of time- and cost-saving benefits plus the reassurance that the teams working on a site are appropriately skilled for the tasks they are undertaking.

Central Bedfordshire College in Dunstable was established in 1961. Located across six campuses in Dunstable, it offers a wide range of full- and part-time courses offering GCSE, BTEC, NVQs, Apprenticeships, HNC's HND's Foundation and Honours degrees.

The College retains Wokingham-based Brayborne Facilities Services to provide its cleaning services.

Brayborne's latest review of its contract showed changes to specifications and cleaning methods enabling a series of new cost efficiencies to be achieved.

It is the second such review undertaken to make efficiencies for the College in the contract term and reflects the close working relationship shared between client and supplier.

The relationship dates back to the start of the contract in August 2016 when the company took over from the College's old supplier.

"Our ethos is one of partnership which everyone involved has to buy into for it to work, so our first aim was to communicate that to staff," explains Brayborne's dedicated contract manager, Prabath Arandara.

"With the contract underway, we made strategic changes to its management and some of its processes. These soon brought about better morale and improved employee retention rates of Brayborne staff as well as heightened cleaning performance across the campus."

Cleaning at Central Bedfordshire College campuses is completed primarily in the early morning by a total of 24 cleaning operatives working 287.50 hours per week. The teams are supported by a supervisor and Prabath, who oversee the day to day running of the contract.

On a day-to-day basis, the staff are responsible for maintaining the cleaning standards throughout the college in accordance with the agreed specifications.

During non-term time, the operatives and cleaners from Brayborne's specialist services division undertake a deep clean to the sites which includes high and low dusting, deep clean of toilets, stripping and sealing of the hard floors and carpet cleaning.

The main site also benefits from two housekeepers who maintain the common areas and toilets throughout the day.

Brayborne is a British Institute of Cleaning Science accredited training provider and regards training as essential to providing a quality service.

"All of our operatives undergo a thorough induction and training programme covering health and safety, employment legislation, management skills and essential operational skills when they join us," says Prabath.

"We constantly monitor and develop our packages spanning face to face training, workbooks and toolbox skills delivered via electronic media.

"Our parent Exclusive Group recently opened its own Learning and Development Academy to become a LEVY based training provider of industry-recognised qualifications to all employees wanting to complete personal and professional qualifications."

Brayborne employees are individually acknowledged and praised for their achievements. The company also manages reward schemes enabling clients to nominate cleaning staff that have gone over and above the call of duty.

From open book accounting to proactive account management, Prabath feels that an open and honest relationship with clients pays dividends in ensuring a smooth-flowing and high quality outcome.

"We operate a Helpdesk team and an onsite liaison book to deal with any issues in a timely manner and in addition to regular site visits have monthly minuted meetings to review quality control audits and any ongoing matters," he says.

A monthly joint audit process is carried also out with our client's facilities administrator, Carl Sweeney.

Quality assurance and considerations to the environmental impact of Brayborne's work are met by its adherence to accredited standards ISO9001 and ISO14001.

Summing up, Central Bedfordshire College's head of finance, Trevor Fernandez, says:

"The Brayborne team seems to understand what we expect from a facilities company. In this instance, quality cleaning that is well-managed and provided by people who assimilate happily into the college community and ensure we enjoy a consistently clean working and learning environment."

Founded in 1995, offering a wide range of bespoke professional cleaning and facility support services to retail, education, commercial and public sector clients, Brayborne also offers an in-house specialist division with specialisms including external, data centre and kitchen/wet area cleaning.

Brayborne is a member of the Exclusive Services Group.

www.centralbeds.ac.uk / www.brayborne.co.uk

6th February 2020