Update from Steve Carpenter, PSG Manager

Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter.

It is still unbelievable that we are now working in completely different circumstances and surroundings, compared to just over 2 years ago.  As we come out of the pandemic it is important to recognise that whilst PSG staff may not have been as visible to yourselves, I can assure you we continue to be as busy as ever and have welcomed the extra funding from the DfE over the last 2 years.

The hybrid way of working will continue and there are no plans for PSG to return to a permanent office base. It is important that our customers continue to feel supported and with that in mind we would welcome feedback with regards to how you wish to continue to work collaboratively with PSG.  We are always here to support and should you have any difficulty in reaching out to your dedicated surveyors, then please contact me or the appropriate team leaders Phil Brown (Building) or Luke Blakeway (M&E).

We continue to appreciate any feedback, good or bad, and I am grateful to those of you who remain fully supportive of the works that we do.  I am keen to ensure that this continues.  We have worked extensively over the past few years to improve our service, including where we have acted upon customer feedback.  A survey will be circulated to our customers shortly, which we would be grateful if you could complete.

I would like to suggest our presence at future school SDG meetings and also implement annual meetings with a PSG representative, that may well be your dedicated surveyors, as you see fit.  See below for further details on how to arrange these.

There have been a number of changes within the team following a Property & Development restructure that was implemented in April 2021. We have strengthened in key areas such as statutory compliance and contract maintenance. This is to ensure we have dedicated resource to manage the 50+ service contracts in operation.   

Facilities Management have also joined our team and we have just appointed an experienced Facilities Manager to strengthen the service even further and develop a Facilities Management Strategy.

There is an extensive programme of works scheduled again for 2022/23 and we hope to deliver projects on time and within budget.  We have excellent contractors on our approved list and dynamic purchasing system and they remain in high demand.   We continue to explore ways of expanding these lists throughout the county and would welcome any recommendations you may have, please email contractorslist@shropshire.gov.uk.

Best wishes

Steve

Approved List of Contractors

As you know we administer an extensive list of approved contractors, encompassing 17 different categories.  All contractors are vetted to ensure they have relevant qualifications, health and safety certification, asbestos awareness, insurance and DBS enhanced checks.  Our contractors are also monitored for performance across different areas such as, but not limited to, time management, financial management, health and safety, quality of workmanship.    A few customers have enquired whether they can procure their own works utilising their own contractors.  Whilst we would prefer you to utilise PSG's knowledge and experience to procure works on your behalf, we do not have an issue with any premises self managing works.   However, you will need to satisfy yourselves that all the necessary checks have been carried out to ensure the contractor is fit for purpose.   LA schools will also have to ensure they follow the Council's procurement rules and both schools and academies should also seek approval to any adaptations via Carl Wellington at Learning & Skills prior to the commencement of any works. In our experience, there have been many cases where self managed projects haven't always gone to plan, i.e. asbestos being disturbed, fire damage caused by hot works.  In these cases the premises and contractors were fined by HSE.

Dedicated Surveyor support to our service level agreement

Please contact your dedicated surveyor to request a visit in person or via Teams, or alternatively contact the Business Support team who will make an appointment for you. They will happily schedule in termly meetings should you require this.   Please contact:

Sarah Hesketh for Mechanical and Electrical Surveyor appointments - sarah.hesketh@shropshire.gov.uk, Tel 01743 281052

Joyce Brisbane for Building Surveyor appointments - joyce.brisbane@shropshire.gov.uk, Tel 01743 281085.

Academy asbestos and legionella service

Following the restructure within Property & Development, statutory compliance moved from Asset Management into PSG in April 2021.  This service is currently delivered under a separate SLA via Gavin Curley.   From 2023, this service with be incorporated into our Academy SLA as another service you can sign up to.  This will make it much easier for us to administer.

PSG representative at meetings

As mentioned above, Steve Carpenter or other members of our senior management team are more than happy to attend any meeting if you have any queries about our service.  Please contact Steve in the first instance - steve.carpenter@shropshire.gov.uk or Tel 01743 281094.

Some of our projects

Award Winning Vanguard Building at Meole Brace School We are pleased to announce that on the 12th May 2022 this building won the West Midlands Net Zero Award 2022 at the Constructing Excellence (Midlands) Award ceremony.  We are extremely proud of achieving the first Passivhaus designed building for the council.  Read all about the building Meole Brace School - The Vanguard Building - PSG (shropshire.gov.uk)

Haughmond Federation Following completion of Explorers Nursery, KS1 classrooms, whole school hall and supporting staff accommodation, Sundorne Infant School moved onto their new site at Harlescott Junior School.

Bishops Castle Business Park Roofing and cladding are almost complete on all four buildings with window installation ongoing on buildings two and four. Externally, slabbing around the development is in progress, perimeter fencing is being installed, and top soiling to the planted area is taking place.

Staff corner

Welcome to....

Julie Lutwyche, Senior Contract Maintenance Officer We are pleased to confirm that Julie has moved over from Facilities Management to manage the contract maintenance team.  Julie brings with her a wealth of knowledge as she previously led this team and has excellent administration skills to assist the team looking after 60 service contracts.

Rob Woodbury, Team Leader Support Services Rob takes over from Peter Allen who retires at the end of May 2022. Rob is an Architect with over 15 years of experience in the construction industry, which has been gained from working on a wide variety of projects both nationally and locally. Rob joined the local authority from the private sector in 2020, having previously worked on a number of large scale residential, transport infrastructure, school and historic building projects. Since joining the council, Rob has been involved in the feasibility design and commercial testing of a number of transformational regeneration schemes and investment opportunities across the county.

Andy Cooper, Clerk of Works Andy joined us in March 2022 after 18 years as a carpenter, working on all sorts of projects from heritage work to new builds and extensions.  For the last 8 years he has also been a site manager on various building projects.  He now wishes to work towards improving his technical knowledge of the building industry.

Hattie Lewis, Finance Support Officer Hattie has worked for the Council since 2014, before joining PSG in January 2022. She is enjoying working in an extremely friendly and approachable team.  Hattie is currently studying for her AATs, having already completed level 2, she is now studying level 3 and passing her exams with flying colours.  She assists Chris King who took over from Sarah Meredith.

After a successful recruitment campaign to enrich our team even further, we have also welcomed:

Allen Mills, Architectural Technologist

Bethan Meredith, Building Surveyor

John Craven, Building Services Engineer (Mechanical)

Amy Clowes, Assistant Quantity Surveyor

Taylor-Jay Saywell, Business Support Assistant

Gavin Curley, Statutory Compliance Officer (asbestos and legionella)

The following have also joined our team from other areas:

Chris Humphries, Statutory Compliance Officer (fire safety)

The Facilities Management Team

More information on all our team members can be found on our website - Meet the team - PSG (shropshire.gov.uk)

A fond farewell to:

Richard Roberts, Senior Clerk of Works

Peter Allen, Team Leader Support Services

Alastair Bain, Building Surveyor

Sarah Meredith, Senior Finance Support Officer