What They Needed
In March 2020, the Trust entered discussions with CleanEvent Services to support measures for the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic. The Trust urgently required support in the provision of a managed cleaning service and other ancillary services, facilities management in particular, in response to COVID-19 emergency measures at Frimley Park Hospital and Wexham Park Hospital. Ancillary services included, but were not limited to, cleaning, portering, housekeeping, catering, reception, ward hosts, and security officers.
The Trust had been dealing with the impact of COVID measures and isolation of vulnerable staff within the in-house staff teams delivering support services. The Trust ran an OJEU compliant purchasing exercise and awarded the contract to CleanEvent Services Limited.
What We Delivered
With the contract signed on 27 March 2020, CleanEvent were requested to provide housekeeping staff and ancillary services for a planned induction session at Frimley Park Hospital as soon as possible. Within three days, we were able to mobilise 11 housekeeping staff and three supervisory staff. The following day, six housekeeping staff and a supervisor were enrolled and attended an induction session at Wexham Park Hospital, Slough, Berkshire.
Over the course of the following weeks, further inductions of housekeeping, security, catering, logistics and porterage staff were carried out. At the height of the Trust’s requirements, as many as 40 housekeeping staff were routinely deployed at Frimley Park Hospital. Wexham Park’s broader service range, including security staff, saw the deployment of up to 30 staff per day.
Our Challenges
CleanEvent Services worked closely with stakeholders across the Estates departments at both locations to ensure adequate levels of resource and ancillary services were provided as required.
Obstacles faced and overcome included:
- Impositions of social distancing requirements
- Ensuring staff representatives were on board and well informed
- Short-notice call-off requests
- Successful management of staff turnover
The latter contributed greatly in the ability to deliver consistency of output from the CE staff group.
Our Results
The initial period of service ran from March 30th 2020 until September 13th 2020, but when a “second wave” of COVID infections was predicted for the latter part of the year, the Trust produced a tender for a new period of surge capacity support. The contract was awarded to CleanEvent in early November 2020 and remains in place today, until the end of 2021.
Following an exceptionally busy December to February period, demand for the ancillary services has reduced. As the Trust has re-adjusted to normal operations, its partner hospitals continue to use our staff on an ongoing basis for project work, staff coverage and peak periods.