Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL)

Contractor: Gov Facility Services Limited (GFSL)

Client

Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMPS)

HESIS delivers fire and security maintenance services to Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMPS) for Gov Facility Services Ltd (GFSL). The contract began on a year’s trial across 12 prisons, and has now been fully awarded across 20 prisons in Greater London and the South East, thanks to exceptional work from the HESIS team and an emphasis on continu

Scope

HESIS was tasked to deliver fire and security maintenance services to GFSL across 12 prisons in the Greater London region, ranging from Category A sites to young offenders’ institutes. The role of HMPS is to keep those sentenced to prison in custody, helping them lead law-abiding and useful lives, both while in prison and after they are released.

After six months, HESIS had already begun to make its mark and demonstrate its capability. GFSL awarded the company a second six-month trial period, with a view to securing a full contract extension at the end of the year.

Having already established relationships and ways of working, it was this second trial period that enabled HESIS to prove itself as the right partner for the long term. The company’s proactive approach proved instrumental in forging strong relationships with GFSL and individual prison sites. With a firm focus on innovation and improvement from the outset, HESIS was able to implement change in a sector that is not always receptive to doing things differently.

Delivery

At the start of the project, resourcing was a particular challenge for HESIS, and a number of recruiters were quickly engaged to enlist engineers specifically for the HMPS team.

Further investment from GFSL, a sign of its growing commitment to HESIS, enabled additional resource to be put in place so that the contract could be managed with a new level of efficiency. At the same time, the HESIS engineers began using PDAs and tablets, allowing for better audit trails and traceability. More audit tracing from the first point of call through to the accounts team facilitated a newly streamlined approach to ordering products.

Throughout, the team’s focus remained firmly on collaboration, innovation and building strong relationships, making numerous visits to site to get open and honest feedback on how HESIS was performing. These meetings helped to foster mutual understanding and ensure the team had a solid grasp on what was required, what was going well and areas for improvement.

Outcome

HESIS was not only awarded a full contract for the original Greater London area, but also for a new region in Kent and Sussex. This contract was awarded due to the exceptional collaboration and expertise shown by the team.

HESIS is now providing fire and security maintenance services to a total of 20 prisons and a regional office. The focus remains on continual improvement and innovation; engineers are still undergoing training, processes are constantly being refined and new efficiencies sought.