InFocus: News and views from the GPA (March 2022)
UK property predictions; 'Greening up' the Government estate; Inclusive Environments Recognition; Shaping workplaces through insights; Client satisfaction...
News and views from the Government Property Agency across the property industry.
WELCOME TO INFOCUS, MARCH 22
Yvette Greener, Client Director
Our mission in the GPA is to provide great places to work for civil servants. We achieve this through continuous innovation, which involves excelling in both operations execution and strategic management putting clients and customers at the heart of everything we do. Through our quarterly newsletter, we hope to keep you updated on a number of key improvements and priority activities we have underway - there are many.
It is now just over three months since I joined the GPA as Client Director, during which time I have sought to understand more about what is and isn’t working for clients. We are pleased to see a marked improvement in client satisfaction across nearly all of our clients in Q3 - an increase of 11 percent from Q2 and 33 percent from Q1. Several things have helped us deliver this progress including, improving responsiveness to queries and improving the accuracy of the invoices we send to clients. But, from our survey and through engagement with clients we have also heard that we need to be more consistent and focus on collaboration.
Moving into the new financial year we will be launching a new GPA Client Strategy and underpinning a plan to deliver it, which includes our expectations of how this will drive our performance. As part of embedding this new approach we want to work with clients through a matrix approach by the services they take, working in partnership with our clients to achieve “trusted partner” status, gaining a better understanding of drivers and in meeting requirements.
Whether you are currently a client or not, we want people to recognise that our ambition is to be an industry leader with all our clients and customers as our advocates.
HOW INSIGHTS UNDERPIN WORKPLACE DESIGN STRATEGIES
We are committed to delivering great places to work for our clients and customers. Essential to this is the need to gain a deep understanding of our customers so that we can deliver products and services that best meet their needs.
Following on from the success of the Leesman homeworking survey and report in 2020, we have now completed another five Leesman surveys. These surveys combined will provide us with data from approximately 35,000 civil servants which is helping to shape our workplace offer.
We have also piloted our own customer satisfaction survey in three buildings (Rosebury Court in Norwich, 2 Rivergate in Bristol and Temple Quay House in Bristol). We’re currently analysing the data, using dashboards to present the insights back in a visual and engaging way. The data is already providing great insights into what is and isn’t working. And we are putting action plans in place where improvement is needed. Our next step is to develop our plan for future surveys which we will share shortly.
SMARTER WORKING PROGRAMME
We have continued to support departments in their smarter working implementation, with 14 departments successfully achieving ‘mature’ status to date. This means each mature department has provided demonstrable evidence of how their people and culture, leadership, technology and workspaces are supporting, advocating and role modelling smarter ways of working. Most importantly for mature departments, smarter working is not complete once they reach mature status - the investment in creating and maintaining great workplace experiences is still a focus for all.
Smarter Working mature departments:
* Charity Commission
* Crown Prosecution Service
* Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport
* Department for Education
* Department of Health and Social Care
* Department for International Trade
* Food Standards Agency
* Forestry Commission
* National Archives
* National Savings and Investments
* OFGEM
* OFSTED
* OFWAT
* UK Export Finance
The Smarter Working Programme has created a community of practitioners that support each other with sharing best practices and continuous improvement. This community is helping to raise the bar in workplace experience across the civil service.
Get in touch today with our dedicated Smarter Working team gpasmartworkingqueries@gpa.gov.uk.
LATEST SURVEY RESULTS SHOW IMPROVEMENTS IN CLIENT SATISFACTION
Our ambition is to be recognised as an industry leader, with our clients and customers as our advocates. We’re achieving this through continuous improvement and innovation, which involves excelling in both operational execution and strategic management, putting clients and customers at the heart of everything we do.
Our Client Satisfaction Survey 2021/2022 Q3 scores have continued to increase, with an 11 percent improvement since Q2, and 33 percent from Q1. The greatest improvements have been seen in finance and recommendation, as well as attitude and workplace projects.
Although we are seeing improvements in most areas, we are continuing to work hard in areas where more focus is needed, such as delivering client-focused services to ensure end-to-end solutions; improving responsiveness and delivering more consistent services; and continuing to attract and retain the right people to ensure the appropriate amount of resources and skills.
In the 22/23 financial year, we will implement a GPA-wide programme to deliver strategic change that embeds a client-centric approach into our DNA. This will be woven into staff inductions and communications, and embedded into team meetings, projects and delivery programmes. We will continue to share updates on this in the coming months.
GPA’S OneEstate IS IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY, FLEXIBILITY AND REPORTING
Our OneEstate initiative is a series of interoperable digital products that is allowing civil servants from our client departments to work flexibly, from any location and on the go. It is also improving the data we capture to make better informed decisions and provide more transparent reporting.
Shared Network
Our shared network is now fully operational across three Hubs, and is being installed in two further properties over the next few months. This is enabling multiple departments to share a common network infrastructure in a single building.
GovWifi
GovWifi was confirmed as a live service in 2021. It is being rolled out across Government buildings as the standard for wifi connectivity. We have identified some buildings with limited performance and bandwidth, and are working with the Cabinet Office to improve the service in these locations. But overall, analysis is showing greater reliability.
GovWifi is the seamless connection to the wifi within a building. Once a user has registered with the service, GovWifi will continue to connect automatically as the default provider when in any GovWifi-enabled building.
GovPass
Our new GovPass - common access pass - solution was developed in collaboration with the Government Security Group. It is now installed in five properties, with more planned this financial year. This includes some of London’s most iconic properties.
We are also extending GovPass from the sole purpose of a common access pass to allow occupancy reporting. We expect to pilot GovPass for occupancy reporting from March. When enabled, it will allow clients to receive automated occupancy reports from their access control systems via the GPA.
GovPrint
GovPrint - the centralised networked printing service - is now installed in a small number of buildings and is reducing the number of printers required. We are working closely with HMRC to pilot GovPrint in its Hubs with an intention of a wider roll out.
Development of GovPrint 2 is underway with initial discussions with print solution suppliers. We hope to have this available in the next 12 months, building on the success of the first generation product.
Occupancy
The GPA is now monitoring level 1 occupancy across 23 properties. This means we are capturing the number of people in a specific building. The data is currently being collected from a combination of digital and manual processes. We have also completed a contract to deploy sensor based capabilities to 12 properties, and will continue to increase this over the next three years.
Audio Visual
Our audio visual standard has now been successfully installed in several Hubs. We’ve also improved equipment in meeting rooms to support collaborative working across the UK. And we are now looking to evolve this solution further to provide better services based on lessons learned from previous installations and the impact of Covid. We hope to publish this updated standard over the coming weeks.
Procurement
Our range of interoperable products is offering an exciting mix of benefits to our clients. And we continue to develop and evolve these products in collaboration with our partners, and based on client needs and industry trends.
We have recognised limitations in some of our supplier contracts, which has made it difficult to support our clients to access some technologies for their own needs. We are currently in a strategic procurement process across our entire product range to improve this situation. Our intention is to have long-term partnerships with suppliers as we develop our regional Hubs and Whitehall Campus, as well as have contracts that are designed to allow our clients to leverage the same technology for their own needs.
GPA’S CAPITAL PROGRAMME PROGRESS CONTINUES
Our Capital Projects team is recognised as the delivery partner for a number of our client government departments. We’re also leading the Government Hubs and Whitehall Campus programmes. Many of our client-funded projects are very significant in scale and greatly increase the scope of the built infrastructure programme we are delivering. For example, we provided advisory support to BEIS in its successful bid to retain the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) in the UK, and relocate it to the University of Reading campus. We are continuing to support BEIS with the development plans for this landmark Net Zero carbon new facility. Find out more about the ECMWF relocation here.
We have recently restructured our team to provide a more regionally-focused approach (North; Scotland and Northern Ireland; Central; South and Wales; and London), which ensures the continued delivery of our committed, large-scale and complex programme portfolio and projects. It is also enabling a greater alignment with clients and colleagues, supporting regional and portfolio planning.
GOVERNMENT HUBS PROGRAMME
Places for Growth (PfG), our Capital Programme and government departments are adopting a ‘regional campus’ model, to ensure roles are relocated out of London. This also supports collaboration and co-location between teams, while allowing the Civil Service to draw from talent across regions.
In locations such as York and Manchester, the proposed Hubs will help to unlock a much larger urban regeneration opportunity on some of the largest redevelopment sites in the UK.
HUBS UPDATES:
Peterborough, Fletton Quays
Bridehall Developments has now completed the Developer Base Build CAT A construction phase. We are excited to take possession of this latest Government Hub as we move into CAT B fit-out stage, which is being delivered by Overbury. We remain on schedule to welcome tenants in January 2023.
Left: Exterior view showing the Attenuation pond and hard landscaping completed with close to 10,000 plants in place.
Top right: The public-facing entrance.
Bottom right: A typical floor at completion of the main construction works.
Croydon, 2 Ruskin Square
Construction remains on schedule with our Developer, Stanhope. The building has achieved full height with all floors constructed. With the façade being installed at pace. Work has been completed on the stage 3 design and we are due to receive tenders back imminently for the fit out works. We remain on schedule for the developer to conclude construction works in September 2023.
Far right: Insulation and fire protection being installed to the underside of the loading dock.
Top left: Looking out over the double-height staff entrance.
Bottom left: Facade being installed on the buildings' South and West elevations.
WHITEHALL CAMPUS PROGRAMME
Our Whitehall Campus programme shares many common objectives and approaches with our Hubs programme: both support the Governments’ Levelling Up initiative to regenerate regional areas and to relocate roles out of London, both of which play a direct role in the Civil Service transformation.
London, Whitehall Campus
3-8 Whitehall Place and 55 Whitehall - Full Business Case has been approved, and we have a pre-Construction Services Agreement in place to award the contract to BW: Workplace Experts.
22-26 Whitehall - the Outline Business Case is approved and the programme has reached a key milestone with the completion of the design stage recognised as Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stage 2: Concept Design.
SHAPING SUPPLIER PARTNERSHIPS WITH CLIENT INSIGHTS
We recently completed the Workplace Services Transformation Programme (WSTP) contract specifications for the Supply Chain Project (SCP). This includes five procurements, and is currently being reviewed by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS).
We have commenced a data gathering exercise and engagement sessions with clients to understand five key areas of our service design:
* current FM service provision
* future FM service needs (if different from above)
* essential requirements, such as policy compliance, security clearance levels, etc
* niche FM service requirements, such as various single services which could be bundled within the WSTP scope to maximise competition and achieve greater value
* how the proposed GPA services already developed meets their needs, e.g. Hubs
The sessions are also identifying the services to be delivered with our Workplace Services Performance Partner. And we are gathering feedback to assess potential impacts and/or issues, such as clients with on-site helpdesk services, as well as dedicated escalation and communication needs.
The feedback from all sessions is enabling us to design the final draft specifications to ensure they reflect current and future client needs, and are being mapped on an action log for final review.
We are also reviewing the GPA’s own policies to ensure that, where required, any client-specific policies that differ from our own are included within the tender documentation for the FM, Security, and Performance Partner services.