InForm: Keeping you informed from the GPA (July 2023)
InForm keeps you informed of news, views and updates from across the Government Property Agency.
WELCOME TO INFORM, July 2023
Clive Anderson, Director of Capital Projects
We are at the forefront of the Government’s priority to transform the Civil Service and deliver better services to the citizens of the UK. We do this by reshaping the relationship civil servants have with their workplace.
We are central to the delivery of key government policies, delivering best value from the Government’s office and warehouse portfolios and supporting economic growth in all regions of the UK, achieving our net zero ambitions and wider Greening Government Commitments.
Through our Government Hubs Programme we are delivering modern, sustainable and digitally-connected workplaces that focus on supporting productivity in a hybrid working environment. Beyond the bricks and mortar, we are creating great places to work.
Through InForm, our quarterly newsletter, we will keep you informed of our achievements, milestones and key priorities we have underway, as well as upcoming opportunities.
Firstly, I’d like to share some good news and extend a warm welcome to our three new Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) who have joined our Board. Roger Blundell, Helen Gillett and Ronen Journo joined us on 1 April and will work alongside our Chair Pat Ritchie and our four existing NEDs, Robert Razzell, Jane Hamilton, Jonathan Thompson, and Carol Bernard.
We also started the year with some fantastic news that our Birmingham office at 23 Stephenson Street achieved Leesman+ certification. This means it officially offers an outstanding workplace experience. And is rated the best employee experience in the UK’s public sector.
Minister Jeremy Quin broke ground at our Manchester Hub in February and our Peterborough Hub at Quay House also officially opened in March after a successful phased induction programme for all staff.
And we are pleased to have announced our new strategic partnership with JLL as our Workplace Services Performance Partner as part of our Workplace Services Transformation Programme.
Finally, we recently published our Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23 and our Business Plan 2023/24. These highlight our many successes as well as our journey ahead. You can read these on GOV.UK:
I look forward to sharing more updates, improvements and achievements with you in the coming months.
In this issue:
- We welcome three new Non-Executive Directors to our board
- Voice of the Supplier Survey - Thank you
- Introducing our new finance systems, simplifying our invoice processes
- Short-term furniture solution furnishes the GPA Hubs faster
- Manchester First Street hub wins three awards!
- Our Manchester Hub gets its first concrete pour
- Integrating new starters effectively at our first new build in Peterborough
- CPNI’s ‘Think Before you Link’ app to counter malicious approaches online
- The GPA supports a new pilot furniture donation scheme
- Smarter Working Live Award winners announced
We welcome three new Non-Executive Directors to our board
We are pleased to announce three new Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) to join our Board.
Roger Blundell, Helen Gillett and Ronen Journo joined us on 1 April and will work alongside our Chair Pat Ritchie and our four existing NEDs, Robert Razzell, Jane Hamilton, Jonathan Thompson, and Carol Bernard.
The GPA Board’s principal function is to advise Steven Boyd, as our Chief Executive and the Cabinet Office on the strategic direction of the Agency. The Board and its sub-committees are our top level of governance and provide an important link to our ministers.
Pat Ritchie, our Chair, spoke of the appointments:
I am delighted we have been able to attract three high calibre NEDs to join the GPA Board. They will further strengthen the board bringing a wealth of commercial experience from a variety of sectors and I look forward to working with them and our existing board members to support the delivery of our ambitious 10-year strategy for the GPA.
Steven Boyd, our CEO, also added:
I am very pleased that Helen, Roger and Ronen have joined the GPA Board. They all have extensive experience of leading in large and well-respected organisations. They are strengthening the Board with their deep knowledge and expertise in property, commercial, and customer experience. I look forward to working with them to deliver Government priorities.
Below is a summary of our new Board members.
Roger Blundell is an experienced finance director, working across both public and private companies as well as public bodies, in a variety of sectors including commercial and residential real estate, financial services, retail, broadcasting / digital media, the arts and education. Most recently Roger was Chief Financial Officer of Grosvenor UK, a pre-eminent investment and development company. Roger will chair the GPA’s Investment Committee.
Roger commented:
I am delighted to be joining the GPA Board as a Non-Executive Director and as Chair of the Investment Committee. I value the opportunity to work with the GPA’s colleagues and I look forward to contributing my financial and commercial experience to help the GPA deliver on its ambitious 2030 Strategy.
Helen Gillett has more than 25 years experience in the IT/Telecoms and Utilities sectors, with in-depth expertise in client and customer service. Alongside her new role for the GPA, she is also a Non-Executive Director for Orbit Group, one of the largest housing groups in the country and the UK’s leading developer of new homes for affordable and social rent. She volunteers as a mentor for a number of social mobility and inclusion programmes.
Helen spoke of her appointment:
I’m really pleased to be given the opportunity to work with the GPA at such an exciting phase in the business and I look forward to helping the team embed their strategy, through the client and customer lens, to create great places to work.
Ronen Journo joined Hines in 2020 to lead Management Services in Europe. He has almost 30 years of experience in the sector, previously holding roles at WeWork and Cisco. He is an expert in global workplace trends, technology and corporate real estate operations and continues to use his experience to create people-centric, and technology driven workplaces that are fit for the future. In addition to his role at Hines, Ronen sits on the Urban Land Institute’s Co-Chair Technology and Real Estate Council, and Editorial Oversight Committee.
Ronen said:
I am extremely pleased to be joining the GPA Board and contributing my experience and expertise in the real estate industry to help the GPA continue to deliver transformation in the way civil servants work, and in the stewardship of a sustainable and efficient Government estate.
Voice of the Supplier Survey - thank you
In our 22/23 Business Plan we committed to introducing regular supplier relationship surveys. We do this through Voice of the Supplier surveys, which is a generic Cabinet Office Markets, Sourcing and Suppliers survey.
The findings gathered enable us to see where we need to do better with our supplier relationships across the commercial life cycle of contracts. They also offer us the opportunity to benchmark our performance against other departments.
Thank you to the many of you who took the time to complete the surveys. We’ve captured a valuable data pool which we will be using to improve the way we work with you through your engagement journey, from procurement to contract management and invoice payment.
We will be carrying out these surveys periodically, and will be in contact with you again shortly.
Introducing our new finance systems, simplifying our invoice processes
We have implemented a new central finance system, Proactis, which launched in April. It will simplify how purchase orders are raised, and automate necessary approvals. It will also support the matching of invoices to POs, and automatically feed expenditure into our new General Ledger.
Our Proactis solution also includes a new invoicing process and supplier relationship management (SRM) portal.
Purchase to Pay - new invoicing process
Our new invoicing process means we are now operating a ‘No Purchase Order (PO), No Pay’ policy. This is consistent with the standard payment terms in our contracts and those of other government departments.
All invoices must now be sent to the new GPA AP invoices Mailbox GPAapinvoices@gpa.gov.uk. A valid Purchase Order Number in the format of GPA xxxx must be quoted on the invoice for the goods and/or services you are invoicing. We will also accept invoices which quotes PO’s in the original format if raised prior to 1 April 2023.
Please ensure you issue compliant invoices to prevent delays and to enable us to make payment as soon as possible.
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Portal - onboarding invitation (update)
A key part of Proactis is the SRM portal, which is our central repository system for all our suppliers. It provides direct access for you to update key information about your organisation. It also acts as the main point of communication between us and you.
You can find out more about Proactis here.
As suppliers, we value your support and would ask you to register with the Proactis Supplier Network (which is free of charge for you to use). This software will be a key management tool in how we work together. The Proactis team is in the process of sending out registration details, so please do look out for an email from noreply@proactis.com which contains a weblink invitation to register onto the Supplier portal. You will then be able to update any information and upload required documents.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our team at financeoperations@gpa.gov.uk.
Short-term furniture solution furnishes the GPA Hubs faster
A short-term furniture solution to furnish our hubs, initiated last year to work more efficiently with our suppliers, proves to furnish our hubs faster.
The model enables us to apply a rotational award system to each supplier on the framework. This includes high or low monetary value furniture contracts and is creating a fair and transparent approach with suppliers.
It has also enabled us to create pre-populated documents for each supplier on the framework making it easier for project teams and design managers when specifying the volume of items and agreeing costs.
The model also means we can update our clients on the exact budget for non-clinical assets including furniture, fixtures and equipment for the next 12 months. And enables early engagement to ensure delivery and installation times.
Aiden Kearney, Head of Design for Workplace Services at the GPA said:
This solution efficiently allocates projects to our furniture partners in a fair and open manner, removing the need to issue a new tender for every project. It has greatly improved the process and engagement for all parties involved.
Visit the Crown Commercial Services website to find out more about our frameworks and how to become a supplier.
Manchester First Street hub wins three awards!
Our Manchester First Street hub, which saw the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jeremy Quinn breaking ground at the site, has recently won three awards highlighting it as the deal of the year:
- CoStar Impact Award: Sale/Acquisition of the Year for the North West
- CoStar Impact Award: Lease of the Year for the North West
- Insider Media North West Property Awards: Deal of the Year
Our partners Ask Real Estate and joint venture partner, The Richardson Family secured forward funding for the site from Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), which will be investing £105 million. JLL Real Estate Advisors & Professionals, acted for the GPA.
The awards recognise the work we are doing as industry leaders and highlights our commitment to supporting the Government’s Places for Growth agenda through regional investment. While helping civil servants to deliver better public services in modern, inclusive and digitally-enabled workplaces.
The Manchester hub will house 2,500 civil servants from at least four different government departments, making it one of the largest hubs for cross-government collaboration and operation outside London. The move forms part of the Government’s Places for Growth Programme and underlines its commitment to levelling up with some 700 roles being relocated from London.
Our Manchester Hub gets its first concrete pour
The building works at our Manchester Hub in First Street rapidly progressed in April as we completed the first concrete pour to form the core base of the build.
Our project is gathering pace as the structural steelwork emerges from the basement and follows the concrete core up the building as we begin to create an innovative office space for civil servants in Manchester.
An aerial photo showing the full Manchester First Street site where the ground works have begun. The image shows two huge white booms pouring concrete into the frame works that will create the core of the build.
Integrating new starters effectively at our first new build in Peterborough
The official opening of our first new build Government hub, Quay House in Peterborough took place in March.
Since the hub’s opening, over 1,110 staff from His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) and Defra have now received their inductions over a phased period.
The inductions were delivered through a collaborative approach with help from the GPA, HMPO, Defra, ISS (Facilities Management) and Telefonica (IT) joining forces to ensure a strong sense of community and connection within the hub was delivered.
The joint effort in ensuring staff were integrated effectively has proved very successful, with 80% of surveyed respondents rating their experience very highly.
The new Hub is part of the £120m regeneration project of Fletton Quays and is expected to generate over £340 million of private sector revenue for the area.
CPNI’s ‘Think Before You Link’ app to counter malicious approaches online
The UK’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), an offshoot of MI5, developed the ‘Think before You Link’ app to help businesses and employees better protect themselves from potential espionage.
The app empowers users of social media and professional networking sites to better identify the hallmarks of fake profiles, often used by foreign spies and other malicious actors. The app provides steps to report the accounts to have them removed from the platforms.
CPNI’s app reinforces the ongoing need for vigilance when posting on social media and includes features such as a profile reviewer, which will help individuals identify potentially fake profiles and report anything suspicious.
According to MI5, at least 10,000 UK nationals have been approached by fake profiles on LinkedIn, linked to hostile states, over the past five years. Find out more about how LinkedIn deals with fake accounts as well as spam and scam content.
The GPA supports a new pilot furniture donation scheme
Business2Schools (B2S), supports schools throughout the UK by distributing office furniture and IT equipment donated by businesses that no longer require them.
During our refurbishment project at Temple Quay House (TQH) in Bristol, our team recognised the majority of office furniture that was no longer needed was in very good condition. The team engaged B2S to initiate a pilot scheme while ensuring all items met with an environmentally friendly and sustainable solution.
So far, the furniture from TQH has been donated to 13 Schools with the remaining furniture now allocated to Second Chance, which provides free furniture to refugees and victims of domestic abuse.
By working with B2S we have;
- Repurposed 70% of the furniture that was no longer required
- Saved c20 tonnes of waste going to landfill and c45+ tonnes of carbon emissions from the recycling process
- Furniture that was deemed “not suitable” to be reused, repaired or recycled has been broken down into its component parts and these have been weighed in, allowing the charity to gain a small income
- Saved circa £25,000 in recycling costs, keeping money in the public purse
Smarter Working Live Award winners announced
Smarter working practices empowers us to embrace change, generate greater productivity, simplify processes and realise cost savings through efficiencies.
Our Smarter Working Live Awards recognise the public sector teams who have excelled in shaping the future ways of working through smarter working. Whether that’s the most future-focused workspace, innovative use of technology or transformative change programme - the Smarter Working Live Awards celebrate all aspects of smarter working.
In April we announced our 10 award winners and two special recognition award winners.
Dominic Brankin, Workplace Services Director at the Government Property Agency said:
This years’ Smarter Working Live Awards saw more than 120 public sector organisations submit entries across 10 categories. This has been the most successful Awards to date, and we are very proud to provide the platform that enables our Civil Service colleagues to showcase their commitment to smarter ways of working.
The volume of entries reiterates the Government’s commitment to improving efficiencies and enhancing the way everyone works across the public sector to deliver better public services.
Congratulations to all the finalists. And to the winners for their outstanding achievements, innovations and improvements.