9651 The outsourcing of services following the restructuring of the department

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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 11TH OCTOBER 2016

Question

Following the recent restructuring of the Department, will the Minister detail:

1. which specific services have been outsourced to private companies, giving the names of those companies;

Answer

DfI has outsourced the following services:

Cleaning

• Markets cleaning and caretaking;
• Public toilet cleaning;
• Multi storey car parks Town, East and West (Cleaning); and
• Office cleaning.

These services are now being undertaken by local contractors, JCF Cleaners Company, Amalgamated Facilities Management and G4S Secure Solutions (Jersey) Ltd.

Gardening and Grounds Maintenance

• Small garden areas, verges and trees east;
• St Aubin's Bay, West Park to Brelade's Parish Hall ;
• The Railway walk and Pont Marquet Country Park;
• The Gorey Area;
• Park Keeping and Paddling pool maintenance;
• Primary School sites general gardening contracts;
• Primary School sites playing fields mowing, line marking and general maintenance;
• Secondary school maintenance of gardens; and
• Millennium Town Park.

These services are now being undertaken by Elite Garden and Property Services Limited, CA Frazier Group Limited and Ransom Horticultural Services. The Department is currently working with the Parish of St Helier to finalise terms and conditions associated with the Millennium Town Park.

Question

2. which services have been retained in house;

Answer

Cleaning

• Highways- Island wide emptying of bins;
• Sweeping, removal of weeds, de-littering and emptying bins at Ports of Jersey Sites will be handed back to Ports of Jersey on the 1 November 2016; and
• Cleaning contract for Andium Homes.

Gardening and Ground Maintenance

• Howard Davies Park, Coronation Park, Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Park and Seafront Garden;
• Small Garden areas, Verges and Trees west of the Island;

• Multi-Storey & Surface Car Parks;
• Arboriculture and Forestry Team;
• The Playing Fields Section has transferred to Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture Department; and
• The Countryside Rangers Team has transferred to the Environment Department.

Question

3. how many staff have been retained in house, and at which grades;

Answer

38 employees have been retained in house as part of the new Parks, Cleaning and Contracts structure.

Breakdown of roles and grades as follows remaining in DfI.

The following 11 roles in the Playing Fields team are transferring to EDST&C

Question

4. how many staff have left the Department, indicating the number leaving through retirement and those receiving severance or redundancy payments;

Answer

In total 130 employees have left this section in total since 2009.

 Between 1 January 2016 and 3 October 2016, in total 95 employees have left Parks, Gardens and Cleaning and the breakdown is as follows for 2016;

9 employees are on the redeployment register and are receiving ongoing outplacement support and in many cases redeployment trials have already been identified.

Question

5. What costs have been incurred in the outsourcing process and what budget savings have been achieved?

Answer

Costs are made up of the following; the Change team, workshops for affected staff, project management time and advertising costs incurred for the outsourcing of Parks, Gardens and cleaning for 2016 to date are £174,000. Resourcing for the project has been utilised from existing DfI Employees and no external specialists/consultants have been employed.

Budget savings are estimated to be in excess of £800,000 per annum and there will be savings for other departments.