Founded in 1922, St. Mary's has become a centre of excellence for the provision of education and life skills development for children with severe and complex Speech, Language and Communication disabilities.

St Mary's takes day and residential children from age 7 through to 19 plus. Students attend the 6th form College from the age of 16.

The School provides excellent facilities and specialist staff including experienced Teachers, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, an Audiologist, Educational Psychologist, Psychology Assistants, Teaching and Therapy Assistants and Care staff.

The tender project is seeking to appoint a Contractor whose initiative and innovation will be welcomed for the provision of cleaning services within the facilities for St Mary's School and College. The high quality service levels proposed, should deliver excellent standards throughout, resulting in a pleasant environment for both the pupils and staff.

The basis and rationale that the Client requires the successful contractor to operate to at all times, is being able to provide a School that is fit for purpose and that the Contractor is proactive in the management of the contract, thus ensuring that all specifications are achieved and that the frequency of cleans is as detailed within the tender specification.

The contract being tendered is for 3 years in duration from 1.9.2017 until 31.7.2020, with an option to further extend during the contract term and will be fixed price in nature, with the Contractor invoicing the Client for 1/12th of the annual cost on a monthly basis.

It should be noted that the successful contractor will be expected to bring to the contract: innovation; new equipment; and cleaning methods, with BICSc standards being achieved as a minimum, thus ensuring that the highest levels of cleanliness are maintained in all areas at all times and also ensuring that the productivity of the cleaning operatives is enhanced moving forward into the new contract term.

At present 13 domestic (8.17 FTE) operatives are employed to work between the hours of 5:00 and 14:00 predominantly Monday to Friday, term time only. The Supervisory position is currently vacant and no recruitment process is in place ~ this will be the responsibility of the successful contractor, upon contract award. Currently the swimming pool area is cleaned Monday to Saturday between 6:30 and 8:30.

There is occasionally a requirement for domestic operatives to work additional hours in holiday periods, which is currently offered as overtime.

The value of the current contract is circa 168 929 GBP + VAT which includes daily cleaning duties and periodic cleaning. Additional services are sourced externally and are broken down as follows:

— 1 600 GBP window cleaning ~ 2 cleans per annum.

— 800 GBP gutter clearing / cherry picker / carpet clean.

— 1 443 GBP clinical waste disposal.

— 8 017 GBP waste bins.

— 5 329 GBP feminine hygiene, water management system, auto sanitisers and barrier matting x 42 weeks per year.

— 2 184 GBP laundry appliance service.

Whilst the School prioritises value for money as a key objective of the competitive tender process, the Governing body is not obliged to accept the lowest price.

The School's objectives:

— To build upon the standards of cleanliness within the School;

— To receive a service that complies with the service standards;

— To receive consistently high quality cleaning standards, via a motivated and fully staffed workforce;

— To generate an improved learning environment for all students, within the School;

— To receive pro-active management support for the cleaning staff;

— To hold regular review meetings with the successful contractor;

— To achieve overall value for money.