SLAs - Estate management
The Barbican Estate Office (BEO) provides the following estate management services to residents. These are delivered by staff employed directly by the City of London Corporation or by approved contractors engaged in accordance with the City Corporation’s service procurement policies.
The objective of the service is to provide a clean, safe and secure environment for residents and their visitors. This is achieved by a team of tower block Lobby Porters and Car Park Attendants/Estate Concierge and a team of cleaners carrying out a programme of scheduled and reactive cleaning, refuse collection services and through a window cleaning contract.
The BEO recognises that residents are its customers and is committed to delivering a high quality and responsive housing and estate management service.
The BEO will achieve this through:
- the employment of helpful and competent staff, who are well organised and motivated
- robust performance monitoring systems via the House Officers
- the provision of appropriate facilities
- effective procurement and management of services
- efficient administrative and accounting services
- and effective planning, scheduling and prioritisation of works
Cleaning services apply to all common parts of all residential blocks and are undertaken on the working days Monday – Friday by directly employed staff unless a variation has been agreed. They will undertake the following tasks at the stated frequencies:
| Activity | Frequency* |
|---|---|
| Collect refuse from all flats and distribute replacement sacks and bags | Daily by noon |
| Clean bin, compactor skip and recycle bin areas | Daily |
| Clean lift lobbies, entrance lobbies and entrances from car park, ground and podium levels including internal glass and fittings and external lift door surfaces | Daily |
| Clean lift floor, walls, lift control panels and mirrors | Daily |
| Internal mail delivery | Daily (once) |
| Report faulty locks/door closures, broken windows, graffiti in common parts | Daily |
| Report faulty lights in common parts | Daily |
| Clean play areas | Weekly |
| Sweep and mop communal lobby stairs, dust banisters and ledges Weekly | Weekly |
| Vacuum carpets | Weekly |
| Vacuum lift thresholds, clean and polish lift brass thresholds | Weekly |
| Deep clean lift control panels and external lift door surfaces on levels above podium | Weekly |
| Clean entry phone panels, hand push door panels and all stainless steel | Weekly |
| Clean marks off interior glass and walls | Weekly |
| Stocktake and materials delivery | Weekly |
| Clean doors (including doors to flats), frames and window ledges, door panel ledges and utility cupboard doors & doors to fire escapes | Monthly |
| Sweep and mop fire escape stairs | Monthly |
| Sweep and clear balconies in communal areas | Monthly |
| Clean baggage store areas & remove dumped items | Monthly |
| Clean baggage store areas & remove dumped items | As required |
| Shampoo carpets | As required |
| Strip and seal tiled areas as required following consultation with the House Group | As required |
| Clean cobwebs especially above entrance levels in blocks | As required |
| Empty and clean cigarette ash bins (Towers only) | As required |
Cleaning teams also clean car park areas, lakeside and podia areas under BEO control on a scheduled basis and salt, grit and clear snow and detritus as necessary.
*Frequency definitions
- Daily: Monday to Friday (plus Saturday and/or Sunday where variation agreed)
- Weekly: once in any working week
- Monthly: once per calendar month
- As Required: regular inspection and appropriate action will be undertaken.
Cleaners also undertake the following unscheduled tasks:
- Emergency cleaning tasks eg floods, hygienic cleaning to remove health risks
- Removal of graffiti
- Fixing protective curtains in lifts as requested and removing them when no longer required
A pigeon service is carried out by contractors weekly to control pigeon nesting and by the Harris Hawk service to control pigeon numbers.
The BEO delivers window cleaning services through specialist contractors. Window cleaning tasks will be carried out at the following intervals:
Each external glass face of flats
- Windows and doors
- Both faces of privacy screens, balcony screens and glazing in communal areas
All to be cleaned
- once every 6 weeks or
- once every quarter, where abseiling is required
Contractors will be on site between 8.30am and 4.30pm (Monday to Friday) but will not enter balcony areas before 9am. Contractors will obtain key permissions where appropriate where access is required or make access arrangements with individual residents, as required.
Contractors will carry out health and safety testing of security eye-bolts and will make a report to the BEO. All safety certificates are held by the BEO.
The BEO will provide residents with controlled access to, and safety and security within, residents’ car-parking areas on a 24-hour, 365-days per year basis.
Uniformed Car Park Attendants/Estate Concierge will maintain security through
- preventing unauthorised access by pedestrians or vehicles
- patrolling garage areas
- maintaining an up-to-date incident log
- monitoring common areas via CCTV (where installed)
- controlling access and keys to secure areas
Car Park Attendants/Estate Concierge will also be responsible for
- ensuring the correct parking of vehicles within the car park areas and the allocation and supervision of temporary parking
- supervising the proper use of wash-bay equipment
- reporting any defects within the car park areas, including lighting, to the Repairs Call Centre for repair
- ensuring the car park offices are clean and tidy
Car Park Attendants/Estate Concierge for the terrace blocks will provide concierge services from a car park office close to the residents, typically underneath the residential block
This service will include:
- recording & reporting complaints and requests from residents
- monitoring the progress of any repairs reported
- reporting any incidents of criminal activity from residents, including breaches of security
- assisting visitors and residents with guest parking and directions
- receiving and holding residents’ parcels and messages for collection at the Attendants’ work station and reporting emergency incidents or accidents, including people trapped in lifts, to the duty manager for immediate action
This is the provision of a lobby-based security and concierge service for residents of the three tower blocks. This service will provide residents with a secure environment and assistance consistent with a concierge service all day every day.
They will maintain security and proper use of common parts by
- preventing unauthorised access
- maintaining an up to date incident log
- monitoring of alarm and CCTV systems
- managing usage of forecourt areas
- controlling access to secure areas
Lobby Porters will also provide a means of communication between residents and the BEO by
- recording and reporting complaints and requests from residents
- reporting any incidents of criminal activity, from residents
- reporting any defects within public areas, including lighting, to the Repairs Call Centre for repair
- monitoring the progress of any repairs reported
Lobby Porters will provide concierge services and also be responsible for
- ensuring that Lobby areas are kept clean and tidy
- reporting litter immediately outside of the towers to the podium cleaners
- receiving and holding residents’ parcels and messages for collection at their work station
- assisting visitors and residents with guest parking and directions and reporting emergency incidents or accidents, including people trapped in lifts, to their duty manager for immediate action
- the facilitation of the postal and parcel delivery
- controlling the use of the lifts by the postman, removal contractors and building contractors, including the use of protective curtains
This service is available between Monday to Thursday 5pm to 9.15am and 5pm Friday to 9.15am Monday
The duty on-site Engineer will be responsible for providing the out-of-hours Estate Management function including attendance at emergency incidents, including lift trappings, and dealing with incidents of nuisance. (On-site staff will be available on a shift basis, 24-hours a day, 365 days per year).
These can be contacted via your local Car Park Attendants / Estate Concierge.
Performance against appropriate and agreed targets will be monitored and reported to residents through the RCC and BRC at the scheduled meetings. Accurate records of call-outs, and health & safety certification will be maintained by PS on behalf of the BEO.