{"HashCode":-892287155,"Height":841.0,"Width":595.0,"Placement":"Header","Index":"Primary","Section":1,"Top":0.0,"Left":0.0}                            [SAC0008]

Written evidence submitted by VIVO Defence Services

 

Introduction to VIVO

 

VIVO Defence Services provide hard facilities management services on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation’s (DIO) Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) programme.

 

We are a joint venture between Serco and Equans, able to benefit from the experience and resources of both our parent organisations:

 

 

 

VIVO operate the Built Estate contracts in the central and southwest regions, the Regional Accommodation Maintenance Services (RAMS) contracts in the southwest and southeast regions, and at 11 United States Visiting Forces (USVF) bases across England. 

 

 

Executive Summary

 

Since VIVO commenced services to the FDIS Accommodation contract in April 2022 we have been committed to enabling defence capability, particularly through enhancing the lived experience of the families.

 

The service that families have experienced has been inconsistent: the VIVO service has been above target on different estates at different times which demonstrates that the Pinnacle/VIVO model does work, but we recognise that the general level of performance has not consistently been at the level at which we designed VIVO to deliver.  This has been incredibly disappointing for us, but we know the frustration for the families has been far higher.

 

There were four key reasons for this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

We began responding to these challenges before ISD, and since then have continued to adapt to the changing landscape:

 

 

 

 

These changes needed investment and we made the decision to commit additional funding and resources from our Accommodation contract into the improvement and optimisation of our delivery.  In addition, DIO have exercised their right to withhold our profits to also invest into the contract.

 

Pleasingly our actions have had a significant effect since our service experienced its most challenging period in early 2023:

 

 

 

 

 

Please find below evidence to support this summary, against headings listed in the ‘Call to Evidence’. Please note, we have only addressed the evidence points relevant to VIVO.

 

 

  1. What measures have been put in place to resolve the housing maintenance issues, hold service providers to account and ease the cost of living for service families?

 

1.1  Key Issue: Legacy Works

 

1.2  Key Issue: Missed Appointments

 

 

1.3  Key Issue: Increase in Complaints

 

1.4  Key Issue: Damp & Mould

Media coverage of the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale led to an increased concern among service families about damp and mould, much of which was due to an historic under-investment in repairs.

 

1.5  Key Issue: Heating and Hot water failures

 

1.6  Key Issue: Landlord Gas Safety Inspections (LGSIs)

 

1.7  Invested in a restructured Senior Management Team

 

1.8 The benefits that these initiatives have generated

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Do the new Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) contracts for Service Family Accommodation represent value for money and are they operating effectively?

 

DIO provide assurance around value for money, and we believe the FDIS contracts over their life will deliver value for money and greater benefits as they mature and new innovations are realised.  In this paper we have described the actions we have taken to ensure we play our role in that.

 

A critical element of operational effectiveness is collaboration, and we have played a proactive role in this area. Mobilisation represented a challenging period, but all partners are beyond this stage and the learning each has gained has contributed heavily towards a collegiate collaborative approach. This enables us to continue to provide improvement and long-term sustainable solutions.

 

Examples of collaboration include:

 

 

3        Are there examples of good practice in provision of service accommodation, which could be replicated across Defence?

 

3.1 Access to Services

VIVO, working with Pinnacle, has implemented improved appointments systems, including online booking, facilitating accurate fault diagnosis and the scheduling and tracking of appointments.

 

3.2 Collaborative Approach.

See point 2

 

3.3 New Technology

VIVO has implemented technology not used within service accommodation before such as BCM Connect boiler sensors to detect boiler faults, and Multidot smart temperature and humidity monitors (at properties after new fast track damp and mould repairs take place) for real time monitoring of humidity so proactive work, if needed, can be carried out to prevent a re-occurrence.

 

3.4 Agility

We have developed new packages of work across void refurbishments and damp and mould treatment, including an agile mobilisation process. This enables teams to scale up ways of working on need and could be utilised across all FDIS contracts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Is enough money being invested to modernise and future proof military accommodation and how long will it take for all military accommodation to meet an acceptable standard of energy efficiency?

 

While decisions around investment into military family homes is not a matter for VIVO, it is clear that significant funding is needed to improve energy efficiency in many properties due to their age and condition, in addition to modernising the SFA estate which was largely constructed between 1950 and 1970 and not designed to be still in use today.  The work VIVO is doing includes:

 

4.1 Billable Works

VIVO is currently delivering £35m of major projects to improve energy efficiency in homes, with an additional £3.6m already delivered. A further £28m is awaiting DIO approval with all work scheduled to be completed by March 2024. These includes providing multiple properties, in phases, with new windows and doors, roofs and external wall Insulation.

 

4.2 Project Phoenix

In the summer of 2022, VIVO launched Project Phoenix to upgrade Building Energy Management Systems (BEMs) across the Built Estate to allow energy consuming plant to be better controlled and monitored.  This new infrastructure will enable data collection from sub-meters as many have not been read since installation. This data will allow VIVO to better understand energy consumption across sites and propose further initiatives.  ​DIO have approved 14 sites for upgrade and the first, RAF Leeming, is almost 50 percent complete.

 

4.3 Investment in proactive Damp and Mould repairs

See point 1.4

 

4.4 Void Refurbishments

 

4.5 Energy efficiency ambitions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References:

  1. The increased demand VIVO experienced on its services across the Accommodation contracts comes from job volumes and changes made to the priority of specific jobs, with many having shorter response times in the new contract. VIVO’s figures show this increased demand by 19.3% in the southwest, and 14.3% in the southeast in 2022/23 compared to the previous period, which equates to c17% across the two regions.

 

  1. The table below shows the increase in resources available to VIVO’s RAMS contracts to carry out maintenance on SFA homes across its two regions. Please note the figure equates to number of people, not FTE.

 

Element

ISD

Jul-23

Notes

VIVO Direct Employees

220

240

52 roles transferred to Tier 1 suppliers on 31st March 2023. This figure follows this transfer. The comparative figure for July 2023, if this transfer did not take place is 292

 

No of Tier 1 Contractor Employees used on Contract

678

1,197

 

No of Subcontractor Employees

311

529

 

TOTAL

1,209

1,966

Increase of 757, or 63%

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Met Office: A review of the UK’s climate in 2022 - Carbon Brief.
  2. The dedicated damp and mould taskforce consists of an operations manager, small works managers (covering areas within each region) and project manager and administrative support.

 

 

30 August 2023

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