Grounds Maintenance Contract Management and General Advice

Key Benefits

• Expert advice on all aspects of improving your school grounds.
• Management of all your grounds maintenance contracts.
• Regular inspections to make sure your contractors are giving you a high quality service.

Testimonials

We are all thoroughly delighted with the superb willow tunnel you have created in our garden- it will look fantastic in the summer. We think the grounds maintenance team do a wonderful job and are most grateful for the work you have done at St Mark's.

St Mark's Church of England Primary

Service Details

We will:

• advise you on making sure your school’s needs are fully specified in your grounds maintenance contract
• take care of contracts and pay contractors
• make sure contractors give you a high quality, cost effective service – we carry out random inspections at least once every four months
• make sure contractors comply with the terms of their contract, including meeting deadlines and making contingency arrangements for staff absence, breakdowns and emergencies
• maintain accurate records of your contract and maintenance of your grounds
• make any changes to your service that you request
• advise you on effective financial planning, including a forecast of expenditure across the year
• respond promptly to any complaints or requests for advice and assistance
• at your request, meet with your headteacher or nominated representative every second term to discuss how the maintenance service is going
• at your request, provide the headteacher and school governors with a written forecast report on the school grounds

We can also advise you on:

• hard and soft landscaping or new developments
• using playing fields, including letting them to non-school organisations
• looking after and improving your playing fields
• new grass playing fields
• new synthetic playing surfaces for specialist sports such as cricket, general sports activities, multi-use games areas and pitch areas
• improving your site layout
• creating sites with educational value, including ponds, wild flower meadows, nature trails, woodlands, assault courses, play equipment and quiet seated areas
• looking after your boundaries and keeping your site secure
• creating and looking after hard play areas and open spaces, new paths and car parking areas
• tree and shrub planting
• improving lawns and other grassed areas.

Extra work and services

We can arrange for extra work and services to be carried out at your school. This would be at an additional cost and you would receive a written quotation before the work is carried out and equipment ordered. If you have a limited budget our area grounds advisory officers can advise you on what options are available.

Examples of extra work and services include:

• woodchips for playgrounds
• playground markings
• wood mulch for shrub borders
• topsoil
• turf
• purchasing and planting trees and shrubs
• playground surfacing
• sports equipment - for example, rugby and football posts.