Property Services is a division of the Chief Executive and Corporate Resources Department of South Gloucestershire Council. We provide building design and project management, mechanical and electrical design and maintenance, property care and facilities management, as well as valuation and estate management to maintained schools. We also have an in-house building repairs team that can carry out minor repairs for schools.
Please note – this service is for maintained schools only and provided without charge.
Condition surveys
We will carry out a periodic condition survey and report on the school’s condition and hold an annual meeting with the school to review the condition report, as well as advise on any works necessary to rectify issues identified.
Emergency out-of-hours call-outs
If a school suffers a major incident, such as a fire or flood, then a Property Services surveyor will attend the incident, liaise with the emergency services and arrange for contractors to carry out any urgent works. We will provide assistance in commencing the process of making a claim on the school’s insurers.
Service Contracts
Property Services have set up council-wide contracts for the maintenance of major items of fixed equipment. Please contact us for the full list of items covered. These contracts normally include:
- periodic routine servicing of the equipment
- service repairs, i.e. repairs identified and carried out during the routine servicing visit
- response repairs, i.e. repairs following a call-out by the school in response to a fault.
Schools can either use the council’s contractor or make their own arrangements with an alternative contractor. There is no charge from Property Services for use of the council’s contractors. However, schools will have to agree prices, raise an order and pay their chosen contractor’s invoices.
Please note – Not all of these contracts are applicable to all schools. If you are uncertain as to the contracts that apply to your school, please contact Property Services for advice.
This includes services available without charge for a specified level. Over the specified level, the services are chargeable.
General advice and support for school buildings upkeep
This service gives your school access to professional advice from qualified and experienced Property Services staff. The service includes a periodic visit to your school by your school’s allocated surveyor or engineer to deal with specific maintenance issues and your schools repairs and maintenance in general.
You can telephone or email your allocated surveyor, mechanical or electrical engineer for advice and support during normal working hours – 8.45am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 8.45am to 4.30pm on Friday. If you require urgent advice and your own surveyor is not available, a duty surveyor will be available.
There is no charge for advice of up to four hours per annum from surveyors, mechanical or electrical engineers. Additional hours will be charged at an hourly rate. Charges may also be made if advice on individual items is more than an hour, but this will be discussed with the school in advance.
Property care helpdesk
Many straightforward repairs can be dealt with by the school without involving Property Services, either by your caretaker or a small local contractor. We encourage this, as it is cheaper for the council as a whole and reduces the number of people involved in the process. However, you should be aware that the school is responsible for ensuring that any work carried out is in accordance with appropriate health and safety rules.
For more complicated repairs you may want the work to be overseen by a qualified surveyor or engineer from Property Service, and in this regard you can ask our helpdesk to arrange this. Alternatively, our in-house building repairs team may be able to carry out the required work, or it may be necessary to appoint an appropriate outside contractor. There is no charge for this service, but you will be responsible for paying for the repair work itself.
The following services are offered for a three year contract period.
Statutory testing
School buildings are subject to a number of statutory regulations covering critical health and safety areas, so you need to ensure you are aware of your responsibilities. The following tests and inspections are required by law, and failure to ensure they are carried out may result in prosecution:
- Statutory tests and inspections that are normally included in a regular service contract
- Fixed electrical installation testing – every five years
- Fire alarm systems – ongoing
- Portable appliance testing – annual
- High voltage sub-station inspection – every two and five years
- Disabled WC alarms – annual
- Intruder alarm systems connected to a monitoring station with police response – ongoing
- Lifts (annual with five year and ten year insurance inspections)
- Gas & oil appliance testing (excluding school kitchens) (annual)
- Air conditioning inspection (every five years)
- Gas-fired radiant heaters (annual)
- Display energy certificates (DECs) (annual)
- Sealed system expansion equipment (annual)
- Legionella testing (ongoing)
- Sprinkler systems (annual)
- Oil storage systems (every two years)
- Woodchip & wood pellet boilers (annual)
Property Services have set up arrangements with contractors to carry out the tests and inspections c, m and o above. Schools may opt into any or all of these contracts, details below. If schools do not opt in to these contracts, then they must make alternative arrangements for these and all the other tests and inspections listed above and provide Property Services with appropriate evidence (normally a test or inspection certificate) as a record that the work has been carried out.
- Property Services can manage arrangements on behalf of the school and maintain the required records, thus ensuring that the school and the Council comply with their legal responsibilities for the following:
(c) Fixed electrical installation testing (every five years)
(m) Display energy certificates (DECs) (annual)
(o) Legionella testing (ongoing)
- Property Services will agree the programme of testing visits with each contractor and provide this to the school. The contractors will then contact the school to make the appointments to carry out the testing. Property Services will receive and pay the invoices from the contractor.
- The school will pay the costs of the testing plus a Property Services management charge. In the case of fixed electrical testing if enough schools are interested it may be possible to pay an annual sum into a pooled fund to enable schools to spread out the cost of these tests that otherwise might put a strain on their individual school’s budget.
- The cost of these contracts will be school specific, based on the size of the school and number of fittings, services etc. There will be a Property Services management fee of £30 per year per contract opted into.
Energy procurement and Management
- Following a tender exercise the Council has entered into an energy purchasing agreement with West Mercia Energy. Schools can opt into the electricity or gas contracts in any required combination.
- The West Mercia Contract includes the provision of detailed information on consumption and costs and a free helpdesk for dealing with supply and billing problems.
- There will be no charge directly from Property Services for opting into this service. The council will receive a small rebate from the suppliers, which will fund the procurement of the contracts and access to Systemslink, it also funds the provision of energy efficiency and carbon reduction advice at no extra cost to schools that have opted in to the service.
- The contract with West Mercia is a flexible energy contract which is a fairly complex arrangement, but has to date provided schools with very competitive energy prices. Please contact Property Services if you require further details.
- The Council is required to provide commitments to buy minimum amounts of energy. It will therefore not be possible for schools to opt out of this service after having made their initial decision. However, the Council is confident that schools buying electricity or gas independently will always pay significantly more than through the Council contracts.
The following services are available for purchase on a Pay-as-you-go basis:
Design Service
If you are considering a self-help project, then we offer a free initial advisory service to discuss the possible options available for any project that you are considering progressing as a self-help scheme. This would normally take the form of a visit to the school to meet with the Head Teacher at the early inception stage of a possible project before any drawings have been produced.
Property Services’ charges will depend on the size of the project and the nature of the work. The basis of the fees and an estimate of the costs will be provided at the start of the project.
If you decide to go ahead with the project, Property Services can manage the project on your behalf. We can provide your school with a comprehensive design and project management service for all types of property-related projects.
Valuation & Estates
Property Services can provide help to schools in the following areas of estate management: Schools boundaries; Boundary disputes and encroachments; Community use of school facilities; Disposal of property.
You should be aware that, with all of these services, we may have to act for the interest of the Council as a whole at the same time as we are providing a service to the school. There are also legal restrictions on schools’ powers in these areas unfortunately, this means that we may not always be able to comply with the wishes of the school. If this happens, we will always explain to you why this is the case.
Property Services’ charges will depend on the size of the project and the nature of the work. The basis of the fees and an estimate of the costs will be provided at the start of the project.
Building Repairs
The Building Repairs Team can carry out minor repairs for schools.
The service is accessed by contacting the Property Care Helpdesk. All requests to the helpdesk for a repair that the building repairs team have the resources and skills to carry out will be allocated to the team.
Property Services will charge a labour rate and materials at cost plus 10%.