InFocus: Updates from the Government Property Agency (October 24)
InFocus brings together news and views from across the Government Property Agency.
WELCOME TO INFOCUS, October 2024
Yvette Greener, Client Director
It’s been a busy few months here at the Government Property Agency (GPA) as we supported clients through the General Election period and transition to a new Government.
Last month we confirmed the permanent appointment of Mark Bourgeois as our Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mark has filled the post as interim CEO since November 2023, during which time we have identified a number of focus areas for improved performance across our services. With this insight, along with his extensive leadership experience from the private sector, Mark is now well positioned to lead our organisation in delivering on these priorities for our clients.
I am also pleased to welcome Georgina Dunn to our Executive Committee as interim Capital Projects Director, following the retirement of Clive Anderson. Georgina has joined on secondment from Turner & Townsend, where she is Director and Global Head of Government and Public Sector. Her experience leading large scale and high-profile infrastructure, property and construction programmes is already bringing great value to our team.
Carly Ersser will join the GPA as interim Director of Workplace Services in November, replacing Louis Roberts. Carly will transfer from HM Treasury, where she worked as Deputy Director Multisite Darlington Economic Campus Programme. Carly has an excellent insight as to what it’s like to be a GPA client, a very clear strategic view of the GPA and a real passion to deliver for our clients. She will make an excellent addition to the leadership team and drive the development and improvement of our workplace services.
Last week our new Strategic Client Committee convened for the first time. More details about the Committee are included in this newsletter, and I’m looking forward to the strides forward we can take with the Committee’s strategic recommendations and feedback.
Ongoing plans to improve the workplace experience of people in our buildings include the redevelopment of our Customer Service Portal, which will provide helpful information, resources and community forums across a number of our offices. Our new PropTech Experience Group, which is open to technology professionals across government, is also ensuring that we are proactive in understanding how our technology services can be optimised to meet the needs of end users.
We’ve made substantial progress on a number of projects in our Government Hubs Programme in recent months, with key milestones reached in Manchester, York, Croydon and Darlington. Our Peterborough Hub, which opened in 2023, has also been recognised as one of the world’s leading public sector offices for workplace experience.
I hope you enjoy reading our latest updates below. On behalf of our executive and client teams, thank you for your continued support.
In this issue:
- Focus on audiovisual (AV) for upcoming Property Technology Experience Group events
- Coming soon: a relaunched customer service portal
- Our new Strategic Client Committee
- Anna Strongman appointed Non Executive Director
- Peterborough hub named one of world’s leading workplace experiences
- Our accredited approach to sustainability
- More than five tonnes of furniture reused
- Increasing demand for GovPrint
- The ‘Digital Switchover’
- Smarter Working Live Awards shortlist announced
- Land deal paves way for cutting edge government hub in Manchester
- Consultation opens on proposals for former Manchester retail park
- Darlington Government Hub Gains Planning Consent
- New Government Hub for York Given Planning Green Light
- Croydon Hub fit-out close to completion
- Mystery shopping across our portfolio
- Celebrating our team successes
Focus on audiovisual (AV) for upcoming Property Technology Experience Group events
Following the success of our Property Technology Experience Group launch in June, two more events are coming up which focus on how we are advancing our AV capabilities across the government office estate.
AV Solution Show & Tell – date TBC
We will showcase our latest v3 AV solution at 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London. This in-person and hybrid event will offer an exclusive demonstration of meeting rooms with cutting-edge AV technology. This is a fantastic opportunity to see our latest AV advancements and learn about how they can be applied across government hubs.
AVIXA Day, 19 December, Peterborough, Quay House
A dedicated day with AVIXA, the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association, a leading organisation that supports AV professionals worldwide, offering resources that can greatly benefit those working in the civil service. At this event, they will raise awareness of international standards for AV, explore industry groups, and introduce a comprehensive range of training programmes and online webinars.
These events are designed to keep technology professionals in government at the forefront of our technology developments and ensure departments are equipped with the latest knowledge and best practice in AV. It will also be a valuable opportunity for us to hear from you about your own AV experiences within your department, allowing an exchange of insights and effective strategies across the community.
Join our Property Technology knowledge community
Members of our Knowledge Hub group can gain access to a wealth of resources, participate in ongoing discussions with fellow professionals, and benefit from shared knowledge and experiences. There will also be information about future events and developments in the Property Technology space.
Interested in attending?
Please register interest in the events by completing our Google Form. More details and official invites will follow.
Coming soon: a relaunched customer service portal
We are pleased to announce that our customer service portal will soon be relaunched to provide a better, accessible platform for building users to access and share information about their workplaces. The portal is currently available to people working in 28 of our managed buildings, and will be rolled out across more buildings in the future following the improvements.
Our new Strategic Client Committee
We have introduced a new Strategic Client Committee to gather strategic insight, feedback and recommendations regarding your current and future requirements, and to inform our future direction
The committee is made up of a small group of senior leaders invited from a representative selection of client organisations. The clients represented will change on a yearly basis and work alongside the chair of the government COO network and our own senior leaders.
The committee will meet quarterly and serve as a collaborative forum to ensure that you have a senior level voice into the GPA, as part of our commitment to fostering a client-centric culture.
The first meeting took place last week and covered topics including the spending review, closing the funding gap and workplace design and space planning.
In addition, we are introducing a quarterly Client Working Group, replacing the previous Client Committee meetings, which will include representation from all of our Portfolio clients. Further details of the Client Working Group will be shared in due course.
More than five tonnes of furniture reused
We’ve coordinated more than 170 items of used office furniture, the equivalent of five tonnes, to be reused ensuring they didn’t end up in landfill, saving over 13 tonnes of carbon emissions.
The surplus furniture was removed from Feethams House in Darlington. It was part of a project to maximise workpoints within the hub following the successful recruitment of over 700 roles at the Darlington Economic Campus (DEC).
The refurbishment was completed in April and resulted in surplus used furniture. Rather than sending the items to landfill, our Innovation and Assurance team worked with Go Green Managed Services to reuse the items on our other projects across the government’s office portfolio as well as sending some items to the Department for Education.
Miguel Godfrey, Head of Sustainability said:
With millions of pieces of furniture discarded in the UK each year, it is vital that we as an organisation are able to redistribute our equipment to our other projects enabling teams and departments to help their staff operate effectively while also saving on carbon emissions and taxpayer spend.
Of the 178 items of furniture, we reused 13%, 57% is being stored for use on some of our other projects (including Temple Quay House in Bristol) and 30% is being reused by the Department for Education, saving a total of 13.2 tonnes of carbon emissions.
Croydon Hub fit-out close to completion
We have entered the final phase of one of our most challenging and complex projects to-date – our Croydon Hub.
Set to be home for more than 7,000 Home Office (HO) civil servants, 2 Ruskin Square in Croydon will be the largest new build government hub we have delivered.
The project has been carefully designed to support the Home Office requirements, with a range of operational facilities including a significant public facing area with specialist interview rooms, family areas and a café to support customer needs.
There will also be new, fully inclusive furniture to suit all working styles including meeting pods, railway carriages and focus settings. The hub will have a range of interoperable technology including GovWifi, GovPrint and GovPass.
The programme has focused on the efficient transition and migration of staff to ensure the existing HO estate is successfully decommissioned ahead of the lease end date. This has been achieved by combining much of the CAT B and C works into the main fit out contract, minimising the time required to complete the project. The early integration of our teams across Capital Projects, Workplace Services, Customer Experience, Client Solutions and property has allowed us to deliver more efficiently.
Rationalising the HO estate is expected to return savings to the public purse, by reducing operating and property costs.
Leading the fit out and preparation of this 10-storey, 33,000 square metre building is our GPA Integrated Delivery team, in collaboration with AECOM, AtkinsRealis, Hoare Lea, Tetra Tech, Turner & Townsend, our construction partner Wates and furniture supplier Southerns Broadstock. As well as fully inclusive refreshment hubs, home zones and meeting rooms, the building will deliver an effective mix of flexible and hybrid workspaces which will support neurodiversity, collaboration and wellbeing.
The project also included mobilising new facilities management contracts as part of our Workplace Services Transformation Programme (WSTP) to achieve greater efficiencies across the government office estate.
Georgina Dunn, interim Director of Capital Projects said:
Ruskin Square will provide inclusive, flexible, digitally connected workspaces to support greater productivity and will enhance carbon reduction. We are extremely proud to deliver this brand new, purpose built hub to support the Home Office.
The Croydon hub is highly sustainable with fully decarbonised power. It will form part of the nine-acre Ruskin Square development and sits alongside One Ruskin Square, the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) regional centre which opened in 2017 adjacent to East Croydon train station.
The Government Hubs Programme has so far supported regeneration and economic development in 17 locations throughout the UK including; Glasgow, Belfast, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff, Birmingham, Peterborough and Bristol to support around 60,000 civil servants and in so doing create a smaller, better and greener public estate.
Mystery shopping across our portfolio
Our Workplace Experience team is working in partnership with our Performance Partner, JLL, to lead the development of a set of standards across all areas of the customer journey within our government office spaces. Our aim is to implement a single, consistent set of standards across our estate, ensuring everyone receives a consistent service wherever they choose to work.
Once these standards are launched, JLL will support us in evaluating how successfully these are being delivered.
In preparation, JLL’s workplace experience team has already started to conduct mystery-shop style visits across our estate. Their purpose is to cast an objective eye over the experience people have and provide recommendations to support our drive for continuous improvement.
During the visits they will be looking at the overall performance of our Supply Chain Partners across the following areas:
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Welcome experience focusing on reception and security services experienced by visitors on arrival.
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Diversity and inclusion – are there accessible means of entry and mobility throughout the building, supportive signage on display, hearing loops available, and environment and lighting suitable for neurodiverse colleagues?
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Soft services such as cleaning and general building appearance.
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Hard services such as maintenance and heating, ventilation and air conditioning
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External areas – is the street lighting adequate, are pathways clear, car park and bicycle facilities well maintained and are smoking areas kept tidy?
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Amenities including refreshment and wellness areas.
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Meeting spaces – are these ready for use and offer ‘how to’ guides.
After each visit JLL collates its findings and generates a ‘score’ which enables comparison across the portfolio, but also acts as a benchmark against which to measure future visits. A report will also be issued to our Workplace Services team and Supply Chain Partners indicating JLL’s observations and recommendations for action. These are followed up to ensure that agreed actions are completed and can be reviewed on the next visit.
In the five months from November 2023, JLL visited 27 locations and made a total 131 recommendations. While many of these might be quick fixes, there are some that require potential capital investment to enhance the office environment. Some of these are already in the pipeline and others will feed into future planning cycles. This work is complementary to the action plans that are developed as a result of the customer satisfaction surveys, which together, and in collaboration with JLL, help to demonstrate our commitment to delivering better workplaces for the Civil Service.
If you spot the team on their visit, do feel free to share your experience of your office space.
If you have any questions or would like any more information, please contact: [email protected]
Celebrating our team successes
We’re extremely proud of our people’s success at this year’s Government Property Awards and the CIPD People Management Awards.
At the Government Property Awards, Project Director Sarah Mackintosh won in the Leadership category, with an entry that focused on her achievements while managing the build and fit-out at Quay House in Peterborough, creating a strong and integrated team to work through the many challenges such a project brings.
Sarah Mackintosh said: > Now I’m over the shock of hearing my name called out, I’m thrilled to receive this recognition. For me it was all about the team, they worked brilliantly together and were hugely supportive. I am so happy I had the chance to work with them on this project.
Quay House was also Highly Commended in the Project of the Year award. The building is in Fletton Quays, previously a derelict brownfield site but now part of the city’s £120 million vibrant regeneration scheme. The Passport Office and Defra are two of several clients now based there.
Our PropTech team was also Highly Commended in the Transforming Places category for installing networks for GovWifi throughout GOGGS, a historically significant site, delivering a fast resilient network despite the restrictions of a listed building.
At the CIPD People Management Awards, our Skills and Specialism programme was shortlisted in two categories and was awarded the Best Learning and Development Initiative.
The judges said that they were particularly impressed by our Skills Builder tool because it “allows for a deeper set of quality conversations that support self-directed learning and the drive to the desired learning culture”.
Chief Executive Mark Bourgeois said:
It’s so rewarding to see the excellent work of our own people recognised and celebrated in these awards, against stiff competition. Congratulations to everyone involved, it’s a proud moment for the GPA.