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When
is the FM Sector going to calm down?
This month's news form the field is just as
exciting as ever. When is the facilities management sector going to
calm down, I ask you? Hopefully it won't, I hear you cry...
Last week saw the doors open to the country's
first NHS LIFT centre, a project brought to life by facilities
management company Sewell and Hull Citycare. What does LIFT stand for
I hear you ask? Local Improvement Finance Trust - another acronym for
us to contend with!
As well as seeing a doctor, patients will be
able to borrow a library book, check their email and pick up a
prescription from the pharmacy - the facilities really are that good.
What I want to know is how long will the waiting list be?
Hull Citycare, the city's LIFT company (who
also manage the building on behalf of Eastern Hull Primary Care
Trust), built the centre at a cost of £2.3m. Apparently, the scheme
is the first of many, with the next scheduled to open in
Hull
in early 2006.
Sewell, the private sector partner in Hull
Citycare, provides services including property development,
maintenance and estates management over a 20-year term.
Elsewhere Initial Fire and Security impressed
by winning two trophies at the Security Industry Training Organisation
Awards.
The Blackburn-based company won the
'Outstanding Training Practice within an Organisation' and 'Best
Training Professional' categories for training centre manager David
Millett.
Clive Hayton, managing director at Initial
Fire and Security, said: "Our apprentice training programme goes
from strength to strength and is now, quite rightly, regarded as the
industry benchmark."
Keep up the good work Initial, who by the way
also won the British Security Industry Association's chairman's award
recently.
News also broke this month that
multi-disciplinary consultancy Atkins had been appointed as a
framework partner on the Environment Agency National Engineering and
Environmental Consultancy Framework (NEECA).
Under the deal Atkins will help to deliver a
£2bn flood defence, waterways and water resources capital works
programme over the next 10-years.
Atkins will provide waste management,
biodiversity, landscape design, environmental planning, fisheries,
recreation, navigation and water resources.
Framework director at Atkins, Dermod Sweeney,
said: "We expect to build on the successes of the previous NEECA
framework."
With all this activity in our sector, and no
shortage of work, it comes as no surprise to learn there are
recruitment problems in building and construction.
According to a survey by KPMG, the sector is
having problems recruiting and retaining skilled staff.
Nearly half of 142 building and construction
HR industry executives said skills shortages were leading their
organisation to squeeze profit margins to pay higher wages.
Shock horror, 63% of respondents also said
staff were leaving because competitors were offering higher wages.
Welcome to the real world...
Richard Whittington, head of building and
construction at KPMG, said: "Skills shortages remain a huge issue
for the building and construction sector... most said this would
remain the case for at least the next two years."
On a more serious note, you may be interested
to learn that a June 6th retrial date has been announced for the
Barrow council architect Gillian Beckingham.
Beckingham faced manslaughter charges
following an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in 2002, which she
escaped, but was charged with an H&S offence.
Beckingham is now preparing appeal against the
H&S charge for the second time. The first appeal failed when a
deadline for action was missed.
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