Update from Self-Delivery Project Board – 17 May
To: All staff and students
From: Self-Delivery Project Board
Following the Project Board meeting today (17 May), this email provides an update to all members of the SOAS community on the self-delivery of facilities management and catering services at SOAS.
Project overall
We are pleased to confirm that we continue to work positively towards 1 September date for services to transfer and that work continues as set out in our 6 April update. Thanks to the hard work of all involved – staff, trades unions and student union colleagues, we are confident that the goals set by the 4 August 2017 announcement can be achieved.
Human Resources
As promised in previous updates, HR and estates colleagues continue to meet weekly with Unison to discuss the School’s role in the formal transfer of staff from Bouygues and Elior, and the transfer to SOAS terms and conditions. The School is continuing to work closely with Bouygyes and Elior, to ensure a smooth transition.
Service Workstreams
Service Workstream sessions started from 2 May and to date 16 meetings have been held. These involve members of staff from across all the services and are focussed on the systems, equipment & technology that teams will be using; ideas for uniform, clothing and PPE; and training needs and processes. These have been positive, generating good ideas and involvement of staff. Trades unions have been supportive and the Students’ Union has helpfully provided student translators to help with Spanish language needs for some staff.
Catering
An update on progress on catering provision at SOAS was sent out in the staff and student bulletins on Tuesday 24 April.
That set out the helpful feedback from staff and students to the catering survey earlier this year, with over 1,000 responses received. It also explained that we will be setting out options and ideas for delivery of catering services to meet the needs gathered in that survey.
We will now be holding an event on 23 May – changed from original planned 10 May date – and at the same time we will be publishing information for feedback and views on the proposed development of outlets and services for SOAS Food so we can meet the needs of the whole SOAS community as effectively as possible.
Further information
Background on the project from original 4 August 2017 announcement onwards is available on the self-delivery web pages. We will continue to provide updates as the project develops and following project board meetings.
Regards
Self-Delivery Project Board