Welcome to Communities

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We work collaboratively with our clients to provide facilities management and specialist support services.

Our focus is in three main areas, including healthcare (acute, mental health and community NHS Trusts), education (primary and secondary schools) and campus and critical services (higher education, local authorities, and emergency services).

We employ 10,000 people, and our contracts span the length and breadth of the UK.

Welcome from Alice Woodwark

It’s a pleasure to welcome you to the Communities Business Unit! Our vision is to provide market leading services to selective clients that help them in creating safe, vibrant and healthy communities.

Although the Communities Business Unit team provides full facilities management services across all key local public sector markets, a big part of our business is through integrated services delivery, PFI contracts and healthcare operations. The greatest opportunities for future growth are thought to be in the healthcare, higher education and local authority markets.

We have enjoyed big improvements in client relationships, operational performance and safety standards over recent years and our sales pipeline has stayed strong. A high priority for the Communities leadership team in 2021 will be to continue to improve our PFI portfolio service delivery, under challenging conditions, and deliver market leading customer, student and patient experience training for our colleagues.

Thank you for choosing Communities; together let’s continue to create safe, vibrant and healthy communities.

Healthcare

We are one of the leading providers of facilities management services across the healthcare sector. Our contract portfolio has a combined annual turnover in excess of £320 million and we work with >20 NHS Trusts, including:

  • University College Hospital London (UCLH) which is one of the UK’s largest providers of healthcare services, medical research, and training. The Trust provides first-class acute and surgical services and is a major response unit for the city of London. We employ circa 775 people to deliver a total facilities management service. Additionally, we manage and provide facilities management services to the ‘Cotton Rooms’ which is a charitable donation-funded hotel facility for patients and their families
  • Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospital NHS Trust (King George Hospital) which specialises in acute and rehabilitation services and has 450 beds. We provide total facilities management services and employ circa 290 people
  • St Georges University Hospitals NHS Trust, where we provide cleaning, patient catering, waste management and helpdesk services to St Georges Hospital in Tooting (990 beds) and employ 550 people
  • Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Trust, which provides health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Norfolk and North Essex. We provide soft facilities management and catering services to 20 sites and employ 600 people

Campus & Critical Services

We operate a number of high profile and prestigious contracts within the campus and critical services sector valued at >£60 million per annum. The key contracts include:

  • University of Sussex is a research-intensive university with over 18,000 students and 2,200 staff. Their campus comprises properties of varying ages and type, providing education, leisure and accommodation. We deliver a total facilities management services (23 services) across the entire estate through a joint venture (Sussex Estates & Facilities), employ 300 people and the contract is valued at £30 million per annum
  • Essex County Council where we provide total facilities management services to 218 properties including libraries, offices, youth hub, family centres and an additional 240 schools on an ad-hoc basis. The contract is valued at circa £25 million per annum.
  • London Ambulance Service where we provide daily vehicle make-ready services (cleaning, restocking and repositioning) to circa 500 emergency vehicles in 16 hubs sites across London. We employ circa 300 people, and the contract is valued at £10 million per annum
  • London Fire Brigade where we provide building cleaning and security to 97 sites (stations and offices) and we employ 500 people

Education

We provide total facilities management services and standalone catering contracts valued at >£140 million per annum to primary and secondary schools across the UK. Our contracts span from Cornwall to the Highlands in Scotland, and we operate under long term PFI arrangements.

Alice Woodwark

Managing Director, Communities

Back to: Homepage > Welcome to the Communities team