Grounds

Grounds maintenance (where individual Academy agreements exist) will be addressed by the MAT.  The MAT has a dedicated Grounds Maintenance Facilities Assistant.  The MAT has an SLA and has committed to cut the grass on playing fields at the secondaries weekly and the primaries fortnightly.

Any other line markings, etc will be done as requested.  We will be looking at other aspects once the main grass cutting season tails off.

General Premises Issues

These should be channelled through local caretakers for general day-to-day repairs, leaking taps, changing light bulbs and other basic DIY.
If the work requires a different skillset, such as for electrical work, then the MAT central team should be contacted and they will arrange for the work to be carried out.

As part of the central services team we have a grounds maintenance facilities assistant that is able to assist across the MAT as required.
The MAT will, over time, procure standard contracts for items that it cannot provide internally, e.g. water testing, asbestos monitoring, boiler servicing, electrical testing etc.  The MAT will schedule visits from these providers as appropriate.

Primaries will be responsible for the management of locally based facilities staff so that an appropriate level of service can be maintained to meet need. The Primary Academy Facilities Coordinator will then be the first point of contact after the local caretakers.  The MAT will look to provide cover where possible if prolonged absence is evident.

In terms of major work of a capital nature, the MAT will look to commission a detailed assessment of each Academy and will then look to use School Condition Funding to address these issues, using a set of agreed priorities.

In addition, it will look to set aside monies to carry out a range of planned improvements, which it will assess through a bidding system, which will ensure that monies are targeted at areas of greatest need or greatest return.  We will look to set up a small working group to establish guidance on this process once the School Condition monies have been allocated.

Health and Safety

High level H&S advice/inspection is supplied across the Trust by Safety2Business Ltd.
Locally day to day H&S will be managed by the existing Premises Managers at Lightcliffe Academy, Bishop Young and at Abbey Grange Academy.  The Deputy Head of Facilities & Estates is taking the lead on H&S across the MAT and will be the first point of contact for any H&S concerns/issues.

The Trust have also procured a Trust-wide suite of online training courses that are available to all staff.  This not only covers H&S topics, but also contains other training courses, e.g. safeguarding etc.