Facilities Services

Service Level Agreement

Our Mission

To deliver cost effective services which support our staff and students operationally in a way which attract high calibre individuals to both study and work at UEL. We will:

• strive to deliver continuous improvements and value for money
• support the delivery of teaching and research adding value to new developments and initiatives
• all our team provide a warm and courteous service to all our customers
• ensure compliance with statutory and sector requirements and best practice relevant to Facilities Services operations.

We welcome your feedback about our services. You can do this by contacting the individual service (see each section for telephone and email addresses) or email us at: FacFeedb@uel.ac.uk

What you can expect from us:

Residential Services

You can expect us to:

• provide clear and accurate information, in the booklet accompanying your offer letter, on our website, and at our Accommodation Offices, explaining the accommodation options that are available to you; this is all available on our web pages www.uel.ac.uk/residential/index.htm, 91% of students who completed the October 2010 customer survey rated the application process as satisfactory, good or excellent.
• be available Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm to answer any questions you may have and additionally two nights a week to 8 pm during term time; we send out regular updates to our resident students about issues in Halls and you can also email us at dlres@uel.ac.uk or telephone us on 020 8223 5409.
• respond within 10 days, either in writing, by e-mail or by phone, telling you whether we have offered you a place in halls; 87% of students who completed the October 2010 customer survey reported that they were allocated a place in halls within 7 days of paying their deposit.
• give priority for rooms in halls to new international students, new first year students from outside the local area, students from a looked after background and students with disabilities or special needs; In 2010, we had over 400 students from outside the European Union, with over 42 nationalities living in the halls of residence.
• guarantee you accommodation in halls if you belong to one of the groups listed above and we receive your accommodation application form, with the required deposit and advanced rent, by 18 August 2011; In 2010, we offered 100% of our rooms to the groups listed above.
• make sure that the halls of residence provide a reasonable standard of accommodation at a cost that is reasonable for the local area; 80% of the students who completed the October 2010 customer survey thought they were getting ‘value for money’. In 2010, the University of East London provided the cheapest ensuites of any London University.
• manage the halls of residence effectively to provide you with as secure and supportive environment as possible; we have security officers based in and around the halls of residents 365 days a year from 6pm to 6am, we held three ‘Welcome and Fire Safety Talks’ for all resident students in October 2010 which were attended by 98% of students.
• provide details in the residents’ handbook, which we make available to all residents, of how to contact residential staff, and security staff 24 hours a day;
• provide information on private sector accommodation and up-to-date lists of available properties, both shared flats and houses and lodgings in family homes; and
• offer advice on accommodation issues both on and off campus, either in writing, by phone, by e-mail at the Residential Services Office;
• respond to email within 2 working hours, written correspondence within 48 hours and phone calls within 5 rings or divert the call to an answer phone giving detailed information and a response time; 92% of the students who completed the October 2010 customer survey rated the service by the Residences team as satisfactory, good or excellent.
• provide you with a job number when you report a maintenance issue and advise you of the ‘service level agreement’ for the type of job you have reported;
• check the cleaning standards of the communal areas of buildings on a daily basis and undertake termly inspections to ensure that the buildings are kept in excellent condition; a daily and termly timetable of inspections is in place, our most recent termly inspections took place in December 2010.
• undertake a student satisfaction survey three times a year; we undertook our most recent customer survey in October 2010 and have actioned all the key points made in the survey.
• To adhere to the Universities UK Code of Practice for Student Accommodation, and ensure we using best practice to ensure your safety and security; we were audited by a external auditor in August 2010 and were fully complaint with the Code. We complete a monthly audit to ensure we continue to be compliant.

Residential Services
Tel: 020 8223 5093 or 020 8223 5094
E-mail: dlres@uel.ac.uk

Private Lettings
Tel: 020 8223 4445
E-mail: privatelettings@uel.ac.uk

We expect you to:

• read and carefully follow any information or instructions we give you including the fire regulations;
• meet the conditions of your license agreement;
• respect and support both your environment and the other people who live in your halls of residence ;
• ensure we have up to date contact details for you especially during the application process;
• provide us with honest and accurate information on your application form so that we can meet your needs;
• respect the local community both if you are living in halls of residence or private accommodation;
• keep your bedroom and flat in a good state of repair;
• complete the ‘E Induction’ prior to moving into halls.

Timetabling Unit

You can expect us to:

• produce a Timetabling scheduling calendar for the following academic year before the end of Semester B each year, following release of the next year’s academic calendar , which will include all deadlines applicable to the scheduling process;
• be available Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm to answer any questions you may have; our contact details are at www.uel.ac.uk/conferences/timetable/index.htm
• provide accurate and timely timetables for staff and students according to the dates on the scheduling calendar; in 2009/10 the Unit scheduled 92,000 individual UEL teaching events, 2,500 events for partner institutions, relocated 9,200 individual bookings, dealt with 570 room closures and resolved 72% of all change requests received from Schools; in 2009/10 the Unit met all deadlines for publication of teaching timetables and distribution of induction timetables.
• provide accurate and timely exam timetables for staff and students five weeks before examinations take place; in 2009/10 the Unit met all deadlines for publication of examination timetables.
• ensure allocation of rooms of ‘additional arrangement’ students for exams; in 2009/10 the Unit met all requests for ‘additional arrangements’;
• display the preferred layout in each teaching room including the maximum number of occupants to comply with health and safety;
• ensure centrally managed space is made available for general bookings, on completion of the academic timetable, with all bookings being confirmed by email; in 2009/10 the Unit took11,500 ad-hoc bookings and arranged 550 external examinations on behalf of third parties.
• conduct room utilisation audits each semester on all teaching space with results been made available to management and schools; in 2009/10 UEL achieved 75% frequency and 79% occupancy of pooled teaching space.
• provide manuals and training on the use of timetabling software and change requests for Timetabling Champions;
• provide training for exam invigilators;

We expect you to:

• check your timetable regularly on UEL Direct;
• ensure all requests for additions, changes and cancellations to the timetable are submitted by each School’s Timetable Champion through the Change Request Application (CRA) in UEL Direct;
• adhere to the submission deadlines in the Timetabling scheduling calendar on an annual basis;
• notify the Timetabling Unit of all cancellations as soon as possible.
• book rooms for conferences or any event for which delegates are charged a fee through the University’s Conference & Events Office;
• make bookings for students and student activities through the Student Union;
• not to exceed the allocated capacity of the room;

Maintenance

You can expect us to:

• ensure that our Help Desk is open from 9 am to 5pm, Monday to Friday on 020 8223 2000; you can also email us at maintenance@uel.ac.uk ;
• respond to specific maintenance requests in line with published response times – these are dependent on the severity of the incident and published at www.uel.ac.uk/facilities/internal/service_levels.htm
• ensure that maintenance agreements are in place to deliver specialist maintenance services;
• comply with all statutory legislation in relation to the operation and maintenance of the university’s estate;
• respond to work requests by individual Schools and Services; our works request form can be downloaded at http://www.uel.ac.uk/facilities/maintenance.htm.
• manage a ‘permit to work’ system for any works involving ‘hot work’, asbestos or electrics.

We expect you to:

• report any problems with the Buildings or Grounds to the maintenance Help Desk on extension 2000
• if outside of staffed hours, should persons be in danger from the problem or the building is likely to be damaged, phone the Security Centre on Ext. 7771
• complete a ‘works request form’ if you require any significant work to a building/area
• complete a ‘permit to work’ if you are engaging contractors to undertake any work involving ‘hot work’, asbestos or electrics.

Security

You can expect us to:

• ensure a 24hr a day security presence on each Campus to maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a safe and secure environment for staff, students and visitors; contact details . Docklands Campus - Tel: ext. 5599 - E-mail: secudl@uel.ac.uk , Stratford Campus - Tel: ext. 4073 - E-mail: secuwh@uel.ac.uk , Duncan House - Tel: ext. 3399 - E-mail: secudh@uel.ac.uk ; a postcard with all the Security Service’s contact details were issued to all staff at the start of the 2010/11 academic year.
• protect university property through patrols and the monitoring of CCTV and other crime prevention equipment; the CCTV system was updated over summer 2010 which included the installation of additional cameras at the Docklands and Stratford Campuses and the student residences;
• operate a 24 hour emergency telephone line on 020 8223 7771, ensure 90% of all emergency calls are answered within three rings;
• respond to all security incidents, with a 95% response to serious incidents within 5 minutes of a report being received in the Security Office;
• respond to fire alarms immediately;
• ensure all security staff receive appropriate training; all security staff are required to be first aid qualified; during the 2010/11 academic year all security staff will attend ‘conflict management’ and ‘counter terrorism awareness’ workshops
• Manage the operation of the car parks including issuing staff parking permits and visitor management; ensure 95% of online requests for visitor parking are answered within 24 hours and 95% of applications for peak/off peak permits received outside of the main annual allocation period are processed within 10 working days.
• produce staff ID cards; staff can obtain ID cards;
• provide a lost property service; a new system for storing lost property was introduced over in the 2009/10 academic year which ensure that all lost property is stored and tracked electronically;
• undertake customer surveys; we undertook a staff and student customer survey in October 2010.

We expect you to:

• Comply with the University’s regulations and report any breaches to these to the Security team supply all relevant information pertaining to an incident;
• To be aware of and comply with emergency procedures including evacuation of buildings during a fire alarm;
• To ensure all windows and doors are secured when an area is empty and/or vacated at the end of a working day;
• To comply with parking regulations including those related to the booking of visitor parking;
• To hand in lost property to the Security Reception at each Campus;
• To have undertaken risk assessments in relation to security and lone working in your Schools/Services;
• To comply with instructions given by security staff in emergency situations;
• To ensure Security has all relevant information in relation to events taking place on campus which may have security implications.

Catering

You can expect us to:

• purchase all our food from reputable suppliers who are carefully vetted and monitored by a specialist group to ensure consistent high standards, compliance with food safety regulations and competitive prices which enable us to keep our costs low;
• use only high quality GM free ingredients in our menus, address environmental issues and where possible provide FAIR TRADE approved products; we launched our FAIR TRADE POLICY in November 2010, see www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/fairtrade/documents/UELFairtradePolicyFinalNov2010.pdf ;
• provide a full range of healthy eating options
• wherever possible we provide options which comply with religious requirements; we have at least one Halal option on our menus each day;
• provide a full range of vegetarian options throughout the day; all of the cheese used on sandwiches, pizza and for other cooking is free of rennet. Vegetarian options are available at almost all our counters.
• provide good value for money at keenest prices; we undertake 20,000 transactions per week serving anything from a cup of coffee to a full 3 course meal, we reviewed our catering service in 2009, we refurbished the Edge Restaurant (Docklands Campus) and Buzz Café (Stratford Campus), installed a veranda to Oscars Bar (Docklands Campus) and installed new seating in University Square over summer 2010; we reviewed and updated all our menus for the start of the 2010/11 academic year; we introduced FAIR TRADE coffee in our outlets in September 2010.
• provide hospitality services for meetings and events on campus.
• undertake an annual customer service survey.

We expect you to:

• clear any crockery or cutlery you have used whilst in the catering outlets to the areas provided
• dispose of all rubbish in the bins/recycling receptacles provided
• comply with queuing arrangements in force in each outlet.

Cleaning and Waste Management

You can expect us to:

• comply with the cleaning service level agreement which is detailed at www.uel.ac.uk/facilities/CleaningSpecification.htm;
• provide an on-line cleaning Help Desk which can be accessed at http://uelhelpdesk.oceancc.com/;
• respond to formal complaints within 48 hours, these to be submitted to the Deputy Campus Manager, who is based at the Stratford Campus but deals with cleaning for all sites;
• only use eco friendly chemicals that are not harmful to the environment
• ensure all general, recycling and hazardous waste is removed from campus in a timely manner and in compliance with statutory regulations; in January 2010, a mixed recycling scheme was launched within Schools and Departments, a new twin-bin system was launched in all teaching rooms and lecture theatres for mixed recyclate and landfill waste streams, details are at http://www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/office.htm, from 2010/11 a two bin system (recyclate and landfill) was launched in the halls of residence, for feedback or further information contact recycling@uel.ac.uk .

We expect you to:

• Dispose of waste in the mixed recycling bins provided around the Campus;
• Report cleaning issues to the Help Desk particularly those which may cause a health and safety hazard.

Environmental Management Services

You can expect us to:

• Develop and maintain a structured environmental management system; the university’s Environmental Policy was approved in June 2010,see www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/documents/UELEnvironmentalPolicyFINALJune2010.pdf , we achieved Stage 1 of BS8555 in December 2010;
• Reduce the university’s carbon footprint; the university’s Carbon Management Plan was updated in July 2010 see www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/documents/V1.3UELCarbonManagementPlan06102010.pdf , we have set a target to reduce carbon emissions by 22% by 2020; we have set operational energy standards to save energy across the estate see www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/documents/UELCarbonManagementPlanAppendix1.pdf , we undertook water audit of the estate in July 2010.
• Minimise waste through careful purchasing, efficient use of resources and recycling materials where appropriate; in January 2010, a mixed recycling scheme was launched within Schools and Departments, a new twin-bin system was launched in all teaching rooms and lecture theatres for mixed recyclate and landfill waste streams, details are at http://www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/office.htm, from 2010/11 a two bin system (recyclate and landfill) was launched in the halls of residence, for feedback or further information contact recycling@uel.ac.uk .
• Encourage sustainable forms of transport by staff, students and visitors; the use of the staff cycle shelters have increased;
• Ensure that ambitious energy and environmental standards are incorporated into all new build and refurbishment projects; we aim to achieve BREEAM ‘excellent’ for all new build construction projects and ‘very good’ for major refurbishments;
• Report on our environmental performance; the UEL Sustainability Report 2009/10 is publicly available on the UEL website at www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/documents/EnvironmentalSustainabilityAnnualReport2009-10FINAL.pdf .
• Conserve and enhance biodiversity across the university estate; the Biodiversity survey carried out in May 2010 is located at www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/documents/UELbiodiversityevidencebaseFINAL.pdf .
• Encourage staff and students to get involved in environmental issues; Facilities Services have an Energy and Environmental Manager and Environmental Projects Officer who are raising awareness across the university. They can be contacted at greenthing@uel.ac.uk
• Work with the local community on projects and event to raise awareness about environmental issues.

We expect you to:

• help reduce UEL’s environmental impact by ‘doing the green thing’ – see our web pages at www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing;
• help reduce UEL’s carbon footprint by cutting down on how much energy you use including switching off lights , turning off computers, printer, photocopiers and other electronic devices when not in use and reporting excessively hot or cold areas.
• reduce the amount of waste disposed to landfill by decreasing unnecessary consumption and increasing reuse / recycling.
• practice sustainable procurement – see www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/procurement.htm

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© 2010