Rising to the challenge

The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) is Britain's leading industrial health and safety facility with over 30 years of research experience. Until recently it occupied around 100 buildings and structures on a site in Buxton and three large buildings in Sheffield. Many of these no longer met its needs and were in need of major refurbishment. HSL concluded that rationalisation of operations to one site and the creation of substantial new facilities would offer better value for money, improved effectiveness and greater intellectual exchange. It chose PFI as the best route to achieve these ends.

Working with Shepherd as the construction partner, Interserve put together a package comprising a new laboratory at Buxton and the provision of facilities management services, both while the laboratory was being built and afterwards for a period of 30 years. During construction Interserve provided a range of services across both sites including building fabric repairs, mechanical and electrical maintenance, information technology, security and cleaning. On completion we took on responsibility for a number of further areas including catering, porterage, reprographics, stores, pool cars, registry archiving and reception.

The Buxton site covers 270 hectares, the equivalent of some 350 football pitches. While servicing this estate requires considerable logistical skill, the greater challenge was the need to manage the move of all staff from their facilities in Sheffield and to relocate those already at Buxton while minimising any impact on HSL's operational effectiveness.

We began migration planning before we had even won the contract. We developed these plans in great detail once we were familiar with the sites' operations and liaised with every staff member concerned. The migration began at the end of October 2004 and, on consecutive weekends, involved moving first the Buxton staff and then those from each of the three Sheffield buildings. The intricate planning and the care that went into executing the process meant that all the services were moved across in the space of four weeks.

As Stuart Jones, Estate Manager at HSL, said, "I've been very impressed with the way Interserve has continued providing all its services at the same time as overseeing an extremely complicated migration from our old premises to the excellent new facilities. The fact that we hardly missed a beat in the transfer was as much due to their planning and management as to the dedication and commitment of our own staff."

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