Amey - improving safety and security at Northamptonshire Schools

Project overview

Amey is one of the UK’s leading public services providers employed to manage the vital infrastructure and range of business services.

From transport systems, to deploying and maintaining education establishments and supporting young people, Amey provides services that touch the lives of citizens across the length and breadth of the country.

As part of its work within the education sector, Amey is responsible for the maintenance of 42 schools within a five-mile radius of  Northampton town centre. The 30-year contract requires Amey to deliver and manage a range of services to each school, such as fire, security and life safety, including the ongoing monitoring and maintenance of these systems. 

Quality of service and the safety and security of each school and its pupils and staff is of paramount importance to Amey, and with a desire to improve the level of service delivery, the organisation selected Johnson Controls to provide maintenance of these critical systems. 

Product and services applications 

DService, monitoring and maintenance of fire & security system:

• Intruder alarms
• CCTV
• Fire alarms
• Access control
• Sprinklers
• Portable extinguishers
• Electronic docketing
• Takeover of system from current incumbent
• Dedicated on-site service engineers

Customer needs

As part of its contract with Northamptonshire Schools, Amey must meet set SLA’s with regard to the timely repair of safety and security systems. Failure to meet these pre-defined levels could result in financial penalties. To minimise the risk, Johnson Controls appointed a dedicated and multi-skilled service engineer on this account; the engineer is based in the local area and has developed a specialist 

knowledge of each site and its systems, the engineer’s presence ensures an efficient response and repair process.

Ensuring that all life safety and security systems are maintained by experts is vitally important to Amey. Johnson Controls has provided an up-front maintenance schedule to give clear information on when inspections would be carried out. This provides all parties with a clear understanding of which systems will be serviced and when. 

Johnson Controls solution

When the maintenance contract went to re-tender, Amey had to select a supplier that could meet the aggressive timescale between tendering and mobilisation of the project. Johnson Controls and Amey’s teams worked closely throughout the tender process and after being appointed as the chosen supplier, Johnson Controls was 

able to immediately take ownership of the maintenance and reactive calls for each system. Johnson Controls also managed the transfer of alarm signals and re-chipping transmitters from the previous provider to its own specialist response centres in a limited timescale.

All Johnson Controls engineers have PDA devices giving them the ability to complete electronic dockets for each call out or inspection visit. Data is then submitted electronically to a central Amey helpdesk email where the information can be easily retrieved for compliance and auditing purposes. This system improves the efficiency of the previous paper-based process which led to lost dockets and delays in producing the documentation.

Amey and Johnson Controls have developed an extremely close working relationship and regular review meetings are held to discuss lifecycle, product and maintenance issues and to ensure the required high level of service is being delivered. Johnson Controls is able to provide expert advice and works as a consultative partner to help Amey get the best from their fire and security systems.