Making our grounds maintenance service better

What’s changed (and why)

Over the last year, we’ve been reviewing how we deliver estate services like grass cutting, hedge trimming, litter collection and more.

We’ve listened to your feedback and taken action to make things better, including:

• Bringing in new contractors in some areas, so the contractor delivering grounds maintenance services in your neighbourhood may have changed.
• Making it easier for you to report problems to us.
• Improving how we check the work our contractors are doing - contractors now share updates with us through online portals, so we can track work, view schedules and see photos of completed jobs - all to help keep things transparent and on track.
• Reviewing the data we have about grounds maintenance, to make sure no areas are missed, and each contractor is confident in exactly which services and areas they’re responsible for.
• Putting clear improvement plans in place where standards weren’t being met.

So far this year, we’ve:

• Held regular check-ins with contractors to discuss what’s working and what needs improvement.
• Set up better ways to track visits and work, created a team to improve our grounds maintenance service, held training for our teams, and started a group to work together on making things better and staying on track.

Each region has a Strategic Partnership Manager who oversees local repairs and maintenance services, including cleaning and grounds maintenance. They work closely with contractors to make sure everything is being done properly.

Your feedback matters

And it’s making a real difference.

Customer feedback has created a new way of working that puts your voice and experiences at the centre of all future estate services contracts.

Receiving a good grounds maintenance service is something that our customer Scrutiny Panel know is important. That’s why, back in February, after reviewing lots of performance data and customer feedback, they decided to complete a deep-dive review of grounds maintenance in the Somerset area.

During the review, over 200 customers shared feedback, and a focus group provided deeper insights. The review led to 10 clear recommendations for us, including improving how we communicate with you on grounds maintenance issues. We’re working on putting all 10 recommendations into action.

Over the summer, we also held online, area-specific workshops to find out more about what matters to you and what you’d like to see from our grounds maintenance service. Thank you to everyone who came along!

We’re continuing to improve how we deliver grounds maintenance and cleaning services by:

• Introducing smaller, more localised contracts.
• Reviewing our tree maintenance and cleaning services.
• Revisiting how we do things to see where we can do better.