Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: suffolkclean on April 26, 2009, 07:37:30 pm
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My local council is Suffolk County Council and when calling round schools the other day I've been told carpet cleaning is contracted out via the council. I've seen a tender up for massive cleaning contract for our local university to include a janitor all sorts of cleaning, does the council maybe put a tender up for all the local schools carpet cleaning?
Do any of you clean carpets for the larger councils?
Barbara
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Hi Barbara,
It can be incredibly difficult to get in with a council, we tried for about ten years and got no where, but now we have a fair stream of work from them and all I would say is it mostly depends on who you know!
The carpet cleaning we do is not put out on a large tender but for individual jobs and by rights they should get three quotes for every job ticket! Whether they do or not is anyones guess, but we end up doing a fair amount of work for them.
From what i can gather alot of the tenders are determined way before the paper work goes in ! I think this is normal in alot commercial situations...
regards
steve
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I clean for 2 schools and a play group, I approached the facilities manager for the secondry school, the manager of the play group and the Janitor for the primary school....
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when i approached the council about cleaning schools they said it was up to each individual school and nothing to do with the council.
ive done 1 school so far and thats cos the facilities manager lived round the corner and saw my van, took the number down and called me. in this area it definately is the schools decision.
derek
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Makes sense, don't try and compete with the big boys when you can get a school at a time or some satellite offices.
They make you jump through hoops for payment though. ::)
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Same here stockport council phoned me and you have to wait about 5 weeks for more for payment also have to have the police check ::)
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I didn't need a Police check Clinton, the head mistress know my face from CrimeWatch ;D ;D ;D
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i thought everyone one across the border was a crim anyways
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Colin thought i had seen you in that guy ritche movie ;D
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We've already done work for our very local small council, a local school too but neither are linked to the 'county council'. So the schools you've all cleaned for which are linked with the council you got the work direct from the school? - apart from Steve who gets it direct from the council - that's great.
The school we get regular work from isn't a 'Suffolk County Council School' so just wondered how hard it would be to get work from a 'Suffolk County council School'.
Sorry - turning into a 'SALES ....Aholic'
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I didn't need a police check either Clinton. Must be the hair and biker jacket ;D
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I didn't need a police check either Clinton. Must be the hair and biker jacket ;D
are you a hairy biker mike ;D
russel us up some yorkshire puddings mate ;D
derek
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I didn't need a police check either Clinton. Must be the hair and biker jacket ;D
Mike
absolutely nothing to do with this thread, but a comment of yours about bad debts and Ltd Coys:
"I suspect they didn't have as much capitals as you"
But I just wanted to say-I really appreciated the understated humour of it; it probably went over some peoples' heads ;D
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Roger
As you know, some will always fall on stoned ground. ;D
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Richard
Which border would that be ?
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Barbara, most schools now have been given there own budget, we do a couple of schools and find they are getting quotes from various carpet cleaning companies.
Well that's how it is in Somerset, thought was the same for every where, try and speak to the bursar of the school they control the spending.
Jamie
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Thanks for that Jamie, now I know they have there own money to spend I will contact some more of them.
Barbara
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Spec on there end of year budget ;)
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For local authority tenders you will be invited to apply online, which involves filling in 64 pages and supplying further information on your financial position, proof of staff training, previous trading history including references, copies of company policies and procedures and more. Also all of your staff will require to have a CRB / Disclosure certificate.
At least that's the stus quo in Scotland and will follow in England in due course.
We recently applied for a tender and what transpired was ( interesting )
There were 18 original suppliers on the invitation to tender list, there were meetings at which we were enlightened about the process and told that ( to make things easier for the council ) only six of the original 18 would be considered at the end of the day ( based on scoring points )
PRICE would account for 50% of the points.
The result is ( we withdrew from the process ) the cheapest has a massive head start and the winner could be the WORST PROVIDER in the area as was recently shown on Panorama.
Sooooooooooooo
If you're s***t hot with your administration / record keeping and absolute CRAP at providing a service you may win the contract in fact you are more likely to win the contract.
After lives have been lost / endangered / and you are unable to fulfil your obligations the contract will be withdrawn and offered to another provider.
While you've serviced the contract however, you may have made enough to retire !
Finally ( and this is why I withdrew our submission ) funding a large contract is very, very difficult and you may hve to spend many thousands on staff training to meet the council's requirements.
Have fun
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You make it sound so tempting Robert ;D. But I'm sure in reality that is really how it is.
We lucked out a bit, school contacted us direct, we quoted and some months later when forgotten about they gave us the go ahead, few days later PO from East Sussex County Council with invoice details, etc.
Regular monthly clean, just started last month but now I'm in there with the council, so to speak, hoping it will lead to more things.
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Some schools are allowed to purchase services as are nurseries etc, but it's becoming more restrictive each year as the government is hell bent on every penny being accounted for and every company or individual providing services being traceable.
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Just think, (I have a dream ::) ::))
if head teachers were empowered to make their own purchasing decisions, then there would be far more local accountability; the carpets would look better for more of the time and ......it would be yet another reason to disband the LEAs.
Now that really would save money :o
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Roger
Used to do some in norris bank primary..
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Clinton
Something very interesting has just come up yesterday re school carpets.
Watch this space :-X :-X :-X
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is this it roger.
Removing carpets from schools could help tackle the increase in asthma among young people, claim campaigners for "healthy flooring".
According to campaigners who want schools to get rid of carpets, asthma can be exacerbated by the 100,000 dust mites that inhabit every square metre of carpeting.
But head teachers have been unimpressed by the calls to clear out carpets, saying that they help to dampen noise and to create a better atmosphere for learning.
The Healthy Flooring Network, which promotes the use of environmentally-friendly flooring, such as seagrass rugs and jute mats, says that scrapping carpets could cut asthma.
Using research commissioned from an allergy expert, Jill Warner at Southampton University, the campaigners say that there is a link between carpets and asthma and allergies.
"Councils must put children's health first when choosing floors and phase out fitted carpets and PVC. Parents trying to reduce allergens in the home rely on authorities to do the same in schools," said a spokesman for the Healthy Flooring Network.
derek
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Yes was going to say that ::)
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Seagrass-grazed knees-blood-LM cleaning. ::)
They haven't thought that one through have they.
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is this it roger.
Removing carpets from schools could help tackle the increase in asthma among young people, claim campaigners for "healthy flooring".
According to campaigners who want schools to get rid of carpets, asthma can be exacerbated by the 100,000 dust mites that inhabit every square metre of carpeting.
But head teachers have been unimpressed by the calls to clear out carpets, saying that they help to dampen noise and to create a better atmosphere for learning.
The Healthy Flooring Network, which promotes the use of environmentally-friendly flooring, such as seagrass rugs and jute mats, says that scrapping carpets could cut asthma.
Using research commissioned from an allergy expert, Jill Warner at Southampton University, the campaigners say that there is a link between carpets and asthma and allergies.
"Councils must put children's health first when choosing floors and phase out fitted carpets and PVC. Parents trying to reduce allergens in the home rely on authorities to do the same in schools," said a spokesman for the Healthy Flooring Network.
derek
No ;D
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awwwwwww bugg*r ;D
derek