Understandably, service providers take the view that physical facilities are designed and built to assist in the delivery of a public service. A hospital exists to deliver health care to patients. A school is intended to provide education to students. A laboratory is created to deliver scientific research. To those who must manage the services in these facilities, day after day, year in and year out, it is self-evident that service design must be the priority from the outset.
"To build the building, then, when it's complete, to start thinking about the services - that's the tail wagging the dog."
"The building is there to facilitate delivery - it's the platform upon which delivery of the service is built."
Given the long life of public service facilities, the overall value and importance of the service elements are often far greater than the upfront capital costs: "Design and construction might take three or four years, but the services lifespan is likely to extend to upwards of thirty or forty years."
It is no surprise that those interviewed identified numerous ways that whole of life value for money and service quality can be improved with a service provider driving the project:
• Specialist procurement:
"Service providers are specialists in two ways: (i) as providers, we know the appropriate value for soft services within the management of the facility - we know how much each service costs to deliver;(ii) as operators, we bring operational expertise to the design and build - this lets us specify a facility that comes in on time and on budget, and is not over-specified."
• Whole-of-life service solutions:
"The service provider needs ownership of the design process… Otherwise, we'll get the building, and the builders won't have factored in the ongoing service considerations and the solution will be inappropriate for the service needs."
• Greater innovation:
"Involving the service provider brings innovation to the design. The building is the platform for the services, so there is an incentive to innovate."
"Service providers start with a clean slate. In the public sector, there is often a mindset rooted in what has always been. We bring fresh eyes and the operational expertise to come up with a design that will meet the service needs."
• Better value for money:
"If you design the facility so that it enables the most efficient service delivery, you will get savings all down the line. If you can run it with 150 staff instead of 230, that is a saving of the cost of 80 staff each year, which is a lot over 30 to 40 years".
• A more efficient building:
"Many public facilities are larger than they need to be and they come in over-budget and over-time. The design footprint is often larger than it needs to be and the wrong details are specified. They'll specify what type of light bulb we should use in a particular corridor, but they will have missed something crucial, like the overall shape of the building, which will require more staff to manage it, or make it harder to keep clean".
• Appropriate building fabric:
"The soft FM provider will look to have a robust finish on doors, walls, and so on, because if they are damaged in the provision of the service, then the hard FM provider may look for repair costs".