In a service-led project, the dynamic relationship with the design and build team fuels a more innovative approach:
"You get much more creativity - you can get things done that wouldn't be possible in a traditionally-built facility, because there is a willingness to take considered risks to achieve better outcomes."
With a deepening of the market, service providers are involved in a succession of facilities, and it is possible to modify the design and introduce new innovations as lessons are learned through the actual operation. In a number of prison facilities, there has been a move to all-weather pitches and foodlighting on training fields. This helps the service providers meet contractual performance measures that require prisoners to spend a certain amount of 'regime' hours in physical activity. There are also obvious decency benefits for prisoners. Similarly, in one prison laundry, lessons have been developed over time:
"Our design innovation in the build was to move from having a central laundry, to wing laundries. We knew the rough treatment the machines would get on the wings, so we used robust industrial machines. But of course they got broken anyway. So now we use domestic washing machines and replace them when they break. We keep stocks on-site and replace them as needed."
Solutions like this are possible because the service provider is in a position to make ongoing decisions about the best way to manage the asset - 'that's the benefit of an ongoing interface between hard FM and soft FM'.
Good interface between the service provider, hard FM provider and construction partners also means that 'you can achieve solutions more quickly'. There is less bureaucracy to tackle and the hurdle of debating a solution between separate parties operating under a different range of incentives is avoided.