11.1 Reviews into legacy projects undertaken by SFT over the last few years have highlighted varying degrees of focus by ProjectCos and their FM providers on maintaining Facilities to comply with the contractual requirements. This is a fundamental part of the service being paid for.
11.2 While most but not all early contracts provide for the carrying out of a Handback survey, this is often close to the end of contract. SFT's view is that Authorities should carry out an initial condition survey at least five years from the end of contract (or earlier in the case of complex Facilities such as acute hospitals). This should ensure that there is still sufficient funding within ProjectCo to pay for such works which may not be the case if there are only two years remaining of the contract when the Handback survey is undertaken.
11.3 The advantages include:
11.3.1 transparency as to the condition of the Facility (particularly M&E) and the level of lifecycle replacement that is likely to be required to be carried out by ProjectCo;
11.3.2 a view as to the likely lifecycle replacement for a period of five years after the contract expiry date to assist the Authority's budget planning;
11.3.3 time to allow the end of contract works to be carried out consistent with the ongoing provision of the Authority's services and to minimise disruption to those services by planning works appropriately;
11.3.4 reducing the risk of Facilities being handed back to public bodies with large liabilities in terms of replacement works which should have been carried out during the contract term and for which there is very unlikely to be any budget allowance within the public body after the contract term has expired.
11.4 SFT has supported a number of Authorities to carry out an initial survey of their project buildings, based on a template scope that is set out in Appendix 2.
11.5 The key lessons learnt from these initial surveys are noted in Appendix 3. These are reflected in the Key Recommendations in paragraph 16.
11.6 Each Authority will be able to use the survey report and any recommended course of potential remedial actions (and see further details in Appendix 3), in conjunction with a consideration of the standards and remedies under the Project Agreement to include follow up actions in its project plan (see further 5 above).