Friday 25th June 2021
You may well have seen the recent announcement of the successful bidders to deliver the next generation housing contract earlier this week. What does this mean for you?
The new Future Defence Infrastructure Services contracts are a concerted attempt to address many of the issues that have been reported to us about the delivery of the repair and maintenance to your SFA. The Families Federations have worked alongside DIO to help shape the nature of the contract, to better reflect the needs of SFA occupants based on the cases you have reported to us. The contracts are designed with the occupants of SFA at their heart and it is hoped will present a significant change from what has come before.
One of the key differences you will see is rather than one contract delivering all the services it has been split into five areas – one national point of contact (National Accommodation Management Services (NAMS), who will be your first point of contact, and four regional delivery contracts (Regional Accommodation Maintenance Services (RAMS) who will deliver service on the ground.
The new contracts are due in service on 1st March 2022. A lot of planning has gone in to manage the handover from the old to new contracts, however there may be some initial challenges – we want to help you if you encounter any difficulties!
With the information you have provided us, and the work we have done with DIO in the build up to and scrutiny of the awarding of these contracts we hope to see real improvements in the lived experience for you and your families in SFA.
What does this mean?
· Incentivising service efficiency and minimising disruption to Service families by rewarding ‘fix first time’. A new requirement to fix more issues on the first visit, which should encourage the contractors to improve fault diagnosis and the capabilities of their staff, and to keep more spares in the vehicle.
· Suppliers will be paid on a price per home basis rather than price per visit. This approach is proven in the wider housing sector to incentivise the contractor to undertake preventative maintenance, which should reduce the number of reactive failures and again minimise disruption to families longer-term.
· Greater flexibility in the way families can access services through the National Service Centre; the introduction of two-hour appointment windows, plus evening and weekend appointments; and the ability to track appointments to provide greater visibility to families on when the supplier will arrive at the house.
Contact us
If you have any question or experience any issues you can contact the team in the first instance through our online form.
