ISO 9001 Quality Management System

The Department of Estates has taken the strategic decision to formalise our approach to meeting customer requirements and to work towards attaining ISO 9001.

ISO 9001 is an internationally recognised, comprehensive, quality management system that provides a process for the on-going audit of our functions so that we can continually improve customer satisfaction; to achieve the standard will be working towards external recognition of our hard work as the standard will hopefully be accredited by the British Standards Institute.

A presentation was made to all Estates staff in December 2011, outlining the route to achieving the quality standard and explaining the part each person has to play in the overall process. The presentation was recorded and can be viewed again by clicking on the link below.

In summary, the Department will be documenting what we do and how we do it and everyone will have the opportunity to contribute to this process. Once our processes have been agreed, we will publish them as procedures. These procedures will be available as a resource for all to view and can be used to help train new staff.

A diagram illustrating the cycle of the quality management system can be viewed here.

The team implementing the assessment will be Debbie Carless, Planning and Records Manager, and Julie Samways, Debbie's PA; they will come and talk to you about what you do. Then there will be a team of auditors who will come and talk to you about the processes you follow based on what you have told the Implementation Team (Debbie and Julie), that team is made up of Debbie Carless, Richard Hughes, James Le Grys, Julie Samways and Jane Eyles.

A timetable has been prepared for the Implementation Team to come and talk to each section:

February - Management Team
March - Finance/Purchasing/Central Stores
April - Helpdesk/Admin
May - Electrical Section
June - Mechanical Section
July - Building Section
August - Transport/Waste
September - Landscape
October - Telecoms/Energy/Planning & Records
November - Porters and Cleaners/Postroom
December - Project Works
January - Student Accommodation/sports Liaison

We aim to achieve our standard by 2013 and, once we have, we will regularly review and assess our procedures to ensure continual improvement.

This is an exciting opportunity to achieve external recognition of our standards and the ISO team look forward to working with everyone over the next twelve months.

If you have any questions, please feel free to speak to Debbie Carless.