Quadron commenced its five year contract with Medway in April 2007, which involved a transfer and amalgamation of staff from Medway, Kent County Council and an incumbent contractor. The contract covers the five towns within Medway.
The scope of the work includes all type of grass maintenance and associated activities, sports pitch maintenance and attendance, horticultural operations, highways, cleansing and schools.
On taking over the contract, Quadron inherited a large number of legacy issues including low skill levels in the workforce and many areas that were not maintained to specification. A Partnership Board was set up with Medway Council to work together to resolve the many issues. During 2009 standards increased significantly and letters of praise instead of complaint began to be received.
The objective of the partnership is to enable the Partners to work together to develop and deliver the grounds maintenance contract in the most effective, efficient, economical and sustainable manner within the agreed financial and budget constraints thus maximising Best Value for the benefit of customers, stakeholders and internal clients of Medway Council.
The partnership work has helped Quadron to secure a two-year contract extension and, for the first time since the contract began, additional work has been quoted for and accepted. These works include schools and a dedicated ad-hoc team who work on areas of Medway not currently included in the core contract.
Particular emphasis has been placed on increasing skills levels amongst the workforce. The Assistant Contract Manager is an accredited Lantra-Awards instructor, qualified to deliver accredited training on ride-on and pedestrian mowers, and to give induction training on other groundscare machinery. All the management, supervisory team and crew leaders are qualified to CIEH Level 2 in Health & Safety and Risk Assessments, continuing to Level 3 this year, and several operatives have commenced NVQ Level 2 courses in Amenity Horticulture, with eight members of staff having recently started NVQ Level 2 in Supervisory and Team Leader Skills.
Two new apprentices were taken on in 2010, one to study Amenity Horticulture and one to study machinery maintenance in the workshop.
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