Full 187 page Volunteer Estate Value for Money study report published

The Volunteer Estate (VE) Value for Money (VFM) study, initiated by Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) in October 2022, aims to enhance the delivery of Hard Facilities Management (HFM) services across the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCA) estate.

This report sought to determine the feasibility of achieving greater cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency by integrating the VE within the broader scope of the current Built Estate (BE) supplier arrangements.

The key recommendations of the Study are:

1. The existing FDIS BE contractual arrangements should be adopted, with CRFCA and the 13 RFCAs managing four amended regional contracts.
2. Reinvest excess budgetary provision into the VE to address the highest priority unfunded safe and legal remedial works and offset additional future organisational structure costs.
3. Uplift RFCA and CRFCA Estates Team liability and grading to ensure that sufficient suitably qualified resource is available to effectively manage the VE in the FDIS BE environment.

This analysis includes the evaluation of strategic, operational, and financial aspects of HFM service provision to the VE, and explores potential alignments with the regular estate’s current BE contracts. The investigation engaged with the 13 RFCAs, the Council of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (CRFCA), Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) personnel.

The study’s findings are presented with a focus on modernising HFM services across the VE and enhancing the estate’s condition and service delivery to its users, while fostering a ‘one Defence Estate’ ethos. The VE VFM report aims to inform future policy, procurement strategies, and operational frameworks through its analysis and strategic recommendations, ensuring the VE’s alignment with national defence infrastructure goals and the effective utilisation of public funds.

The study highlights 16 recommendations, including:

• Recommendation 1: The FDIS Built Estate (BE) SOR, together with the minor amendments identified, should be adopted for use on the VE.
• Recommendation 5: The CRFCA/RFCA Estates Team liability should be increased to 147 posts to ensure that sufficient resource is available to effectively manage the VE in the FDIS BE environment.
• Recommendation 7: DIO estate management IS and data management processes should be adopted to ensure alignment with the Defence approach to Asset Management.
• Recommendation 14: The split of Commercial responsibilities between DIO and CRFCA should be agreed prior to the Contract Amendment being awarded to the FDIS BE suppliers.
• Recommendation 15: A revised SLA should be produced to clearly set out the responsibilities of DIO and CRFCA working in an FDIS BE environment. This SLA should be endorsed by both parties prior to the In-Service Date (ISD).
• Recommendation 16: The In-Service Date (ISD) for all regions should be 1 August 24, with all ISDs following a minimum six-month mobilisation period.

The full report titled “transforming the Delivery of Hard FM Services” includes 97 pages of detailed job descriptions and organisation charts for additional staff at the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association, to the 147 posts outlined in Recommendation 5. (pages 90 onwards)

Pages 65 to 82 of the report studied the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT) of 8 different options, with Option 4 scoring highest overall:

• Option 1 – Status Quo / Do Nothing
• Option 2 – CRFCA to procure or amend contractual arrangements to enable adoption of SFG20
• Option 3 – CRFCA procure new contractual arrangements to the full FDIS standards
• Option 4 – FDIS Built Estate contractual arrangements are adopted with CRFCA managing four amended regional contracts in respect of VE
• Option 5 – FDIS Built Estate contractual arrangements are adopted with RFCAs becoming additional Service Delivery Areas (SDA) reporting to one of the four DIO Regional Delivery (RD) regions
• Option 6 – FDIS Built Estate contractual arrangements are adopted with RFCAs becoming additional Service Delivery Areas reporting to a single DIO Regional Delivery region
• Option 7 – FDIS Built Estate contractual arrangements are adopted with 13 RFCAs managing four amended regional contracts in respect of VE
• Option 8 – FDIS Built Estate contractual arrangements are adopted with the delivery of HFM to VE removed in totality as a function from the RFCAs, becoming a DIO responsibility

The four afore-mentioned regions have now been determined and are shown here. The In-Service date of 1st August 2024 provides sufficient time to ensure that all relevant data is uploaded to systems, planned maintenance schedules are developed in accordance with MOD SFG20, help desks are in the correct state of preparedness and CRFCA/RFCA Estate Teams are trained in FDIS BE ways of working and on the IT systems that will support their day-to-day activities.