Pinnacle win a contract to provide FM services for Clarion Housing Group’s properties in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire
Pinnacle Group has announced that it has been contracted by Clarion Housing Group, the largest housing association in the UK, to provide cleaning services for properties in its Wisbech, Huntington, Peterborough and Cambridge estates.
Pinnacle are proud to support Clarion and the local communities that it serves and are delighted to have won this competitive, three-year contract.
As of 8 March 2021, Pinnacle are providing estates services to 195 sites, including new build flats, low to medium rise flats and a mix of new and pre-established housing estates. The contract is for an initial three-year period, with a possible two-year extension, and will include the 17 retirement schemes that Clarion operates in the region.
Pinnacle are providing estates services across these sites, including regular cleaning and management of the wide ranging and mixed tenure and sheltered sites in Clarion’s Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire portfolio. Pinnacle are a housing management provider, delivering tailored solutions to over 300,000 homes and looks forward to applying this experience to this contract.
“Having worked with Pinnacle Group in the past, their professionalism and experience gave us the confidence that they were the right group for the job. We have been really pleased with their approach to supporting our residents and working with them to build positive relationships. We look forward to working in partnership with Pinnacle over the next three years.
Sally Greetham
Clarion Group
“It’s fantastic to be awarded this contract, especially during a time where we want to provide the absolute best services to Clarion’s Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire residents. As shown in our work with other housing associations, Pinnacle takes pride in building valuable partnerships with our customers’ teams and ensuring that their residents get the best possible service. We look forward to demonstrating this commitment to Clarion.”
Neil Fergus
Pinnacle Group’
Both Clarion and Pinnacle Group are focused on taking a sustainable approach to housing, and partake in a variety of wider ventures. These include Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group and Pinnacle People, the group’s social investment arm, which both help get people back to work, develop skills and support with personal financial management.
Microsoft recognises Pinnacle Group as a leading developer of Power Platform solutions
Microsoft has acknowledged Pinnacle Group as one the leading firms using its Power Platform to undertake audits for the facilities and sites that it manages both internally and on behalf of its clients. Sancho Harker, a Solution Integration Analyst in Pinnacle’s Technology and Innovation team, was key in introducing this system to the Group’s operations and has also been recognised by Microsoft as one of their Most Valuable Professionals (MVP).
Using Microsoft’s Power Platform system Pinnacle will save 3,300 pages of printed paper and recover over 1,000 hours of auditors’ time each year.
Some of the solutions the Technology and Innovation team have been working on include:
Effectively Processing and Auditing Data at Pace
Before the introduction of the Power Platform system, Pinnacle’s Health and Safety team used a paper-based system to document data and this process could be cumbersome and time consuming. The Power Platform allows for the creation of bespoke Power Apps that can document every stage of the audit process easily, combined with another system called Power Automate that is used to handle the back-end data seamlessly.
The reporting of audit data has been automated through the Power BI system, which allows the running of real-time reports by month, risk level, profit centre and various other fields.
Recruitment Power Platform Simplifying and Modernising Recruitment
Pinnacle’s recruitment processes have now been brought in-house and modernised via the Power Platform system and this will enable the company to save between £100,000 and £500,000 per year on recruitment costs.
Developing the Profit Centre Power App
Sancho created the “Profit Centres List” app that supports Pinnacle managers to access their respective profit centre “hub” and receive requests for authorisation. This has centralised and streamlined a time-consuming process and ensured higher productivity for the firm. The simplification of the profit centre listing has been especially helpful, as it allows swift authorisation of costs and tasks.
Currently, Pinnacle has 15 Power Platform solutions in production and at least 20 in the pipeline.
Pinnacle secures £3,500 for Lambeth food banks and support services
In the run up to the 2020 festive season, Pinnacle has worked with several local organisations, such as the Trussell Trust, Lambeth Larder and Blenheim Gardens’ resident management to alleviate hardship in Lambeth.
This year, Pinnacle Group has reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to Londoners suffering hardship during the festive season and, along with its partners, it and its team members have:
- Donated a total of £3,500 to Trussell Trust and local community food banks across Lambeth;
- Volunteered their time, logistics chain and expertise to the local groups undertaking this work in Lambeth; and,
- Erected and donated Christmas trees and a light installation in Clapham Park, Lambeth.
Pinnacle supported two Trussell Trust food banks in Lambeth, Norwood and Brixton and Clapham Park, to help the local community. The Trussell Trust operates a food bank network that provided 1,900,122 three-day emergency food supplies across the UK in 2019/2020.
The Norwood and Brixton Foodbank, located at St Margaret’s Church, requested Pinnacle’s support to deep clean the church’s halls that are being used by food bank volunteers considering the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Pinnacle’s team cleaned these halls and will provide sanitorial services for the days that volunteer teams are working, alongside a final tidy up and sterilisation of the facilities in late December. Pinnacle has also donated £500 to this fantastic effort by the Norwood and Brixton Foodbank, as well as a further £500 to Clapham Park food bank.
“Eight members of the team volunteered their time at the Clapham Park Food Bank to wrap gifts, pack food hampers, pre-pack boxes with treats and sort food donations. We also donated and erected Christmas trees and light installations in Clapham Park. Alongside this effort, Pinnacle donated to this remarkable food bank, which alone feeds over 1800 people and distributed 20,000kgs of food in 2019.”
Grant Seward
Area Manager
Pinnacle also supported the Oasis Community Hub, Waterloo, by volunteering five vans to distribute pre-packed support parcels destined for deprived housing and hostels across Lambeth. Pinnacle contributed £500 to this food bank’s effort, which will support it providing 500 food and gift hampers. Separate to this work with and support to the Trussell Trust, Pinnacle also supported Lambeth Larder.
Pinnacle has also donated £500 to the Blenheim Gardens’ resident management organisation’s (RMO) Floating Food Bank, alongside a further £500 for its hardship fund that will support school clothing for local children. This donation to RMO was matched by Martin Vitera, a sanitorial chemicals and Pinnacle supplier, which kindly donated £250 to both the food bank and the hardship fund.
Pinnacle recognises that food poverty and hardship is a serious issue in the UK and, as a leading facilities management firm, it understands that it has an important role to play in the communities that it serves. It was grateful for the opportunity to assist and support the Trussell Trust, Lambeth Larder and Blenheim Gardens’ RMO and their work with local communities.
Pinnacle offers support to Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH) Christmas Community Value Drive
In the run up to the 2020 festive season, Pinnacle has worked with MTVH to support communities and alleviate hardship in London, Cambridge and Nottingham.
This year, Pinnacle Group has worked with MTVH as a part of its ongoing commitment to communities across the UK suffering hardship during the festive season. Over the last few months, Pinnacle has:
- Donated and erected Christmas trees across the country;
- Supported MTVH with producing and distributing Christmas Hampers in Nottingham, Cambridge and London; and,
- Donated £3,000 to help make Christmas happen for MTVH residents.
Pinnacle Group donated ten Christmas trees to MTVH, to be erected on their sites across the country. One of the chosen sites, St Martins’ Estate in Tulse Hill, Lambeth, hosted an orchestral concert to celebrate the festive season after the tree was put up and decorated, bringing some much-needed cheer to the community.
Pinnacle Group has also been helping MTVH to offer residents Christmas hampers and a donation of £3,000 was made to MTVH, supporting families through hampers containing food and small gifts, like books, providing them with a Christmas. In addition to the donation, Pinnacle is also the delivery partner, supporting MTVH in the collection and delivery of the Christmas hampers across the East Midlands, East Anglia and London.
Pinnacle Group employees have volunteered their time, and Pinnacle the use of their vans, to help MTVH with their Christmas deliveries. The deliveries will be made to keep the most vulnerable and socially isolated residents at MTVH properties feel positively engaged during the festive period.
Pinnacle recognises that food poverty, isolation and loneliness is a serious issue in the UK, now more than ever. As a leading facilities management firm, Pinnacle is focused on supporting the communities in which it works and has been grateful for the opportunity to support MTVH to make Christmas happen.
"We are immensely proud of all of the Pinnacle Employees, who have gone above and beyond to support MTVH this Christmas. A special thank you goes out to our colleague Diogo driving to the MTVH Lambeth site to help switch on the Christmas tree lights for the concert, and to all of our volunteers delivering Christmas hampers to residents across London, Cambridge and Nottingham.”
Martin Rosiak
Area Manager
Pinnacle Group donates to local causes
Ahead of the festive season, Pinnacle Group undertook a staff consultation exercise to nominate local causes and food banks within communities that they serve and to support these social ventures with donations. This collective activity served to recognise causes or charitable efforts that may otherwise have not received support and to ensure that Pinnacle was responsive to the needs of the local communities where it operates.
The consultation asked colleagues to identify and nominate food banks in their contract areas. This led to over 20 responses from our local teams and a set of 25 food banks and local causes across the communities we serve were identified. Pinnacle then donated sums of £500 each to support these food banks, as they provide basic food and support services to local communities that may be struggling during the festive period, over £10,000 has been donated.
Pinnacle also requested that colleagues recognise and nominate local causes that the Group could support. This was an important request, as many worthy, local causes do not have the resources to effectively publicise or communicate their work and are focused on their social outreach. Pinnacle colleagues identified a number of local causes and the Group will be working with each of these remarkable ventures, which are undertaking important work in trying times.
Pinnacle is grateful that colleagues were able to volunteer their experience and knowledge to support these charitable causes and local food banks.
“We appealed to Pinnacle employees to help support food banks and local causes in the communities where we operate. We were delighted by the enthusiasm shown by all our staff to directly help people and families suffering hardship at this most difficult of times.”
Perry Lloyd
Group Chief Executive
Elsewhere, in the London Borough of Lambeth alone, Pinnacle donated a total of £3,500 to the Trussell Trust and local community food banks. Alongside these donations, Pinnacle teams volunteered their time and expertise to the groups undertaking this important work in the Borough.
Pinnacle recognises that food poverty and social deprivation is a serious issue in the UK and, as a leading provider of front-line, community facing services, acknowledges the important ongoing role it needs to play in the communities that it serves.
Celebrating our people and culture at The Pinnacles
Pinnacle Group’s annual staff awards, “The Pinnacles” took place virtually this week. The awards are to celebrate our people and our culture, as we acknowledge those that have embodied the spirit of what it means to be a Pinnacle employee. This means living our values, making an impact and striving to make Pinnacle a company that we can all be proud to work for. Pinnacle strives to transform communities and change lives, and this ethos runs through everything we do. But it’s our most important asset, our people, that is at the heart of this vision.
Due to the current climate, we were unable to get together to celebrate in person, so we adapted and innovated to produce the awards virtually. The event was hosted by Pinnacle Group’s Senior HR Business Partner, David Tant and more than 100 Pinnacle employees tuned in.
This year, Ron Powell, a cleaner on our Brockley housing contract, received the prestigious Employee of the Year award, for the commitment he has shown to his colleagues, client and, above all, residents (our customers). Living by our corporate values (Trust, Respect, Involve, Challenge & Deliver Excellence) Ron is a real credit to himself and Pinnacle, and epitomises so much of the good work that our colleagues deliver every day.
Ron’s manager, Nikki Walker, said of Ron “He is a trusted, respected and valued member of the team and fully deserves to have won the Employee of the Year award. He views all the residents as his friends, they ask after him if they do not see him for a couple of days. The community rely on Ron and he has never let them down. Ron has commented that he has never had to say “no” to anyone, and he hopes he never will.”
Perry Lloyd, Group Chief Executive, said of our Staff Awards, “The Pinnacles” is a very special annual event in the Pinnacle calendar. It allows us to truly celebrate colleagues who have gone the extra mile. Even though the event was in a very different format from past years, it was a great success and I want to send my congratulations again to all our winners who fully deserve to be lauded for their exceptional commitment to our organisation and the communities we serve.”
The other category winners and finalists were:
Extra Mile Award
Finalist: Tracy Newall, Facilities Assistant
Finalist: Darren Dunn, Caretaker
Winner: John Butcher, Health and Safety Manager
Innovation Award
Finalist: Chris Cooper, Performance Manager
Finalist: Stephen Petrie, Senior Performance Manager
Winner: Christina Lee, Operations Control
Rising Star Award
Finalist: Daniel Jeffrey, Cleaner
Finalist: Nathanael Hayden, Operations Analyst
Winner: Kerri Holland, Compliance Manager
Community Champion Award
Finalist: Kate Donovan, Area Manager - Housing
Finalist: Sean Hancock, Regional Operations Manager
Winner: Graham Holroyd, Caretaker
Manager of the Year Award
Finalist: Amy Mills, Regional Cleaning Manager
Finalist: Monica Dutu, Contract Manager
Winner: Rochelle Menville, Estate Manager
Team of the Year Award
Finalist: University of Hertfordshire - De Hallivand team
Finalist: Brockley
Winner: North London Schools
Employee of the Year
Finalist: Steven Dockerill, Superintendent
Finalist: Khalid Idahmed, Reactive Cleaner
Finalist: Ian Bates, GM Operative
Finalist: Violet Legrice, Housing Manager
Winner: Ron Powell, Cleaner
Each finalist receives a cash prize of £150, £500 goes to our five category winners and £1,000 for Ron as our Employee of the Year (2020).
We look forward to a time in the New Year when we can celebrate in person with all our finalist’s and colleagues, when is it safe and appropriate to do so.
Notting Hill Genesis award Pinnacle Group a cleaning services contract for key worker sites across London
Following a competitive tender, Notting Hill Genesis Housing Association has awarded Pinnacle Group a £4.5m five-year contract to provide cleaning services to over 1,300 key worker units.
Since November, Pinnacle has been providing cleaning services to key worker accommodation over five sites across London. Some of the properties include accommodation for staff at Great Ormond Street and University College London Hospital (UCLH).
As a part of the contact, over 40 staff have TUPE transferred from incumbent contractors to Pinnacle to continue providing services to Notting Hill Genesis’ sites.
“We were very impressed by Pinnacle Group’s professionalism during the application process. We are living in uncertain times, but Pinnacle’s approach to delivering cleaning service for our residents was responsive and a change from the traditional market service. We are excited for this partnership and look forward to working with Pinnacle over the coming years.”
Dominic Tyler
Head of Keyworker Accommodation, Notting Hill Genesis
“It’s fantastic to be working with Notting Hill Genesis, especially during a time where we want to provide the absolute best services to all key workers. Our substantial investment in the JobWatch technology for performance management demonstrates our commitment to such a well renowned housing association such as Notting Hill Genesis. This enables us to manage our approach to cleaning the properties with minimal unnecessary contact between cleaning staff and residents.”
Neil Fergus
Managing Director, FM, Pinnacle Group
The contract is for an initial five-year period, with a possible two-year extension.
Pinnacle Group steps in to provide 8,000 essential meals to Central Bedfordshire families in need
Pinnacle Group’s catering team on the Central Bedfordshire Council contract have been involved in a pilot project to improve the health and wellbeing of children (up to 12 years old) and their families to deliver over 1,200 picnic meals a week over the school summer holidays.
The Holiday Picnic was a joint initiative between Central Bedfordshire Council, Central Bedfordshire Public Health and team BEDS&LUTON (Bedfordshire’s Active Partnership) and Pinnacle were appointed to provide the catering. The scheme was created in response to the pressures of the COVID-19 national health emergency and to tackle access to healthy affordable food.
During the seven-week pilot, the three-person catering team provided 8,297 meals taking into consideration allergies, intolerances and personal preference to over 300 families. The scheme aimed to improve children’s health, their readiness to restart school in September, and encouraged families to spend positive time together. Identified families were able to collect Pinnacle’s healthy, pre-prepared picnic meals for the entire family, from Council Children’s Centres each day.
During the initiative numerous families made comments to the children’s centres about how they looked forward to the picnic each wee and how the children were very excited to find out what was in their picnic pack.
Pinnacle received extended praise from all third parties, for professionalism, flexibility at short notice and value for money. Many children wrote thank you notes to the staff:
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“Pinnacle showed great enthusiasm to be involved in a project that would make a positive difference to local residents and their families. Anecdotal feedback from participating families was very positive and the lunches were well received. Pinnacle demonstrated cooperation, determination and flexibility in their approach in order to meet the needs of the pilot and achieve our combined goals.”
Cara Umney
Public Health Officer, Bedford Borough Council
"This has been a very rewarding project to be part of and I am extremely proud of working with the team. Their hard work and dedication will leave a lasting legacy on the families involved and concludes their time at Pinnacle with exceptional dedication.”
Diane Mason
Contract Manager, Pinnacle Group
Claire Kober gets recognised as one of Property Week’s RESI Trailblazers
Claire Kober, a member of Pinnacle Group’s Executive Committee, has been recognised by Property Week as being a 2020 RESI Trailblazer.
Pinnacle's Managing Director, Homes, has been selected by a panel of esteemed RESI experts as one of 32 entrepreneurs, innovators and disruptors who are shaking up the UK residential sector.
Claire spearheads the company’s housing, estates and property management contracts, as well as Pinnacle People and Connect, our 24-7 contact centre. She works in partnership with a range of clients in the local government, institutional investment and development sectors.
In addition to Claire’s work at Pinnacle, she is an independent Director and Chair of House - Urban Splash’s pioneering Joint Venture with Japan’s biggest house builder, Sekisui House. Its mission is to build beautiful modern homes in characterful new neighbourhoods using innovative design, Modern Methods of Construction and the latest technology.
Claire’s mantra is:
"People are at the heart of everything I do; excellent outcomes come from strong relationships with all sorts of people – sometimes the best partnerships are the most unexpected.”
Claire Kober
Managing Director, Homes, Pinnacle Group
Congratulations to Claire for this achievement.
For further reading on Property Week's 'Class of 2020' Trailblazer's read here.
Pinnacle Group introduce electric vehicles to 10-year Central Bedfordshire Council contract
- Electric vehicles have been introduced to the fleet on the 7+3 year contract
- By 2022, 100% of the vehicles on the Central Bedfordshire Council Corporate Landlord Services contract will be powered by electricity
- Pinnacle are investing in charging points at local offices and developing partnership arrangements with existing infrastructure at Council sites
Pinnacle Group’s liveried vans are a well-known sight on the roads of Bedfordshire, and going forward, some of those vans will be electric vehicles (EV).
In 2019, Pinnacle Group (“Pinnacle”) were awarded a contract to provide soft facilities management (FM) services across Central Bedfordshire Council’s (“the Council”) non-domestic estate on a 7+3 year contract worth over £13m. Pinnacle supply the cleaning, catering, waste management, security and gritting services across the Council’s portfolio of 53 corporate buildings, four care homes and 10 children’s centres.
During the competitive tender process, the Council’s focused procurement approached was based on delivering sustainable, long-term value across the duration of the contract which centred around innovation and improvements. This commitment was proved in the Council’s evaluation mechanism of 80% quality, 20% price.
The Council and Pinnacle are working together to create a shared vision for Corporate Landlord Services and Social Value is at the heart of this. Pinnacle are supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), finding innovative approaches to improve and sustain value, improving compliance across the estate, and have focused on introducing suitability initiatives, such as EV’s.
The brand new EV’s will cover on average 80-miles a day, servicing many community sites around Central Bedfordshire. The first electric models being used are The Nissan NV200.
Pinnacle are working towards phasing out polluting petrol and diesel vehicles across their wider fleet of 420 vehicles. With new technology coming to market, Pinnacle are working with both their fleet management company and manufacturers to identify those vehicles due for renewal that can be replaced with an EV. Pinnacle have also adopted an approach of new fossil fuel leased vehicles being agreed without a business case to justify it. Additionally, Pinnacle have recently rolled out a salary sacrifice scheme for EV’s to encourage staff to move towards an EV and one of the first participants in the scheme is the Regional Operations Manager for the Central Beds contract.
“We are delighted to be working with Pinnacle to help achieve our corporate sustainable goals. We are excited that Pinnacle is offering improvements with this initiatives and others which are delivering real benefits to the community.”
Patrick Miller
Service Manager, Central Bedfordshire Council
“We are proud to have introduced electric vehicles to Central Bedfordshire, we are working hard to reduced polluting emissions and improve air quality where we can. We look forward to working with the progressive Council to continue to drive innovation and improvements across the contract to achieve other sustainable goals which benefit the local community.”
Sean Hancock
Regional Operations Manager, Pinnacle Group
Pinnacle to provide tenancy management and maintenance services to Arpeggio Properties’ Ocean House development in Barnet
Arpeggio Properties Limited has awarded Pinnacle Group a contract to provide tenancy property management and maintenance services at the Ocean House development in Barnet.
From early November, Pinnacle will provide management services, including; rent collection, repairs and maintenance, voids management, planned preventative maintenance and lifecycle maintenance to 34 bespoke supported living units.
Care and support will be provided by Next Step Support Ltd who support adults with a diverse range of needs including mental health, learning disability and substance abuse.
“We are excited for the opening of Ocean House in Barnet, and for the beginning of our partnership with Pinnacle. We are pleased to be able to support people in need, especially during the current climate. We look forward to working in partnership with Pinnacle.”
Robert Binns
Director, Arpeggio Properties
“It is fantastic to be awarded this contract. We are excited to begin work with Arpeggio Properties and Next Step Support Ltd as we support adults in need of help.”
Nimisha Patel
Housing Director, Pinnacle Group
The contract is for an initial five-year period.
Pinnacle Group has been appointed to the new CAEHRS framework to tackle the UK’s employment and health challenges
It has been announced that Pinnacle Group has been appointed to Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) Commercial Agreement for the provision of Employment and Health Related Services (CAEHRS) across North East England, Southern England, Central England, London and the Home Counties and Wales.
The CAEHRS programme will run for five years, with a budget of £7.5bn, and will be used to facilitate the provision of employment and health services on behalf of the Government and other contracting bodies.
Pinnacle is acting as the lead organisation for an innovative partnership called PORTRUS between Pinnacle and PeoplePlus Enterprises Pty Ltd trading as PeoplePlus Australia. The collaboration brings together vast expertise to deliver market leading employability services aimed at helping people find and stay in work. Combining Pinnacle’s successful and established delivery model with the Australian partner’s innovation and knowledge from an overseas market enables this partnership to offer new ways to combat employment and health challenges in a complex environment.
Pinnacle has been a trusted partner to the DWP since 2008 and is a current Prime provider of DWP’s New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) and has helped more than 40,000 customers to find sustained work through the delivery of a range of community-led solution since its inception.
PeoplePlus Australia helps people move into work by enabling them to gain the skills they need to make them employable. They provide employment and training services to thousands of people each year in over 150 locations across Australia and are appointed to all the Australian’s Government three major program contracts.
“Our work in employability services has become ever more important since COVID-19 and we have a strong track record of delivering employability contracts. We are delighted to be collaborating with PeoplePlus Australia to explore innovative ways to tackle today's UK employment, health and skills challenges. There is great synergy with our values and those of PeoplePlus Australia, and we look forward to working with them to help people in the UK find lasting employment.”
Claire Kober
Managing Director, Homes at Pinnacle Group
“Our vision at PeoplePlus Australia is to transform lives and businesses through work and training. We help thousands of people a year in Australia and can’t wait to get started on helping thousands more in the UK. We’re excited to partner with Pinnacle Group, and eagerly await the start of CAEHRS.”
Emma Crichton
Executive Director of Growth and Innovation at PeoplePlus Australia
If you would like to be considered to work with the partnership, please get in touch at: [email protected]