Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil

Today (15 November) Vice-Chancellor Sasha Roseneil emailed all staff and students. You can read the full message below:

Since I started at Sussex in the height of the summer, I have been excited to see the campus coming back to life and the University’s community of staff and students re-forming with the new academic year, and after the disruptions of the pandemic. The experience of being a member of Sussex is fundamentally shaped by life on campus, and I have already had conversations with many of you about the services available and how you feel about the physical environment. 

I am now inviting everyone to contribute to a campus-wide consultation about a set of essential campus services: food and catering, and estates facilities management.
 
The current campus contracts for catering and facilities management expire in 2023. In August, our catering contract ends, followed, in December, by our facilities management contract.  
 
I am aware that the original outsourcing of these services a decade ago caused considerable unhappiness within the University community. Many colleagues and students have principled objections to outsourcing and strong beliefs about the importance of values-led partnership and procurement. And I imagine that everyone cares about what is available to eat and drink on campus.
 
After extensive discussion within the University Executive Group, we have concluded that we will seek to insource as many services as possible, with due attention to operational and financial constraints. This means that we will end the current ‘total facilities management’ outsourcing model. The establishment of a new hybrid delivery model will begin with the insourcing of conferencing services in summer 2023, with decisions about other services to follow over the coming months. However, in the current financial context, with the complex and urgent challenges that Sussex is facing, and in order to ensure the delivery of the University’s academic strategy and extensive capital programme, full insourcing is not possible at present. Once we have established a hybrid model, we might be able to move to further insourcing over time, if we deem it possible to deliver additional services effectively and efficiently, without incurring significant financial and operational risk.
 
For those services that will continue to be delivered by contracted partners, a new values-based, ethical procurement process will drive our choice of partners, alongside considerations of value for money, quality, and efficiency. We will seek service providers whose commitments to equality, diversity, and inclusion and to environmental sustainability are congruent with our own institutional values. We will also continue to ensure that our contractors pay the Real Living Wage to all staff working on campus, in accordance with our recent accreditation as a Real Living Wage employer, and we will seek alignment with other aspects of University of Sussex terms and conditions of employment, where these are better than those offered by the contractors.

Consultation and engagement

This month we will be launching the first phase of consultation about campus services, asking all staff and students to share their opinions about food on campus and about what you need and want from our catering services. There will be a separate opportunity, early in 2023, to express views about estates facilities management services. Each consultation will involve an online survey, focus groups, and drop-in sessions. We will publish regular updates to keep you informed about progress, and in January we will share with you the outcomes of the food and catering consultation, and how this feedback will influence the tendering process.
 
These consultations will be critical in shaping the provision of these services and in ensuring that we make real improvements to campus life, as we seek ethical partnerships for a sustainable future. I look forward to hearing your views.
 
With my best wishes,
 
Sasha Roseneil
Vice-Chancellor