ESS Support Services Worldwide, part of Compass Group UK & Ireland, has won a five-year £3.5m contract with the US Air Force, Department of Defence Dependents Schools (DoDDS).
DoDDS are a network of schools, Elementary (primary) through to High school (secondary), that serve the dependents of United States Military and civilian DoD personnel in three areas of the world; Europe, Pacific, and Eastern United States and the Caribbean. The schools themselves are operated by the Department of Defence Education Activity (DoDEA).
This new contract will see 40 ESS colleagues delivering cleaning services, dining room assistants and grounds staff at four US bases. These services will be delivered to around 2800 pupils across eight schools in areas such as RAF Lakenheath and RAF Alconbury. New and innovative cleaning solutions will be utilised by ESS to raise the service delivery standards throughout the sites, these include investment in modern equipment and training to provide teams with new skills.
In addition Compass’ Medirest, the UK’s leading provider of catering and soft services to the NHS and wider UK healthcare market, will continue to deliver specialist clinical cleaning services to the onsite hospital at RAF Lakenheath.
Chris Garside, Managing Director of ESS, said, “This contract win with the Department of Defence Dependents Schools is testament to our solid track record, which we were able to demonstrate to them during the tender process. We’re looking forward to driving the service standards with the introduction of new and innovative equipment. This is a unique contract and we’ll deliver our tailored approach to the highest standards.”
A DoDDS spokesperson said, “We are pleased to announce this partnership with ESS who we selected following an in-depth tendering process. During this time we’ve developed a good relationship with ESS and trust that they will deliver a top class service to our sites. Their bid fully demonstrated their capability and we look forward to building on this partnership moving forward.”