The Institution is the legal entity (as represented by the senior staff who manage it) that will form the contract for the provision of the required services with the external contractor. Although these staff represent the institution, in practice the responsibility for the preparation and management of the service contract will be delegated to a “Managing Department”. In the example used in the chart, this is the Estates Department. The formal contract, supported by the SLA, is between the institution and the service provider.
For major services the senior staff will approve the strategy for delivery of the service and will delegate responsibility for implementing that strategy to the appropriate managing department. An authorised person, usually in the Managing Department, will sign the contract on behalf of the Institution. After that, the Institution’s responsibility rests mainly with applying appropriate governance by way of protecting the interests of all the users and ensuring the maintenance of reliable reporting procedures and financial and management controls.
In the example, the University of Life (the client) decides to contract out its cleaning services. Internally, the Estates Department (the Managing Department) has day-to-day responsibility for the institution’s cleaning needs and will take the lead, supported by the Procurement Office, in developing the tender documentation and award on a service contract. The End Users are the staff, students and other people associated with the institution that benefit from the cleaning services provided by the contractor/supplier, Clean Co Ltd.