4 minute read
Talking Point
THE CONSTRUCTION PLAYBOOK
Published in December of last year, the Government’s Construction Playbook aims to encourage collaboration and better strategic relationships between the public and private sectors and to drive improvement and innovation within the construction industry. John Welch, Deputy Director for Crown Commercial Service, explains further.
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The result of deep engagement with stakeholders across the UK’s construction industry, the Construction Playbook captures commercial best practices and specific sector reforms, setting out the Government’s expectations of how contracting authorities and suppliers, including the supply chain, should engage with each other from the start of any programme.
Crown Commercial Service (CCS), an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, is the UK’s largest public procurement organisation. Our procurement professionals include experts in construction, facilities and estates management, building materials, energy, water and fuels, as well as dozens of other categories across all the common goods and services procured by the public sector.
Having led the drafting process – covering early supplier engagement, outcomebased specifications, effective contracting, risk management, long-term planning and the overall procurement process – CCS continues to be part of the steering group supporting and overseeing the Construction Playbook’s implementation.
What the Construction Playbook says
The Construction Playbook sets out 14 key policies for how the Government should assess, procure and deliver public works projects and programmes, to enable the UK to build back better.
All central Government departments and their armslength bodies are expected to follow these policies on a ‘comply or explain’ basis – if necessary, explaining why their unique circumstances mean they go their own way.
The playbook sets out what is expected from the industry, including continuous improvement in building and workplace safety, cost, speed and quality of delivery, greater sharing of better data, investment in training the future workforce through upskilling and apprenticeships, and adoption of the UK Building Information Management (BIM) framework – providing greater certainty to construction through long-term plans for key programmes.
It also puts the onus on the public sector to develop detailed project pipelines, considering alliance arrangements and earlier and more detailed market engagement, and building its own expertise around consistent, effective contracting. John Welch is a senior commercial and procurement professional, chartered with extensive construction experience. He was recently appointed Chair of the NEC Users’ Group and is currently responsible for the strategic delivery of multi-billion-pound commercial agreements in Crown Commercial Service (CCS), supporting Government departments in delivering their construction programmes.
How to build the playbook into your procurement process
Here are four ways you can ensure your construction procurements are in line with the recommendations of the Construction Playbook:
1. Put enough resource into planning
The planning stage of any procurement will determine its success or otherwise. Make sure you assess the health and capability of your supply market, plan long term to drive value for your key assets and engage early with your supply chains.
Putting the correct resource into the planning stages of your procurement will boost opportunities for competition and innovation, help you effectively allocate and manage risk, and set your project or programme up for success.
2. Choose a route to market and a delivery partner that suits you
Choose the right delivery model for your needs and follow an evidence-based process. Large procurement frameworks can offer a mix of suppliers with different areas of expertise, potentially including SMEs from your area, as well as standard terms and conditions to protect you from insolvencies and build the latest best practice into your contracts.
3. Benchmark and incentivise
No construction project is completely unique, so benchmark yours against past projects and create a ‘should cost’ model to make sure your investment decisions are informed ones. Incentivise your chosen suppliers to deliver on time and in a sustainable manner, in line with your priorities around social value, modern slavery and carbon net zero. 4. Go digital
CCS is supporting the rollout of Building Information Modelling (BIM) across the public sector, and particularly for local authorities. In a BIM process, a project team contributes information and data about a proposed building or structure in a shared digital space called a common data environment. This information can be used to create a 3D model of the proposed structure, with tags for materials, manufacturer, cost, and much more. This data can then be shared with involved parties, putting data at the heart of the design process. The role of leaders
There are lots of things you can do practically to ensure your procurements follow the latest guidelines and best practice. But just as important is the attitude you take, and the leadership behaviours you display.
Behaviour and leadership is key – suppliers have to want to be part of building back better, and public sector customers have to recognise where more innovative arrangements will bring benefits.
Suppliers also need to consider and demonstrate how they’ll deliver against carbon net zero targets, supporting social value and health and safety, and tackling modern slavery.
I would recommend working in a collaborative fashion, potentially as part of an alliance. This can be a real gear change to some in the industry, up and down the chain. Take that leap, be competitive and collaborative and, together, we can build a more sustainable construction industry.
