The results of this survey will help Build UK to improve the Journey from Education into Employment in the industry, and the deadline for responses is 4:00pm on Friday 8 July and all individual responses will be treated confidentially.

CLICK HERE to complete the survey

This year CESW supported and judged The Lego Competition for Primary Schools – We are excited that the winners have now been announced!

Exeter City Council’s Royal Albert Museum and Art Gallery (RAMM) is launching a new exhibition this weekend from 18 June to 11 September – ‘Brick by Brick’ which will feature nine models from Exeter’s vibrant history, made out of LEGO®.

Building Greater Exeter teamed up with RAMM to host a competition for all the primary schools in Exeter, Teignbridge and East Devon. The aim was to engage and encourage pupils to think about construction in a fun and creative way and to raise awareness of the different roles in the sector.

Over 30 schools entered the competition is to ‘Design and build a model for Exeter’s future’. As well as producing their design from LEGO®, the pupils had to state:

• what their design is
• why would they like it
• what is the environmental impact and what sustainable construction methods might be used?

The top three entries will have their model on display as part of the exhibition and all the schools keep the LEGO® for ongoing construction activities or clubs at their schools.

There was a panel of six judges from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Morgan Sindall Group plc, SDS Engineering Consultants, Constructing Excellence South West, Willmott Dixon and Liveable Exeter.

The standard of entries was extremely high and the judges had a tough time picking just three from the 31 entries.

They were so impressed with the creativity the students displayed and the variety of models submitted, from ‘homes for the homeless and refugees, to space museums, aquariums and floating stages’, to name just a few.

The top three in alphabetical order:

• Awliscombe CofE Primary School – for their model of multi-purpose building including a museum, skate park, well-being garden and medical bay
• Ide Primary School – for their model of a house of the future with a flying car and wind turbine
• St Leonards CofE Primary School – for their model of a disability centre with sensory garden and swimming pool

With Starcross Primary School highly commended for their model of an eco-friendly building with roof garden and solar panels.

Celebration Weekend 18-19 June
To celebrate the participation and imagination of all the children that got involved with this competition, RAMM are hosting a celebration event this weekend to display as many models as possible.

Thanks to all the supporters of the competition which helped extend the reach to over 30 primary schools to receive LEGO®: Liveable Exeter, Morgan Sindall, Willmott Dixon, SDS Engineering Consultants, Constructing Excellence SW, Exeter Science Park and Bam.

Museum entry is free. Brick by Brick exhibition tickets are priced from £2.50 to £4.50 and activities and events are bookable and priced individually.

More information and tickets available at rammuseum.org.uk/brick-by-brick

Are you passionate about best practise in Construction?  Could you be the new Building Safety chair?

Richard Kochanski is stepping down this month as Chair of the Building Safety Theme Group.
Richard has been a passionate and inspiring chair for the past few years and we will be sad to see him go.

Richard reflected on his time as chair and said “Being the chair of the building safety group has given me the opportunity to be with people who are passionate about doing the right thing. I have been impressed with how committed the theme group members are to improving best practice and embracing innovation to challenge the status quo. It is uplifting and educational to listen to these people and learn from each other.

One of my greatest pleasures has been working with a dedicated team of enthusiastic people on a Client’s Guide to Quality. The team is fun to be with and are focused on achieving improvements even with all the other conflicting pressures we all have to deal with.”

Please contact CESW CEO, Andrew Carpenter: andrew.carpenter@cesw.org.uk if you are interested to be our next Chair person

The Queens platinum jubilee illustrated in vivid detail the scope and breadth of change that a single lifetime might experience. The queen herself has said as much, that we should all be prepared for more change more often than we might be comfortable with (I paraphrase).

It certainly feels to me that the pace of transition is quickening as world events distort market forces and compel us to adapt, improvise and overcome. Adaptive thinking from those of us in the construction sector needs to be matched with similarly fast paced changes in legislation, taxation, procurement, and client thinking. Scarcity of materials, cost uncertainty and a diminishing pool of skills and labour make responding to tenders an esoteric art form rather than an exercise in actual costs. This cannot end well.

However, this is not the first time and calls for a transformation in construction have been made before. As Churchill said, “the further backwards you look, the further forwards you can see”. In 1998 Sir Anthony Egan published a report entitled “Rethinking Construction” designed to make a construction sector fit for the new millennium. As we move further into that millennium with all its turmoil and change, the findings of that report seem even more relevant and imperative today.

One of the key themes of Egan is that of partnering. Working together to agree problem solving behaviours and find new ways of collaborating and supporting each-other rather than isolating and blaming. Of all our Queens strengths, her steady confidence in the positivity of the human spirit is something we would all do well to adopt. Perhaps then we might similarly shape our own legacies and be as well regarded as she is.

A Get It Right Initiative (GIRI) event recently addressed the question ‘How does the procurement phase affect our ability to reduce errors and improve productivity in construction’. One of the distinguished panellists at the event was Mark Farmer from Cast Consultancy, author of ‘Modernise or Die’ and Co-Chair of Constructing Excellence. He argued that poor procurement “is one of the reasons we keep spinning our gears as an industry”.

He added: “No one is breaking out of the cycle, no one is thinking differently about how we set the job up properly, about how we make procurement an integrated process beyond the transaction.” This prompted Martyn Jones revisit some of the past work of CESW’s Procurement & Productivity Theme Group and their attempt to identify the key principles of procurement and to integrate procurement seamlessly with implementation.

The members of the Procurement & Productivity Group had the long-held the view that effective procurement is the key to unlocking the potential in project teams and supply chains to improve quality and increase productivity. This included identifying, after much discussion back in 2019, what the group saw as the Top 10 Principles of Procurement. Here they are again:

1. Clearly and unambiguously define what it is you want to procure
2. Adopt the right procurement route for your desired outcomes
3. Understand the risks that exist, and allocate them to whoever is best placed to manage them
4. Select an appropriate standard Form of Contract limiting amendments to reflect agreed commercial arrangements
5. Speak to Contractors and their Supply Chain as early on in the process as you can
6. Carefully consider the size of the tender list – too many and tenderers will lose interest
7. Allow sufficient time for the tender and tender review process
8. Evaluate tender returns based on value, not on cheapest tender cost
9. Commit to suppliers early to allow time for collaborative planning, value management and secure resources
10. Provide feedback to the unsuccessful tenderers

 

But we went further, anticipating Mark Farmer’s view that “we need to make procurement an integrated process beyond the transaction”, by adding our Top 10 Principles of Implementation. We argued that having assembled the most appropriate team for the project using CESW’s Top 10 Principles of Procurement the project and supply chain partners should then commit to:

 

1. As customers: continuing to clearly and unambiguously mandate and communicate our desired outcomes to key suppliers downstream in the supply chain
2. As suppliers: making our upstream customers’ desired outcomes the central focus of our project and supply chain activity
3. Creating an environment in which relationships are enhanced and supply chain partners work as collaboratively as possible within the chosen operating system and contractual and commercial arrangements
4. Adopting a process-oriented approach that crosses organisational boundaries, focuses on values, goals and ends rather than actions and means, relates all processes to internal and external customer needs, and seeks out opportunities to reduce waste and add value
5. Working to build mutual competitive advantage by fulfilling shared project and supply chain objectives whilst still meeting individual corporate objectives
6. Incentivising and rewarding in ways that encourage the desired outcomes to be delivered to the required quality, on time and to budget, safely and without adversely affecting the health and wellbeing of people and harming the natural environment
7. Working proactively to drive out opportunistic behaviour and conflict and facilitate the early resolution of potential issues and disputes
8. Maintaining supplier accounts fairly and paying interim payments in full and in the agreed time and settling final accounts in a timely manner as set out in a mutually agreed Fair Payment Charter
9. Providing constructive feedback and sharing learning on best practice, identifying areas for change and developing strategies for improvement
10. Celebrating success and working successfully together again.

 

Clearly much has changed since 2019 when these principles were first mooted, including the evidence from the Grenfell enquiry and the Building Safety Bill gaining Royal Assent.  As an industry we are also seeing greater emphasis on the deployment of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) including more off-site production.  And not forgetting of course the growing imperative to address the climate crisis.

These drivers of change will continue to shape the way we go about procuring project teams and supply chains and how they can be led and managed to work more seamlessly and creatively.

We don’t view our Top 10 Procurement and Implementation Principles as being all-encompassing (as the title indicates, just the Top 10) or set in stone. We know they need to be constantly revisited, rethought and reshaped as necessary so that they remain fit for purpose in meeting changing circumstances. CESW and its Theme Groups continue to provide a vehicle for this vital work.

This piece was written by Martyn Jones

Weymouth Town Council is working with Hemingway Design and NEW Master planning to prepare a Vision and masterplan for the future of Weymouth Seafront.

The masterplan will focus on a 3 kilometre stretch of coastline, comprising the beach and Promenade from close to Weymouth Pavilion Theatre in the south, to Overcombe Beach in the north.

The purpose of the masterplan is to improve the built infrastructure (planters, benches, prom surface etc.) and heritage of the seafront and identify new commercial opportunities to meet visitor and resident needs.

Hemingway Design want to understand what residents, local business owners, and visitors think Weymouth seafront needs to make it a more enjoyable and inviting place to visit and spend time.

Please do take the opportunity to share your honest opinions with us via the survey HERE