‘Buying for Life – Construction in the Public Sector’
HSE conference 28th March 2006
The Conference “Buying for Life” showcased what clients have been doing since the Health and Safety Summit in February 2005 as they move towards playing a full role in improving the UK’s health and safety performance. Buying for Life exhibited what is being achieved with committed clients on health and safety in an increasing number of projects across the UK. There was a good attendance of Constructing Excellence members including the Construction Clients’ Group (CCG) which helped to demonstrate what is being achieved through the involvement of both public and private sector clients on the CCG Safety Group Chaired by James Preston-Hood.
Lord Hunt, Minister for health and safety, said “Each year approximately 17 workers are killed on essential projects procured by the public sector. This human cost is too high a price to pay, both economically and ethically”. He went on to say that he wants the public sector to be exemplary construction clients who influence the design, construction, maintenance and use of a building, and help raise health and safety standards for all workers involved in such projects.
To emphasize the importance of this message Lord Hunt was supported by key Government Ministers Des Browne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury; John Hutton, Secretary of State, DWP and Alun Michael, Minister for Construction, DTI.
John Hutton told the conference that whilst the UK had one of the best safety records in the world, construction accounted for 7% of the UK workforce but 30% of the fatalities.
Alun Michael stressed the importance of demonstration projects that showcase best practice. He said “DTI will continue to work with Constructing Excellence to ensure we maintain the momentum of the improvement agenda.” He added that the health and safety record is a top choice KPI, and the Constructing Excellence demonstration projects are 125% better than the industry average, as well as showing greater client satisfaction with both the service and the product.
Jeremy Groombridge of the Jobcentre Plus programme showed how they had achieved over 1m hours worked without a lost time incident on four separate occasions. He had become converted to working in new ways. They moved from working with external providers to working as part of a seconded team; from traditional lowest price procurement to partnering; from lump sum contracts with retentions to open book accounting without retentions and with guaranteed profits and incentivisation. They had also realised benefits from measurement and use of KPIs. Health and safety had been managed at every stage by being integrated into the project and the contract.
In the local government sector Steve Vickers of Birmingham City Council explained the benefits they had achieved from framework agreements with three suppliers. Collaborative working with fixed profits and open book accounting had brought real benefits for all parties. The result was that risks were shared and managed more effectively and this had a major beneficial impact on the health and safety performance.
Vaughan Burnand, Chairman of ‘be’, speaking in his capacity as the Chair of the Major Contractors Group Health and Safety Committee, said that only 26% of contractors think that they are differentiated when making a bid on the basis of their health and safety performance. And in only 13% of cases are they asked to make health and safety a specific provision. He emphasised the importance of the Respect for People Code of Good Working Health and Safety Practice; the need for a fully qualified workforce; openness in health and safety data reporting; the considerate constructors’ scheme; and the Trust Mark scheme.
The public sector commissions around 40% of construction work in the UK each year at a cost to the tax payer of over £33 billion. Des Brownesaid that safety is paramount, not just for economic reasons but that safe projects do contribute to value for money. Projects which followed the OGC Achieving Excellence in Construction best practice guidance had already been judged by the NAO to have achieved £800m in long-term, sustainable value gains in construction procurement. He said that the NAO reckoned that, if best practice were more widespread in the public sector, that figure could climb to £2.6bn per annum. He was pleased that the LGTF (Local Government Task Force) had taken the OGC Common Minimum Standards into the Local Government sector. He stated that all Government sites must be registered with the Considerate Constructors scheme (or equivalent) and that they must achieve 100% sign up to CSCS, or equivalent. He said that health and safety is a fundamental part of the pre-qualification assessment process and concluded that “Bad practice is no longer an option.”
The timing of this event was no coincidence as public construction projects are growing in size and number. As Lord Hunt said “The award of the Olympic Games to London in 2012 offers an ideal opportunity for all those involved in construction to show how they can work together to improve client performance on public sector projects.”
Peter Rogers, Chairman of the Strategic Forum 2012 Task group emphasised 6 key areas: Procurement and integration; client leadership; commitment to people (RfP); sustainability; design quality and health and safety.
Alan Ritchie, UCATT General secretary reminded the conference that 40 workers died building the Athens Olympic facilities and warned that we had to make sure that did not happen here.
Bill Callaghan, Chair, HSC said that HSE was looking for action across the whole public sector. Public sector clients should show leadership and work in partnership with contractors, unions and others in the supply chain.
Rodger Evans, Constructing Excellence