SCF5: What’s New?

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13th April 2023

What to expect from the 5th generation of SCF Construct

It has been a busy few months, but we have just proudly announced the successful contractors for our 5th generation SCF Construct framework, which will launch in May this year.  With a value of up to £4.5billion, defining this latest generation has been a huge undertaking, one that has involved combining the best of what we’ve learnt in the last four years of our latest generation, and the 8 years prior with previous generations to build an exemplary framework structure fit for the future.

SCF Construct is available to all public bodies in the South-East, London and the South-West, and across all sectors including education, health, local authority and leisure. They can access a full range of public sector construction solutions from construct-only to full design and build, construction, and management services.

New Contractors and New Lots

Our most proud achievement with the new generation framework has to be the addition of 12 new faces to our total of 20 contractors and with these, additional £1-5million lots in the South-West.  For us, this is about bringing local expertise to clients in the region and accessing new local supply chains and SMEs.  Local supply chain businesses are the lifeblood of the construction industry and have suffered hugely through the recent global and UK economic turbulence.  We believe that it is crucial for the success of the whole construction industry, that we support local economies and the diversity of suppliers.  We also recognise that specific on-the-ground expertise is what innovative build projects need and our contractors will have access to a supply chain portal that enables clients to see quotes from supply chain in real time.

As a framework created by the public sector, for the public sector, encouraging and instilling collaboration across our contractor partners has always been something for which we are highly regarded.  With 12 new partners on board, we have the brilliant opportunity to inject new ideas, expertise and likewise our more established partners will share their wisdom from previous generations.  With this in mind, we will be working with all contractors to develop a benchmarking tool focusing on legacy, impact and social value to complement our existing quarterly market intelligence updates working with the National Association of Construction Frameworks (NACF).

Direct Award

We are also very happy to be introducing Direct Award as part of this new generation of the framework.  Our contractors have asked for it and our clients want it. And whilst we want to be clear that no procurement is risk free (anyone who tells you so is wrong) our process is designed to minimise these and ensure that clients can quickly and efficiently pick the right contractor for the right job.

Sustainability leads the narrative of SCF5 with business practices that are equitable and ethical. This starts with openness and transparency from procurement through to ongoing project management and will be upheld through the supply chain.  Carbon benchmarking assessment was a key component of the bid and contractors were put to task to ensure that they could meet our robust criteria.  We’ll be talking in more depth about our carbon commitments in a later blog post.

Mandatory inclusion of Voluntary, Community or Social Enterprise organisations (VCSE) on every project

Alongside carbon assessment, social value remains a primary commitment and this includes the mandatory inclusion of Voluntary, Community or Social Enterprise organisations (VCSE) on every project.  It is a new KPI, led by our social value working group and means that every project must include a partnership with at least one VCSE to ensure that the scheme is integrated and supporting the local community.  Our successful social value tool will be rolled out to the new contractors and we’re excited to welcome their new ideas and initiatives.

Which brings us back to what SCF is known for and that is our two-stage open book approach, which continues to meet the demands of the industry. We continue to lead the way with our end-to-end managed service and the transparency and trust that runs through the process. Two-stage remains fundamental to our fifth-generation framework and driving innovation in public sector building.  There are exciting times ahead and we’re ready to go!

SCF5 Contractor AnnouncementThe Road to Decarbonisation