Client Information: Asbestos

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“As part of the Southern Construction Frameworks Health and Safety Forum asbestos continued to be an area for concern. The vast quantities of Asbestos Containing Material (ACM’s) still prevalent in many buildings placing those that work in or around existing buildings at risk. It was agreed that although finally banned in 1999 the need for many clients to maintain and refurbish their existing portfolio of buildings means the risk of exposure remains. Taking this initiative and with the intention of informing potential Southern Construction Framework clients, our group produced a simple yet informative poster. Its aim to prompt questions around the possible presence of asbestos and to make clients aware of the need to have in place suitable survey information identifying the presence and condition of ACM’s within their properties before construction works commence.”

Steve George
Willmott Dixon Principal Health, Safety Manager and member of the
Southern Construction Frameworks Health and Safety Forum

SCF Health & Safety Forum tackles construction site dangers

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The Framework’s Health & Safety Forum is committed to working together and sharing best practice across all SCF construction sites. Nationally the construction industry has become increasingly concerned about buried service strikes, which at their most serious, can cause fatalities. Following the successful forum workshop on Avoidance of Buried Services held in Bridgwater last year, the framework contractors have developed an interactive course and toolkit, ‘Working Safely Around Buried Services Awareness’.
The course will be presented to all people working on SCF projects who may be breaking ground in the vicinity of underground services.

The requirement for this intervention was identified by supply chain companies who attended the Avoidance of Buried Services workshop. The partner contractors have listened to the framework’s supply chain and used their combined tier 1 principle contractor experience to develop an awareness course with supporting material to help those at the coal face. The briefing will ensure a consistent approach to safe working around buried services on all SCF projects.

The first ‘Working Safely Around Buried Services Awareness’ course will be held on the St Peters Secondary School site, Bournemouth in July. The aim is to undertake training sessions at regular intervals throughout the course of live SCF projects to ensure all people are equipped with the right knowledge, equipment and support to break ground safely.

Mark Mortell, HSQE Manager ISG Construction, said, “Digging in the vicinity of buried services continues to present a significant risk to our workforce. Damage to underground services can result in death, injury or material loss. As a team of tier 1 contractors our objective is to strengthen our existing systems by working together to improve the competency of the workforce working on SCF projects.”

Award nomination! – Southern Construction Framework

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This award category aims to showcase organisations committed to creating a flourishing climate for high-quality apprenticeship programmes in the built environment sector. Judges are looking for schemes developed by forward thinking employers that actively and innovatively develop a sustainable workforce through apprenticeships to construct and maintain the built environment. Equipping people with the skills, knowledge and confidence that provide a secure foundation for future successful careers is core to this category. More Information.

Watch this space – Judgement day 21st April

Finalist – Hampshire County Council for the Construction Excellence in London South East Awards 2016: Reading Primary School Expansion Programme – OneTeam Approach

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Judges will be looking for evidence of early involvement, selection by value, common processes and tools across organisations such as BIM, long term relationships, modern commercial arrangements and fair payment practices. Obvious benefits will include a less adversarial approach and use of an appropriate contract to ensure this, but judges will assess delivery on results achieved against client set measurement results and how workforce development has led to improved products or services and customer satisfaction. More information.

Watch this space – Judgement day 21st April

Hampshire County Council ‘Educational Opportunities’ initiative Highly Commended

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Reading Borough Council and Hampshire County Council, in partnership with Galliford Try and Balfour Beatty, created a working group to optimise their schools programme. Their objectives – to improve the educational experience of pupils; ensure local residents benefit from the works, and to highlight construction industry career opportunities. Each partner championed the initiative within their own organisation, which has enabled a consistent joined-up approach to each school.

One of the group’s successful initiatives is the creation of a universal ‘Educational Opportunities’ toolkit that can be utilised by any contractor or any school. It defines a common process to facilitate engagement with schools for the duration of the construction activity and the creation of an implementation plan. The toolkit, which is user-friendly and jargon free, provides the opportunity for children to learn everything from planning and building, to maintaining a school.

New major construction framework for public sector projects across the South of England

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The Southern Construction Framework (SCF) is now being established with the appointment of the successful contractors and will be launched on 29 April.

This new framework supersedes the very successful South East and London (SEaL) construction framework for major projects, which has so far had a £2 billion turnover and has generated more than £100 million of collective savings.

The 11 contractors appointed across the three lots will deliver up to £3.9 billion in the four-year life of the framework. The SCF builds on the success of previous frameworks for major schemes in the South East and South West, and is designed to complement existing arrangements for smaller projects that are run separately in the three regions. The SCF provides one framework of three lots for the more major projects in these areas. Owing to the variance in arrangements for smaller projects, the values of major schemes that are eligible to use the new framework will be:

  • Greater than £1million in the South West
  • Greater than £4million in the South East
  • Greater than £5million in London

Click here to view the list of successful contractors

LGA Cost Benchmarking Latest…

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The LGA has sponsored the development of school construction cost benchmarking, and the Regional Frameworks have been a valuable source of information to support the exercise. The link below will take you to reports on the 2014 study, and details of the new update study currently under way.

www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/productivity/-/journal_content/56/10180/5924109/ARTICLE

Cameron Government Requires BIM Construction Procurement for UK Public Projects by 2016

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Across the pond, a revolution in construction procurement and supply chain logistics is happening with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and unlocking process efficiencies that can create better buildings and better-followed budgets.

Under the leadership of Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, the UK Government is implementing a construction strategy that states 3D Building Information Modeling will be a key part of the government’s procurement of public buildings and, by 2016 model-based BIM will be mandatory on all public sector projects, including delivery of all project and asset information, documentation and data.