LGC Awards 2020

29th October 2020

The LGC Awards 2020 (Local Government Chronicle) took place on a virtual platform on 28th October. Most of the attendees probably wondered beforehand, how good such an event could be on-line and now we know – it was excellent.

The LGC itself should be commended for getting Justin Webb, Radio 4’s Today presenter to host the ceremony. Justin’s expert interviewing technique drew out some of the  detail around the work of the category winners and Alan Dedicoat, National Lottery ‘voice of the balls’, introduced the shortlist for each category, injecting some tension into the proceedings.

Devon and Hampshire County Councils for SCF were shortlisted in the Private / Public Partnership category, drawing on the close working relationship between the councils and our framework contractors. We didn’t win – that honour went to Scottish Borders Council and CGI UK Ltd for their Inspire Learning programme, but nevertheless SCF is proud to have been shortlisted. The LGC Awards are a valuable reminder about just how much hard work, dedication and innovation goes on across all sectors in local government throughout the country. It is increasingly evident too, that partnership working and collaboration both between local authorities, and local authorities and business is achieving more than any of us can achieve on our own.

SCF – Why are we here?

The recent awards ceremony provided a focus on why SCF is here: We are two public body sector bodies who have collaboratively procured eleven construction contractors so that we can work in partnership to offer an exemplar procurement service for public bodies across the south of England.

SCF (Southern Construction Framework) is pro-actively managed by Hampshire County Council & Devon County Council and our private sector partner contractors are:

  • BAM Construction
  • ISG Construction
  • Galliford Try
  • Kier Construction
  • Mace
  • Midas Construction
  • Morgan Sindall Construction
  • Sir Robert McAlpine
  • Wates Construction

With thirteen years of experience, SCF has procured projects with a combined value of over £6 billion working with over 100 public sector organisations ranging from district councils to major universities and the Crown Estate. The framework operates in three Lots – South West, South East and London, all working to the same ethos and culture, but procured to reflect differing geographies and economies for each region.

SCF is a founding member of the National Association of Construction Frameworks (NACF) which shares best practice with the wider public sector and provides a clarity of voice for regional frameworks to central government. The SCF Lead is the current Chair of the NACF.

SCF Framework benefits

  • We offer high quality delivery and proven added value, delivered by the public sector for the public sector, across more than 600 projects, totalling over £6bn, because we:
  • Demonstrate industry leading performance commenced and completed on budget via a comprehensive choice of industry leading contractors.
  • Provide unrivalled technical support delivered by a dedicated framework management team – from first contact to one-year post occupation.
  • Provide a quick route to market whilst maintaining competitive tension – our flexible approach allows full breadth of delivery, quality management process ensures high level of quality despite complex requirements.
  • Cultivate continuous development from a collaborative and integrated team approach – offering a flexible means of delivering social and environmental values targeted to the needs of the project.
  • Proactively manage contractor performance through data driven intelligence at project, framework and industry levels.
  • Guarantee resilience – we are forward looking: driving innovation in response to rapidly changing client needs.

SCF provides its contractors with the following benefits:

  • A proven pipeline of work from a diverse range of clients
  • A collaborative forum through which to undertake joint development of initiatives to the benefit of all contractors.
  • An ability to contribute to the future shape of the framework to ensure that it remains attractive to both clients and contractors.

Demonstrating the success of SCF

SCF is a market leader when measured against the national construction industry averages. In all measurement areas SCF outperforms the national data. SCF data has been provided to central government to help support government strategy and policy decisions. With the support of the contractors’ joint supply chain SCF analyses market intelligence data from a wider range of trades helping identify key trends in prices and resource availability. Through the measurement of SCF 2018-2019 Key Performance Indicators at key gateways SCF can demonstrate that:

  • 60% of project value is local, spent within 30 miles from site
  • 85% of project value is spent with SME companies
  • 85% of construction waste is diverted from landfill
  • The framework has delivered over 11,500 Apprentice Trainee Weeks.
  • Post completion, 94% of clients rate satisfaction as eight out of ten or higher.
  • Clients scored design quality as eight out of ten or higher on 95% of projects.
  • Client- validated added benefits of 10% on all projects as a result of integrated preconstruction.
  • SCF delivers on average over £13 of added value benefits for every £1 spent in pre-construction.

Demonstrating the commitment of SCF to its objectives and principles

Underpinned by the success of partnership working, all SCF contractors have performance targets in relation to:

SCF continues to champion business improvement and the sharing of best practice. Current initiatives include adoption of the CLOCS Standard and the introduction of a Mental Health & Wellbeing Commitments. The high achieving SCF KPIs are the measure of our aims and objectives.

Other current initiatives include:

  • the introduction of joint of project-based Supplier Days & Meet the Buyer events to continue to lead and support our supply chains.
  • The development of client driven local Social Value and legacy through project delivery.

Conclusion

By identifying and sharing individual lessons learned and best practice:

  • The SCF contractors agree that collaborative development and co-operation at framework level benefits both the framework and their individual businesses.
  • SCF clients agree that they derive greater benefits from procuring a project through SCF rather than by independent procurement.

The unique environment created by the SCF private – public partnership engenders collaboration and a pro-active approach to address construction challenges and opportunities.

One year ago, individual contractors gave me all the reasons why they couldn’t make CLOCS work outside London.  Now I hear the SCF Health & Safety Forum tell me how it IS going to happen.

Derek Rees, Chief Executive SECBE and Project Director, CLOCS