Tag: RIBA Plan of Works

Getting our Construction Act together – First Humber region breakfast event of 2015/2016 hailed a success!

Share This:

Hullwriteup

The Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber seminar held in Hull on Thursday 12th November 2015 was hailed a success by attendees as they left Gosschalks’s offices with plenty to think about. Over 60 construction industry professionals from the region registered for a place at the seminar, which was presented by Gosschalks’s contentious and non-contentious construction law team. The seminar covered complex issues surrounding payment and Pay Less Notices, and the recent case law developments that affect payment under the Construction Act.

This sparked a lively Q&A discussion among the attendees about the requirements for effective notices, and was described afterwards by one delegate as “an eye opener!”

Matthew Fletcher, Partner and Head of Construction and Litigation at Gosschalks, said: “We were delighted to deliver this event with the Constructing Excellence team and play host to their first East Yorkshire event in a number of years, and we were thrilled by the positive feedback the event generated. Our aim was to get those who deal with payments under construction contracts thinking and to understand the potentially heavy financial implications if they fail to issue timely notices. We provided up an update on several key cases where it has been necessary for the Technology & Construction Court to interpret the revised payment procedures contained in the Construction Act. Construction companies really don’t want to be caught in the Act!”

Chris Groves, Partner and non-contentious and construction contracts expert at Gosschalks, commented:  “We addressed many of the consequences encountered when failing to issue time sensitive payment notices. This is a major issue for a lot of construction businesses and is something on which we are happy to share our expertise and advice. We’ve already been approached by a couple of individual companies who would like us to present this briefing at their premises.”

Liz Schofield, from  Constructing Excellence Yorkshire and Humber added, “We are really pleased to be bringing events back to the Humber region for the first time in over a year and were delighted to see a sixty plus audience comprising of an impressive mix of key people from the construction industry based in and around Hull and East Yorkshire. We are very much looking forward to partnering with Gosschalks to hold more events in this region in the New Year”.

A summary of the tweets and images from the breakfast event can be found in our storify summary below. Our next Constructing Excellence event will be on 21st January in Leeds and will focus on RIBA Stage 2, Specifications and BIM in Manufacturing – details and Booking here. Any questions, contact Liz and the CEYH team on +44 (0)113 812 1902 or ckeevents@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

For further information about Gosschalks events and services, please contact Claire Hill on +44(0)1482 590204 or clh@gosschalks.co.uk

Everyone’s a winner – creating social value in construction

Share This:

On the last Wednesday of October we hosted the second of this autumn’s constructing excellence breakfasts broadly themed around the 8 stages of the RIBA plan of works (RIBAPOW). In this session we explored social sustainability aspirations and how to identify, measure and put in place tools to monitor them, in line with Stage 1 of the RIBAPOW, Preparation and Brief.

First up to speak was Rob Wolfe, Executive Director at Renew who introduced his proposal for the new national Constructing Excellence social value task group which is being developed alongside CEYH. The group will sit under the wider Constructing Excellence procurement group (which coincidently next meets in our region on 8th December) with the aim of providing a forum to share best practice and provide practical advice and guidance to clients, contractors and central government on how to embed social value into construction projects.

The next step for the task group is to determine membership which will be done via an open call for expressions of interest. Once membership has been identified, the group will agree terms of reference and then identify three specific tasks to work on initially. Anybody who is interested in being involved should contact Rob via rob.wolfe@renew-leeds.co.uk .

Rob then went on to talk about the work Renew have done in assisting regional businesses to develop a social value strategy. He advocated the importance of developing realistic and measurable KPI’s tailored to the needs of the project which can be monitored and evaluated throughout the project lifecycle. One of the examples he gave was the work Renew Leeds carried out with BAM on the First Direct Arena in Leeds (more info on Renew’s website here http://www.renewleeds.co.uk/our-impact/case-studies/chy-case-study-leeds-arena-contract/ ). He also stressed the importance of mentoring, this should not be a parent-child relationship, both parties need to challenge each other along the way.

We then welcomed Ian Chapman, Regional Manager from Britcon who presented an excellent case study on how their social value strategy has evolved and its application to 3 to 4 current developments, including a project with our own Leeds Beckett University. Ian started his presentation by stating that traditionally their social value strategy has been driven by Considerate Contractors Scheme but they have since built up greater awareness from working with Renew and by being involved with frameworks, such as YorBuild, that have identify specific social value aspirations. This illustrated to me the important role that clients have in driving the improvement agenda for social value. Ian gave some great examples of where Britcon have set, met and exceeded social value KPIs on projects including;

  • Increased collaboration with supply chain on Tropical World development by 113%
  • Exceeded work experience targets by 400%
  • Increased engagement with local schools and colleges

Ian then went on to describe how Britcon are using their experience on these developments in other projects and perhaps most significantly how there has been a shift at Britcon from obligation (doing social value because our clients want it) to doing because they see real tangible benefits for their business and the wider community. This was a great presentation from Ian showing just how much can be achieved by just deciding to ‘DO’ and I think we can all learn something from that.

All the presentations can be viewed in our storify summary of the workshop below along with the best tweets and images from the session.

Our next event on 25th November will be looking at Stage 2 of RIBA plan of works and is all about specifications – Starting to Specify the Specifics of your Spec (try saying that after a few #BIMbeers!) Further details and booking here  

The RIBA Plan of Work and the role of the client

Share This:

After July’s hugely successful #ceyhawards , we are pleased to be returning from our summer break at the end of September to bring you our next set of ‘excellence’ breakfasts. This Autumn we will be facilitating a number of sessions exploring the different stages of the RIBA Plan of Work (PoW) through the lens of the key players involved.

First developed in 1963, the RIBA Plan of Work is the definitive UK model for the building design and construction process. The RIBA Plan of Work 2013 organises the process of briefing, designing, constructing, maintaining, operating and using building projects into a number of key stages, 0 through to 7 (8 stages in total).

Our first event in the series on 30th September will focus Stage 0 – Strategic Definition. We will open with CEYH Chair Tom Oulton who will deliver an overview of why the PoW empowers the client.This will be followed by Daving Hemming, Head of Estates for Leeds Beckett University, who will explain how the client benefits from identifying their requirements before the design process begins.

 

tomanddave

The role of the client and in particular the ‘intelligent’ client is cropping up more and more in discussions as we move towards a more collaborative working model and digitisation. How can we educate our clients and does the RIBA PoW help drive this? Are you are client wanting to understand more about your requirements and how they can be practically applied? Then come along on the 30th and join our discussion.

Addleshaw Goddard LLP, Sovereign House, Sovereign Street, Leeds, LS1 1HQ
(If you are using a satellite navigation, please use the following postcode: LS1 4BJ)
  08:00-09:30
£35

 

BOOKNOW

Subsequent breakfast events will explore the CE themes of BIM, Collaborative Working, Funding and Finance, Procurement and Asset Management with our event in October looking at Sustainability.

 

118 AG logo P425-UK&SG-300dpi