Scott Clark is framework and sector lead at ISG
Constructing the Gold Standard by Professor David Mosey is the much-anticipated review of the UK’s public sector framework market and now sits alongside the Construction Playbook, answering the question of how we are going to deliver the government’s new procurement vision.
“Constructing the Gold Standard is an immensely important appraisal of framework procurement methodology”
Over Christmas I also dug out my copy of an earlier report Professor Mosey wrote called Collaborative Construction Procurement and Improved Value and reflected on a conference last year where I heard him speak about his new review. It was clear that he’s a passionate advocate of collaboration to stimulate enhanced project and societal outcomes.
The review pulls no punches when it identifies the recurring inadequacies of many current frameworks. The 24 recommendations in Constructing the Gold Standard don’t make for light reading. However, what I take from the review is that as an industry – and from the perspective of our single largest client – we are reaching a consensus on what good looks like and there is strong agreement from both sides.
A progressive collaborative industry
Let’s take a step back and look at this achievement for a moment. We have a collective of the most progressive contractors, consultants, architects and supply chain partners, who have been banging the drum for whole-lifecycle approaches to capital investment projects, with environmental, social and governance (ESG) values at their core.
This aligns perfectly with a client that wants to harness the innovation, skills and integrity of our sector without the burden of cumbersome, inefficient and costly procurement approaches that sap productivity.
A client that is pushing and willing, in part, to fund the research and development of modern methods of construction (MMC) technology, driving the net-zero agenda and one that openly acknowledges that cost-driven decision making rarely delivers value.
An important moment
The FAC-1 contract, jointly authored by Professor Mosey, is one means of helping to dismantle traditionally adversarial competitor relationships. It is something we are using on the £1bn Ministry of Justice new prisons programme, an alliancing arrangement featuring ISG and three other main contractors: Kier, Laing O’Rourke and Wates.
Constructing the Gold Standard is an immensely important appraisal of framework procurement methodology responsible for driving many of our industry’s most progressive and innovative behaviours and approaches.
The recommendations are eminently sensible, readily adoptable and define a template for the delivery of public infrastructure that is an asset of real value for our communities, the environment and future generations.
This is an important moment for construction and an exemplary piece of work by Professor Mosey to set the conditions for our collective future success.
