Demonstrating Excellence Report - Constructing Excellence

Accelerating Change commits the industry to major improvements, not least on ‘PeopleIssues‘ so that we have an industry that respects its workers and provides decent workingconditions. The best Demonstration Projects show the way forward to others. Forinstance, Skanska (Project 52) changed behaviour and reduced injuries by 50%. Theydeveloped a Site Safety Performance System applying the outcomes of some HSEbehavioural research. Through an M4I cluster, another major contractor further developedthis approach thus widening the application of best practice. This is ConstructingExcellence at its best.Kevin Myers, Chief Executive of Construction, The Health & Safety ExecutiveThe Constructing Excellence Programme of demonstrations is providing evidence of adirect correlation between quality of design, increased performance and more efficientbuildings. But this relationship requires significant investment in the workforce.Two significant challenges that face the public sector are whole-life costing andsustainability. Both of these are challenging to deliver as they inevitably involveadditional capital costs to secure long-term benefits and much current funding isbased on historical lowest price tenders. This additional cost must be recognised andabsorbed into the overall budget build-up if we are to build long-term efficientstructures.The future aspiration of the industry must be to encourage more young people toconsider construction as a career. This can only be done if the industry is willing toaddress its poor image and safety record.Tim Byles, Chairman, Local Government Task ForceConstructionSkills is committed toworking with ConstructingExcellence to further spread thislearning process and to developpeople with the skills to make thisbest practice the mainstream ofthe future.Peter Lobban, Chief Executive, CITBConstructionSkillsInnovation ■ Best Practice ■ Productivity 15