Project management and the private finance initiative

The research also found that people with PFI experience are in short
supply, which has resulted in widespread headhunting in both sectors.
The most successful projects are ones where the project
manager understands the project and the type of project being
undertaken. Additionally, a project manager who has been
involved from the outset will understand the importance and
the evolution of all the various different facets of the project.
Less successful projects tend to be where non-specialists attempt
to undertake unfamiliar tasks and come late into projects.
Therefore, the more technically demanding the project, the more
specialist the skills required, and success depends on matching
the right projects with the right project managers.
5.6 The way forward
The research has highlighted the importance of improving
PFI project management and increasing the involvement of
chartered surveyors. The research supports findings from other
studies identified in the literature review (see NAO (2001) and
other references in Section 2, for example) but also suggests
that it is not just in the public sector that there are skills
shortcomings in relation to project management within PFI.
The private sector also lacks key skills as well as each sector
having particular strengths.
Moreover, further research is needed to pinpoint why private
sector practices do not become involved in PFI: the current
research focused on employees but it would also be valuable for
further research to investigate why firms/practices resist PFI
involvement/specialisation.
Skills shortages in PFI must also be seen as part of the wider
issue of skills shortages in the UK economy as a whole (see, for
example, HM Treasury, 2002). A simple lack of information on
training (Stevens, 1999) can cause organisations to provide less
training than they require, and evidence has also shown that
lower skilled individuals are less likely to demand training than
higher skilled colleagues. The National Skills Task Force (2000)
found, for example, that two main reasons why adults did not
train in the UK were that they were not interested in learning,
or did not need the skills for the job, both of which indicate
that people may not be fully aware of the benefits of training.
This supports the findings in the current study.
33 chapter five Conclusions and recommendations Project management and the private finance initiative
Despite government initiatives to address skills deficiencies in
PFI, problems clearly remain, and the RICS Project Management
Faculty has a major role to play in encouraging its members to
undertake training and education in skills which underpin project
management work in PFI. This applies, however, to both the
public and private sectors. The government’s Successful Delivery
Skills Programme could serve as a useful matrix to help the
Faculty promote skills uptake in key PFI areas. This could also be
underpinned by improved PFI guidance for members and
promotion of CPD, and future consideration given to making
knowledge and understanding of PFI a ‘core’ competency in the
Project Management APC.
There also needs to be improved public sector understanding of
project management roles and expertise available. Moreover, project
management needs to be part of the early PFI process, both from
the public sector and private sector points of view. This means
that project managers need to develop targeted skills especially
in PFI and negotiation (including people skills and communication
skills), and there needs to be better skills transfer within the
public sector, which can be founded on learning from experience.
Finally, there needs to be greater standardisation in terms of
streamlining processes and agreeing standard contract documents.