Celebrating our Regional Construction framework partners

The SCAPE Regional Construction framework recently celebrated it’s 1 year anniversary, having created over ￡3.6m worth of social value for communities across the East Midlands and the East of England.

The framework, now in its 4th iteration, demonstrates the strength of collaborative partnerships and the wide range of added social, economic, and environmental benefits that SCAPE offers as standard.

On behalf of our clients, their communities and everyone here at SCAPE, we’d like to say thank you to our framework partners Ashe, Conamar, Clegg, GF Tomlinson, Jeakins Weir, Lindum Group, RG Carter and Stepnell Construction for their collaboration and excellence in project delivery over the last 12 months.

In Autumn 2022, we announced the first project completed through the framework – a new, low operational carbon Arts and Drama Building at The Priory Academy LSST in Lincoln, delivered by Lindum Group.?

Since then, a variety of projects have been accelerated through the framework, and it is a responsible and compliant procurement route that our public sector clients know and trust. Working with us, clients can engage contractors at the earliest stage, get projects off the ground with speed and create high quality, sustainable outcomes that provide value for money and community impact.

KPIs for social value and performance are determined long before spades go into the ground, although mostly chosen by the client, there are some that we mandate such as 100% for Health and Safety, Environment and Fair Payment for the supply chain. Our partners on the Regional Construction framework not only achieved this consistently over the last year, they also scored 100% for SME engagement (almost 200 organisations) and 100% for SME spend, keeping the pound local and supporting the community at every stage.

Through the framework, they have also delivered 62 apprenticeship weeks, upskilling and developing local people. Having started my career on the tools, I know first-hand how much valuable knowledge and perspective this gives you, so I’m thrilled that our partners’ commitment to community enrichment continues to shine through and improve lives through the work they do.

The legacies they leave are more than just professional development though. Here are just two examples that go beyond that:?

During a SCAPE project, Ashe partnered with a local community interest company to deliver a series of free healthy eating workshops to school children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their parents. One of the biggest challenges in measuring social value is that sometimes it’s hard to quantify, but the social and environmental impact of equipping people with better food and nutrition knowledge will be reflected in the health and wellbeing of that community for generations to come.

The creation of a new breast cancer patient waiting area and landscaped garden for Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was made possible through Stepnell’s incredible fundraising efforts for the charity Crazy Hats Appeal. Still in delivery, these new areas will provide calm, quiet spaces and a fantastic legacy that will improve the health and wellbeing of patients, visitors, and staff for years to come. Find out more.

Our partners also share our carbon-conscious approach, and waste reduction is a key target across every SCAPE framework. Like many other framework providers, we work hard to maximise the amount of waste diverted from landfill. However, unlike others, we have also broadened our focus to include reducing waste at source, by promoting the principles of the circular economy.

Through The Construction Waste Portal, a digital platform designed to predict, manage, reduce, and prevent waste in construction projects, we deliver waste benchmarking, forecasting and reduction to help clients minimise embodied carbon in their projects and reduce their environmental impact.

Free across all SCAPE projects, the portal is helping improve material use by enabling smarter decision-making, with an aspirational target of 50% reduction in construction waste on the SCAPE Civil Engineering and Construction frameworks by the end of their lifecycle. Find out more.

Our Regional Construction partners are committed to making this happen, with all 8 contractors having embedded the Construction Waste Portal into the way they deliver SCAPE projects. Stepnell Construction recognise the benefits of PAS402 that the Construction Waste Portal offers and are using it to revolutionise their standards of waste management. This in turn gives clients and communities the reassurance that project waste is being managed by an approved company, dedicated to driving resource and environmental efficiency.

?The Construction Waste Portal provides projects with a really simple way of predicting waste inefficiency at the earliest possible stages. Providing a breakdown of waste types can help with forward planning waste minimisation efforts before it’s too late.” Jane King , UK Environment Manager, Morgan Sindall Construction.

As a facilitator between the public and private sector, we are always looking for ways to ensure that the work our partners complete onsite creates the most beneficial social, environmental, and economic outcomes for the local community.

Our Regional Construction partners have recently formalised their shared pledge to creating community impact by joining our Community Legacy Programme. The programme encourages a collaborative approach to identifying and supporting causes for social good, and I'm looking forward to seeing the impact of some of these initiatives in the years to come.

Discover more about our Construction frameworks here.

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