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Housing Forum Partnering Toolkit Working as a Successful Partnering Team

Building the Team

The effectiveness of partnering and teamwork depends on relationships. Relationship management must be given adequate time and resources throughout the overall process.

The successful social housing client will put aside any prejudice about private sector partners in order to build good working relationships. Construction partners can bring more than their hard hats to the party - they can enhance opportunities for innovation and increase buildability, thereby improving customer satisfaction. They can also bring strong commercial skills to cost, budget and risk management to the partnership.

Having selected your partners on the basis of Best Value it is vital that the relationships are built up and managed from the outset by positive and continuous efforts. Partnering is all about the management of the relationships between two or more organisations or people working together to achieve mutually defined business objectives. However there is no single way of doing this that will satisfy all.

The Housing Forum demonstration participants have successfully used the following in helping to forge good working relationships:

• Partnering Workshops
• Workshops for stakeholders and customer representatives
• Appointment of partnering champion
• Partnering Charter developed by the whole partnering team
• Incentivisation arrangements
• Integrated data and management systems
• Agreed performance management procedures and KPIs
• Agreed review mechanisms and problem resolution processes
• Core team working arrangements, often co-located
• Secondments across the team organisations
• Joint training for the whole team
• Away Days and social Team Building events
• Engaging an independent partnering advisor/ facilitator

Successful contractors can help housing clients meet their overall business needs whilst making a reasonable level of profit. Contractors who have taken a step change towards modernising their businesses will bring added value to clients by focusing their services and innovation and meeting clients and users needs. They will have invested in their own staff in terms of training, recruitment and retention.

These contractors will specifically bring their:

• Technical Knowledge and Skills
• Management Skills - time, cost , value quality, risks , and H+ S
• Care for the Environment
• Effective Internal Organisation
• Collaborative Culture
• Appropriate Resources
• Supply Chain Management
• Financial Stability + Reliability
• Innovation
• Planning + Logistical Skills
• Tenant / Resident Liaison Systems
• Proposals for Incentives
• Problem Resolution Procedures
• Contributions to local objectives

Such contractors will also encourage and help their supply chain to engage in partnering, and will pass on benefits and rewards to their key suppliers to encourage customer focus, innovation and continuous improvement. They won't squeeze their suppliers' profits nor will they use unfair or unequal payment clauses. Their sub-contracting arrangements will be open and fair. In the case of key sub-contractors they will involve clients in their selection and briefing sessions. They will co-ordinate the input of a diverse range of firms to ensure a single point of responsibility for construction outcomes to the client.

Successful partnering contractors have nothing to hide from their clients or users and will share knowledge, learning and the benefits flowing from their projects. They will have direct and reliable communication systems with residents and keep them fully informed throughout the progress of the works. Residents will be offered refuge arrangements, emergency responses and help and assistance with moving furniture or re-arranging access for those residents with genuine needs. The security of residents' homes during the works will be of paramount importance to partners and they will ensure a friendly and responsive service from their staff. Good contractors will carry out proper induction courses for site staff and sub-contractors and ensure that the sanctity of the resident's homes is respected.

Good partnering contractors will not introduce hidden costs. Nor will they make claims for extra time or money without making a full and proper business case in good time to their client. In fact the ground rules for any claims will be put forward to the client at an early partnering workshop for agreement. The best contractors will never cause major surprises for their clients or users. Whenever problems or disputes arise they will proactively seek to solve those in accordance with the problem resolution frameworks agreed in advance of the start of the project.

Barriers to change can be overcome by:

• All clients need to abandon the traditional process of selecting and appointing contractors on the basis of the lowest tender, using traditional contracts and risk dumping to prevent the industry decline in profitability, quality of outputs and standards of service to tenants and residents.
• The early appointment of consultants, contractors and specialists is the basis of effective partnering.
• Appoint each partner/ member of the team on the same basic terms and conditions to prevent fundamental contractual differences hindering the development of true teamwork.
• The Project Partnering Contract PPC2000 calls for the use of a partnering Core Group comprising the lead client and key supplier representatives working by consensus within the defined project objectives. The responsibility of the core team, acting in the interests of the project as a whole, is to drive the partnering process forward as a virtual organisation rather than focus on the interests of their individual organisations/ companies.

Examples:

Broomleigh Housing

In the Broomleigh Housing estate project contractors and clients' staff share one office, which improves communications and the whole process runs on trust inspired from the top.

View demonstration project.

Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and Emcor, Drake and Scull ran strategic workshops which brought all stakeholders together including tenant representatives and agreed roles and responsibilities thus creating a highly efficient team to drive out wasteful duplication.

View demonstration project.

St Quintin Park Estate

At the St Quintin Park Estate quarterly meetings of a core group of stakeholders included open discussion of the client's own performance to try to improve the service provided.

View demonstration project.

CDS Housing Partnership

The CDS Housing Partnership team have sought to create a mutually beneficial partnership that involves the contractor partners, CDS Housing (as client) and users in achieving predefined measured performance from inception though to completion, with each party signed up to the partnering process.

View demonstration project.