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Housing Forum Partnering Toolkit Working as a Successful Partnering Team

Taking the Lead as Client

Many construction clients have already stopped crudely policing contractors and have adopted new approaches to relationship management. Demonstration project clients have avoided the worst aspects of traditional procurement: risk dumping, seeking lowest price tender and not taking full account of the needs of residents. Successful clients use partnering to deliver better services and value for money to their customers.

Successful housing clients:

• Spend time at the beginning of a project planning and preparing and defining what they want
• Take responsibility for the careful selection of their partners and team members
• They establish their key project objectives through strategic briefs and partnering workshops where users, suppliers and stakeholders can influence and shape the service.
• Consult, involve and satisfy their customers - tenants and residents
• Understand the risks involved in the project and make provision for them
• Clarify priorities - time, cost and quality
• Are prepared to pay for what the job is worth
• Take Whole Life Costs into account
• Seek Value for Money, quality and added value
• Ensure that issues of probity, audit and accountability and value for money are fully addressed.
• Accept that contractors and other suppliers need to make a profit
• Ensure that their suppliers are treated fairly and that they are encouraged to deliver added value
• Measure and manage performance through Key Performance Indicators
• Resolve Problems through negotiation and discussion

Good client leadership will define a clear context for the development of the whole team approach by using partnering type contracts and by ensuring that all risks are properly allocated and managed.

There are 5 main levels of involvement in housing client functions. These levels broadly represent the vertical chain of integration which needs to be engaged so that the intelligent client role can be effectively carried out by social housing clients.

• Members Boards/ Executive
• Corporate Management Team (incl. Procurement, Legal, Finance, Audit + HR)
• Directorate Management Teams ( incl. Strategic Management )
• Programme and Resource Management
• Project Management including Quality and Sustainability Teams

The best clients work hard at integrating their own organisations and internal teams for involvement in partnering. They communicate and network to get support from key officers, colleagues and members. They link construction service delivery to wider corporate objectives and view every project, or every aspect of investment as something of greater value than just "bricks and mortar". For them construction is a way of "delivering or creating wider community assets".

Barriers to change can be overcome by:

• Linking government funding to client performance
• Contractors transferring learning from experiences of other leading clients

Examples:

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council's clear vision for their housing strategy has led to the achievement of their strategic goals.

View demonstration project.

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council Housing Department

Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council Housing Department produced four main documents to thoroughly assess and evaluate all partnering submissions.

View demonstration project.

CDS Housing

CDS Housing formed a single partnership team across all areas of service, after approval of preferred contractor partner status.

View demonstration project.

Citywest Homes

In developing Citywest Homes' strategy, designing the documents, the pricing policies, the evaluation criteria and implementing the procurement and alliancing process, Citywest Homes invested heavily in training and proactive consultation with all parties either directly or indirectly affected or involved.

View demonstration project.