Hello and welcome to the APM podcast. APM is a childhood body for the project profession. My name is Mike Heinen, online, editor for apm's, project journal, and your host. And our topic today is contracts
and collaboration contracts. Create legally binding, obligations between the parties involved in a project, they describe the nature of those obligations and the actions that can be taken, if they are not met as such, the contract is a foundational document, whose content will come to define the project and how the work unfolds.
It is there to provide certainty and protection to the parties, but there may be an opportunity for contracts to be used to create ongoing collaborative relationships, rather than simply defining strict requirements, and being regarded as a tool to give parties leverage, in the event of acrimonious circumstances to find out a bit more about how project professionals can enhance their knowledge of contracts and get more from their relationships.
With contractors, I sought the input of a couple of experts. First up, I interviewed Sarah shooter, Sarah is an independent solicitor Advocate consultant and trainer whose company shooter Consulting limited as a niche practice in project, management and law. She's also running a webinar series for apm's contracts and procurements Sig entitled basic contract law for project managers. You can find a link to the first installment in the episode
description. Hi Sarah. Thanks for joining us to begin with, please. Could you introduce yourself and give a bit of background to your role and your experience with contracts. Yes, of course. Thanks my gets really, really exciting to be here on this, AP and podcast, thank you for the invitation. So I'm an independent solicitor Advocate. I work for myself. My little company, choose, a Consulting limited. We've been going for about seven and a half years.
Now, I specialize in construction, engineering and infrastructure, projects, including technology projects, and I'm working on projects of All Sorts, but mostly Within those sectors at the moment. If I look around my desk, I've got a couple of any C3, contracts and subcontracts.
I've got a Professional Services engagement for project manager and a supervisor to look at for one of my clients I've got my collaborative workspace, open for a webinar that I'm sort of emceeing in September, on alternative dispute, resolution and I've got a nondisclosure agreement for Consulting. Engineer who I want to help him to get through and to nail a deal down. So there's lots going on. For sure, at the moment and summer season is no excuse.
I've also got a pile of accounts in front of me because at this time of year, when my kids are off holiday and work, come naturally quietens down and deadlines elongates a little bit through projects, then I try and get some of the infrastructure as I call it to my own company done as well. And that includes things like the accounts, updating our template. It's getting some new training workshops ready for September. So yeah, we've got quite a lot on. We're juggling lot, but never
complain. And always keep trucking. We're talking today about contracts for project professionals. So I want to start off with a very simple question, what are contracts? And why are they important in a project context? That's a really great place to start. A contract, is really an arrangement, a deal. It is the means by which you Regulate, an arrangement between two or more parties, generally speaking contracts, all over the world are what we call bilateral.
So there between two people or two organizations, or one of each you can of course get multi-party contracts as well as the partnering variety of the alliance in variety and contracts come in all different shapes and sizes. So right at the very basic end you've got what we call a simple contract which is works and services for money.
Me and right at the other end of the spectrum, you've got super complicated network of project contracts, which might have side agreements, which might have third party involvement, which might have all sorts of stuff to do with stakeholders and funding agencies and local public bodies and that sort of thing, but whatever size and shape of contact you've got, however,
complex or simple. It is the hugely important in a project context because they regulate the relationship between the Teas. And therefore the parties understand what it is that is being done or delivered or procured whatever the correct verb is that hat, that attaches
to, that contract for an amount of money. you've described how contracts appear on a spectrum from simple to complex, but are their components that are to be found in all contracts irrespective of their level of complexity, Yeah, there are actually and in order to have a contract in law, you have to have these components. So it's not that their components of a typical contract of such, but actually that if you want to have a contract in the eyes of the law, then you
need to have these components. Now anybody who has listened to the APM, webinar series that I'm doing for the second time, we'll have heard in episode 1, what those components are now. If you haven't heard that, let me Let me in let you in on that on that secret. You need to have five components of a contract. The first is that you need to have an offer so that is an offer from one party to the other. To either do work. If it's coming from the seller or to go out to the market and
ask for work. If you're the buyer of works or Services then you need to have the opposite, which is what we call acceptance. So it's an acceptance by the buyer of the sellers works or services. Or it's an acceptance by the seller to what the buyer is
wanting to to buy. Now, in order to mesh that together you need something called consideration which is normally money when we're talking projects but it maybe money's worth, it doesn't have to be cash as such but it must be something which is unidentifiable swap between the parties. For those works and services that are being done. We also need an intention. We call it an intention to to create legal relations.
And in essence, if you have a written contract, that will be taken for granted because you will have signatures to the contract. If you've got an exchange of emails that can perform a similar function with much more informal oral contracts, that's a bit more tricky because you haven't got any written evidence to show what that is.
But if the parties agree it, and they can exchange a note on it, then again, that will more or less servers as the correct component for that and then we need something called Acity now capacity in commercial contracts is all about an authorized signatory. A person who has the authority on behalf of the organization to enter into the contract and if you are an individual, then you have authority on behalf of yourself so capacity, tends not to be too difficult in
commercial contracts either. So there you have it. Five elements for a contract in law. Why is it important for project professionals to have a good grasp of contracts and not to regard them as just something for the legal department to deal with? Yeah, that's a really good question and it is so important for project professionals to have a good grasp. The first is that for themselves and for their organization to
understand what are the works. All the services that they themselves are delivering for their client. What are those promises that they have made or probably have been made on their behalf? And then they are delivering Going for their organization. So you've got to understand that in order to deliver firstly, what you're supposed to be delivering but also to then, think about how to do it.
Effectively efficiently. And of course profitably the other angle for project professionals, depends on the role and for certain project professionals you're going to need to have a better understanding of other contracts
in the network of the project. For example, if you are appointed as a contract 200 JCT contract or your appointed as the NEC capitalized project manager, you're going to need to understand what it is that the contractors delivering for the client because you're there as the contract administrator, you're there as the person who is going to be looking at the work that's been done, that's going to be certifying what money is going to be paid over and perhaps making judgment
calls and decisions about Works which haven't been done very well. All services which haven't been completely Added and therefore you don't want to certify that
money ought to be paid. So you know, the commercial details of those other contracts can be blacked out can be redacted, but you do as a project professional who is dealing with being if you like an agent between the parties, you're going to need to understand what the scope of that other contract is and perhaps other contracts around the outside as well. What details within a contract
should project professionals? Pay special attention to Okay, so the first thing that they need to pay attention to is the scope that's going to be the scope of Works themselves or the scope of services that are going to be delivered. And again, both within their own contract.
But also with any contracts, which they are helping to administer through their Professional Services, they're going to need to also look at payment terms, because if you're a certify, you need to know what payment to be certifying.
When, to be doing it, how frequently to be doing it and perhaps, Might even be details in the contract such as the format to use or template documents or a system that you need to have access to in order to be able to do that certification process for other project professionals as well. In particular for project managers, it's a really good idea to have a special look at the contract processes.
Now there'll be tons of different processes but you can focus in on things like problem solving. Ooh, okay. What happens if a dispute arises? What is the process that the parties are going to use? How long is it going to take should any third parties be involved other important processes for project managers or things like a completion process? What does completion mean? How is it certified who needs to come and inspect?
Are there any commissioning tests should videos and photographs be kept excetera, Etc. So the contract will have lots of detail in it. About various processes that project. Smells need to pay attention to and project managers in particular need to pay attention to those ones. And I suppose, if I think about it that the other process to pay attention to would be the dealing of any risk, which arises those are quite well established in many forms of
standard contract. But again, there's something to pay attention to, there will be time scales to work to. There will be paperwork that needs to be exchanged and go backwards and forwards and then maybe assessments that need to be done as well by the project manager. So, I mean, you know, you could say could project professional, good pay attention to every contract term but but one never has time to do all of those things. So, for a project manager, those would be the three.
I would concentrate on risk management, completion and money. And I suppose the fourth one which is a good one to have up your sleeve would be problem, solving and dispute resolution. Can you tell us a bit about Express and implied terms in the contract and what to watch out for? Yes, of course. It's pretty simple, actually Express. Terms are those which are expressed which have been written down, which have been agreed between the parties,
whether orally or in writing. So an Express term is something that you can see and an implied term is the opposite. An implied term is silent. It's invisible. It may be something which are the parties have agreed but haven't written down. It may be something which they
haven't. Gust at all, in which case there are scenarios where the law and this is done through a court or through an adjudicator, will step in and literally imply a term into a contract such that the contract will be interpreted using that employed term. So implied, terms can be quite useful. They can also be a bit scary because, of course, they are invisible, and that makes them in certain so people like Xpress terms, because you can see them
in front of you. And because there, You can understand the regulation of the relationship between the parties. But implied terms, they can be positive, they can be negative. So, positive, implied term would be act reasonably and - implied term would be, don't commit fraud in your application for payment, you know, things like that, which people say, yeah. Okay, fair enough. I understand those, I don't need to write them down. They sound perfectly sensible and, you know, and that's
absolutely fine. But there are other employed term. Terms which always come back to the threshold of reasonableness in law. So if you want to do something, which isn't going to be measured or benchmarked against the test of reasonableness, then you want to make it Xpress. For example, the work must be completed within three months, okay?
In the absence of giving that Express term in the contract written down or agreed orally, the court would imply, or the law would imply an implied term which would be the works. Must be finished within a Reasonable time. And the reasonable time would be considered of all the circumstances in which that work is being done.
Including resource availability, time of year, whether there are any subcontractors involved have complicated, etc, etc. So if you want to do something and have the certainty about it, the best way to do that is to include the statement as an Express term. What are some of the risks associated with poor practice around contracts? Now what could happen? Example, if a project professional doesn't give due care and attention to the terms of a contract. That's it.
That's a great question. It's something that I often come across through, lack of Education, really and training of project managers. And this is what I something like this podcast is such a great opportunity to get that message out there for project managers. There's lots of risks and they and it comes back to to actually the question about having a good grasp of contracts. The first is that you need to project managers need to be aware of Their Own. Tracked.
So if you don't deliver your own Services properly that can put you in breach of your own contract or your organization's contract more likely and that could be also professional negligence and that's, you know, hideous for all sorts of reasons, you know, on a wider sort of project level. If a project manager isn't playing their part then that the
the agency role. If you like the certifier role, the independent assessor role that they Play that they broke a between that the client and the contractor is is is poorly regulated and is liable to be very fragile or able to be vulnerable to disputes. And basically, nobody really
knows what they're doing. So then everybody is doing what they always do and they and they know solidly within their own technical expertise what they're doing, but they miss the nuances and the subtleties of the contract which are the bits that regulate where money flows? How time works? Who needs to do what when What is, you know, what is triggered by one party when somebody else does does a particular action?
So the risks are that the project unravels not in a technical sense because technical people know their stuff and they will get to the end of the project, but it unravels in a governance side it unravels in a in a maturity side and it unravels in the sense of a relationship side because we don't have that tightness that regulator contract process which will Here and guide people step-by-step to the end.
How can project professionals take a more active or proactive role in the Contracting process to help mitigate some potential risks? Yeah. I absolutely Advocate all of that and trying to give my project manager. Clients, a voice and encouraging those in-house project managers within Contracting functions to try and be a bit more vocal pre-contract in procurement in. In stage because they are the ones and this is literal.
In some cases, get handed the contract and told to go off and get on with it. You know, our job is done and hands are washed and pre contract and procurement folks, get on with their next. Prospect the project manager. Meanwhile, is given something which they've never seen before. They haven't had any input into let alone be able to perhaps even influence how the terms of the the of the contractor put together. I was actually looking at one last week. This is a really good example.
Actually, a project manager for an NEC subcontract. The sub contract was negotiated and the standard term reads that a particular action has to happen within 3 weeks. Now, the subcontractor has had that term reduced from three weeks down to two weeks and the Tractor, which is the subcontractors client has had that term increased from three
weeks to four weeks. So suddenly people who before have to do in the vanilla form, do something within 3 weeks have either got less time than they thought. Or as a bonus, I got more time than they thought and the project manager on dealing with that, the subcontractor has only very recently been alerted to the fact that they now have two weeks to do something rather than three weeks.
And it's those kind of things where project Jurors could really useful e, both be informed but also be consulted on, you know, you have to apply the real life to this stuff. What does it mean for that project manager to have only 2 weeks to complete? Whatever the action is rather than three weeks is it possible? Is it okay, great? If it is but if it isn't always puts the organization at risk, or with more resource has to be pulled together in order to have
the completion. Evidently in capably, within a two-week period rather than a three-week period, Then the project manager is going to have to be very agile. Is going to have to book to Pivot themselves in order to be able to do that. And of course, if they don't know that exist, how can they possibly plan to deliver the services that they that they need to deliver? In your experience to contracts. Tend to be viewed negatively. I is something that's only referred to, in an adversarial
situation. Where are they regarded positively as the foundation for a good business relationship? Well, that of course is exactly how they should be saying. I mean the contract is it is what it is, in the sense that it is, the the document, hopefully, it's a document that makes life a lot easier. The document, by which the relationship is regulated, and I come back to this all the time because I think that is how it should be viewed.
And certainly views differ, as to the usefulness of contracts and whether they are viewed positively or negatively and I guess, depending on any given situation depending on which side if you like, and there's a, there's an issue with sides as well. You could say that, you know, one term is positive for one party and negative for another or one process is helpful to one party. But, you know, unhelpful and burdensome to another so it does largely depend on the pair of eyes that is At it.
But I try to get my clients to look at contracts as the regulating mechanism as the set of processes and tools that they have that have been agreed. And in some cases that their organizations have paid a lot of money for to have negotiated on their behalf. Not always, of course, a lot of it's done in house, but but you know, sometimes there is an investment piece. So what's the point of having made that investment whether it's time?
Money, external. Internal people have needed to come together to put into shape this contract into being, to sign it, to send it through various gateways and governance and legal and everything else only for everybody to ignore it and do what they always do. So, in that sense, when you talk about the, the risks, about poor practice, and why it's useful, and helpful to project managers to really kind of stand up and say, look, I need to see this contract, I want to have a part
in the negotiation of it. I want to be consulted. Because I'm going to be the one who's delivering there. Sits my neck on the Block. Then all of those things come together to say, well, we should be viewing contracts in a positive way. They aren't, they aren't there just to be dusted off when things go wrong.
Because if, when things have gone wrong it's too late was actually the contract is there to help you and to steer you through all of the tools and processes and to help you to anticipate and have foresight about things, which could go wrong or which might go Go on or which look like they might be going wrong in which case there's stuff in the contract that's going to help you to bring it back on track, whether it's by risk management, or early warning, processes or
flagging up notices and you know, pulling it, pulling an a an Emergency meeting together, that sort of thing. The contract will have that kind of thing in it. Within projects decisions often have to be made very rapidly. What is the implication when a quick decision creates working Arrangements that aren't covered by an existing contract?
I think this happens very often and I think it's all credit to project managers micro decision-making and ability to Pivot that they can do these things confidently. And in most cases, fairly capably, there are risks, of course attached to creating working Arrangements outside of the On track, not least that you might do a heap of work and not get paid for it, which I suppose is that another sort of big dose of the real life bit of delivering contracts.
The question around project manager, Authority is an interesting one because if the project manager is given sufficient authority to create these kind of working arrangements and we get the term of payment Etc sorted then actually, that can work very, very well and it can, it can
push through things. He's speedily that might otherwise be slowed down by some, you know, torturous governance process or have to go through a bunch of stakeholders or whatever it happens to be, of course, depending on the size of the contract, and the amount of stakeholders that one has to talk to you about this stuff but those informal arrangements are in some cases necessary. And so the project manager being both capable in a contract fashion but also technically
capable in terms of his or her. These can often work through those kind of working Arrangements in a very in a very sort of agile and practical fashion. The worry of course is the bit that you've done work that you don't get paid for and there's no easy way around that sometimes decisions have to be done. Sometimes that has to be the priority in the moment and the other stuff, the commercial side, if you like the financial side has to be dealt with after the event.
It is a risk. But depending on the the, you know, the project at stake and what the pivotal decision that needs to be made is that might be the right decision in the moment and of course project managers need to be supported if they've been given you no authority to to move the project
along as they see fit. So just to end with that like to ask you to tell us a bit more about the upcoming installments in the webinar series, you're running for the APM contracts and procurement Sig. I will, I'm really excited about this because we first ran this on Teen. I was I've known John broom for many years. John Bruno has is very well known in the APM and has been the chair of contracts and procurement Sig fought for many years. And John invited me.
I think back in 2016 or 2017 to be thinking about this, this contract and project manager space. And it's been, it's an area that I've worked on, for many, many years. So I was really interested to help out. We first ran the serial He's in 2018, we had a bit of a break and then Corona has happened and everybody's been in a bit of a tailspin, of course, but we're back for 20 21 and it's new and refreshed.
It's a three parter where we already had part number one in June. And that can be picked up by APM members. It's stored in the, in the apm's Library, part two is September and part three is in November in part 2. We're going to Focusing on how you build a contract and what project managers can use freely, add to that process. It's going to pick up on things like those examples of the the time scales for actions that I talked about earlier and part three is going to be some stuff
on problem solving. And what happens? How can project managers help out when when things go wrong or they're threatening to go wrong? So we're talking about nipping problems in the bud and, and really getting the project manager to use all the abilities and, and all the contract knowledge that they will have by the end of the series, to put them in a good position to then, you know, go off them confidently and capably into the contract. Sunset. To find out a bit more about
contracts in action. I spoke with Richard Cairns director of Korean Browns London project and program management. Team working in the Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences sector. Richard is a fellow of a p.m. and a Committee Member of the program management Sig. We spoke about contracts including any C4 and how the pandemic might be influencing best practice around contracts. Thanks for joining us, Richard. So begin with please.
Could you introduce yourself and give a bit of background to your current role? Yeah, hello everyone. So I'm Richard Cairns I'm a director at Korean Brown and I'm responsible for the London and Southeast pharmaceutical and life science project management team. So I've got nearly 40 members of Staff in my team and we provide projects program design Management Services as well as projects and planning schedule management a bit of Bim
Management Services as well. And then document management projects happen and supports it's a various public and private sector clients The team were working with some quite large and complex and interesting projects at the moment and one of them even had a visit from Boris Johnson last year although we do lots of Not. So Glamorous, work for our clients as well. I've specialized in in pharmaceutical and life science program and project delivery
open last kind of five years. But I haven't always worked in that sector. I've also worked in education, Healthcare government, and a bit of new build residential and regeneration as well. The last kind of 20 years and each of these sectors has their preferred unusual contract choices and project delivery preferences as well. You mentioned there are a couple of different sectors you've
worked across. So like to ask you with in Farmer and Life Sciences, what Contracting disciplines does that sector use that perhaps distinguishes it from for example the public sector work that you've done in the past. Yeah really really good question. I suppose. Especially the team currently, you know, they're delivering pharmaceutical and life science, construction projects, and they vary in size and complexities.
They work on lots of different types of projects, kind of 200 million, plus new, build vaccine, manufacturing, and pandemic response, facilities, right down to konev refurbishing containment, Laboratories upgrading, or replacing kind of a Statewide infrastructure Building Services projects as well. I supposed, you know, most professional bodies Produce their own kind of standard forms of construction, contracts, and Engineering contracts as well.
The most popular kind of standard forms are going to be the joint contrast tribunal the J, CT, which publishes Suite of Standard, Building contracts, and related contracts as well, such as collateral warranties, sub contracts as well.
Another really popular ones new engineering contract any see which was originally kind of published in the early 90s after the landfill, Of construction Excellence report and the latest edition of our sin e C4 which was published quite recently more, you know, 2017. There's others as well.
So, it's also the association for consultant Architects, quite often abbreviated to Aca and that's got the project partner in contract which is PPC 2000, which is kind of first, published it in the 2000 year, but it's been revised in 2008. And again in 2013 and the ACA statement was it was the original one, the first standard partment contract as well. So the types of contracts used in the team vary from.
Come on. Sighs type scale, procurement and complexity of each of the projects that they're working on. And also, if they're in a public sector, private sector as well. You know, generally, we use cone of je, CT design, and build or Standard Building contracts without quantities there. They're more used in the private sector and then any see any C3 and any C4 and more used in the in the public sector. But it, you know, isn't a hard and fast Rule and both sectors and we can and do them.
Do you? Both forms of contractors. Well, we've also got a few projects being delivered under the institution of chemical engineer so I can be contracts as well. What are some of these strengths or unique characteristics of the ik me contracts? I can be so that this this type of contrast. Drafted as a performance-based contract for the design and construction process plan really the other outputs, you know, and
and output based projects. So it specifically addresses liabilities and And testing regimes appropriate for performance of plant. Really good example of that. We're using an ARCA me contract to deliver a new building simulator project. One of our, one of our clients are the moment is working wellness. It's exactly right for that type of project.
Really, you know, I'd probably say, you know, generally most common use for my Contracting, the team at the moment, it's the only see for engineering and Construction contract which is abbreviated to ECC. And that's really The, the contracted choice for the public sector but that's kind of focused on the type of work that we're doing with a lot of government bodies of moment as far as specifics go.
So kind of the NEC for PCC contract is got nine core Clauses. You know, these are split between like one is General to contractors responsibility three time for Quality Management. Five payment goes down, you know, six compensation events, 7 title 8. Listen Insurance streets at 29, termination. You've also got kind of options with NEC as well. And it goes from option, A down to option. F. These option A is kind of the price contract, activity schedule.
Option b is price contract with bills of quantities, see Target contract with activity, schedules, and d-type contract with bills of quantities, a cost-reimbursable contrast and F management contract. You know, you choose the right option based on a client's kind of time, cost quality, and procure and Route objectives. Their project really. So would you say that customizability and flexibility are some of the key strengths of any C4?
Yeah, you're definitely. Yeah, I mean, most of the, but I suppose the most commonly used options that are in the team use that, hey, which is kind of price contract, activity, schedule and Andy, which is kind of cost-reimbursable. So, they're kind of opposite opposite ends of the spectrum, really, for kind of fully designed or not, and you're doing a Time reimbursable type Arrangement. The NEC is split into three different types of Clauses.
So, X Clauses, a kind of used for Can be optional clause in the contract that kind of standard Clauses in the contract W Clause is the use for dispute resolution. And I supposed to know your point on flexibility. You know, any see gives you the option to use said causes for additional Clauses in the contract and we can talk a bit later about how they can be used to kind of achieve client specific objectives in certain areas as well.
You've plugged recently for a p.m. about the construction play book. Published by the government, tells us a bit about what the Playbook is, and why? It's valuable for the project profession. Yeah, that's right. Yeah we wrote A Blog for the APM in June this year. It was the construction Playbook and how sustainable Contracting is guiding the government's
recovery plans. So I'm a Committee Member for the APM program management sick and I try to provide kind of thought leadership on appropriate subject, matter topics. And, you know, encourage collaboration a bit of knowledge, sharing transfer. And I really enjoy that part of my role for the a p.m. So I get involved in a in webinars and writing thought leadership. Schools.
I've got a follow-up block it in August, on the construction Playbook as well and it's going to focus on Modern methods of construction. So or MMC so I've got a busy few weeks ahead but specifically answering your question the construction Playbook as opposed as part of the government's strategy to build our way to a better economy. You know, they've committed to delivering construction engineering projects and programs. You know what you build schools, hospitals prisons and major
instrument. Infrastructure Works to support the economic recovery from the pandemic and delivering excellent public sets of works. We are crucial part, the government's recovery plan. I think they've committed something like 37 billion pounds worth of public sector contracts to go to the market over the next year.
So, you know, we're talking big numbers really to help to help me that aim that the cabinet office is produced the construction Playbook. You know it's abbreviated down to the Playbook is what is commonly known? Apps and that provides kind of government guidance on sourcing and Contracting Public Works projects and programs really The Playbook supports the government's Ambitions and plans to transform the public sector estate and infrastructure
networks. Kind of going through over the next decade and Beyond really supporting their aims to kind of build build back better faster. And Greener, you know, sustainability is a real key key to it as well.
It focuses on kind of The process of programs and managed correctly with the optimum, kind of purple best contractual strategy and solution from the outset of really whether the scope is delivery of a school, a hospital and major infrastructure project, the principles of the Playbook of really the same state detail the approach for assessing kind of procuring and managing Public Public Works, and projects and
programs, really. So it's really about best practice and how it applies across the board. Yeah, yeah definitely. Yeah. I mean one of the one of the key principles is creating an effective kind of Contracting environment. So, you know, that's one of the one of the 14 key policies of the Playbook and its aim to ensure that contrast is structured to support an exchange of data. No Drive collaboration is a really big theme. Improved value manage risk with a drive for kind of continuous
Improvement as well. But as if there's another real Theme coming from the Playbook which the government wants to still focus on outcomes to create long-term value kind of all through successful project delivery. So they want this to create a contrasting landscape that delivers Converse a sustainable resilient and effective relationship between Contracting parties and a supply chain. They just they don't want one off contrasted with long-term.
Collaborative, relationships, being Bill going forward, which is great. I think for the industry thinking a bit more about collaboration. How can contracts be? Used to foster a more collaborative way of doing projects. Yeah, cut contracts. And there are spoke wording causes and requirements can be used to implement kind of many specific clients or project requirements including kind of promoting and encouraging collaborative working and
practices kept going back. You know the 1994 constructing the team commonly known as the lamp from reports. That the starting point for most, you know, most recent change changing agenda in the UK construction industry. The why? Fred growth of partnering and subsequent kind of collaborative working, can all be kind of
traced back, right? You know, right away back to that 1994. All Anthem report, really the NEC particularly, you know, approaches and the way approaches the management managing of contracts. It was really endorsed him in the lamp and Report, you know? And which was kind of the government's review of procurement and contractual arrangements and UK construction
industry at that time. So going back nearly kind of What 20 years, but the use of any she contrast with Play-Doh a key key in helping part in the industry to kind of do things differently and better with collaboration kind of right at the heart of this, you know, in my view as well. The four pillars of success are all kind of embodied in the NEC contract and those are kind of you know, one working together to stack together, you know, 3 adding value.
And then for Innovation they're all the key principles of I'm fully embodied into the NEC country. I really and they should all be embodied into kind of most contracts in contracted approaches and processes really in my view. How do you think the change in working conditions brought about because of the pandemic has impacted the way we need to think about Contracting practices? Yeah, another another really good question, really, so I'm very currents as well.
So one of the one of the changes in working condition of practices that I've personally experienced in a pandemic is obviously remote working and remote. Idiot delivery. You know, we're all kind of working from home, a lot of use of kind of virtual kind of meeting software, you know, Ms. Teams is a great example, really? I don't think I'm unique here and probably the whole country of you saying something similar, but I suppose there's a working example.
Last year I was working on a, on a project, using a development management agreements, which stated a requirement for contractual notice under under that kind of contract or agreement. It's be shoed in hard copy recorded correspondence, delivery with wet signatures and you know obviously working remotely in a pandemic and kind of mitigating spread and kind of this. The spread of the virus that just wasn't practical or appropriate for those type of working conditions in the
pandemic, really? I suppose it's worth noting as well. That NEC for the new the new contract or newish contract. That came out in 2017. Mmm. Braces. All these kind of digital changes that are happening in the construction industry especially around communication and, and been really, which are essential in this ever-changing
world. Particularly the moment, you know, in the pandemic or, or coming out of the pandemic, I think we've changed over the last 18 months and and certainly, for the better really another highly current topic. Of course, is sustainability. What are some of the ways in your experience of addressing sustainability concerns through contracts? Yeah, especially if a client has a particular sustainability ambition or Target that they want to achieve through a project on way to do this.
It could be through the use of, I'll use any see again as a specific example, but you know, could use a specific Z Clause, we talked a bit about that earlier, didn't we? You know, as an additional Clause to the contract under the NEC engineering and Construction contract? You know, it could be worded to include A specific sustainability or carbon reduction Target as a key performance indicator or or kpi as a contract requirement.
And, you know, there's a number of reasons that could drive this. You know, a local Authority planning condition of building regulation part L requirements or a Brie am Target or aspiration. There's also carbon reduction kind of aspirations aimed a supposed minimizing environmental environmental impact of your business cutting Waist and acts extravagance as well and kind of generate just minimizing your carbon footprint, really? It's very, very current and
topical at the moment. The UK government recently stated it is NetZero strategy targets set by the climate change Act of 2008 and at least expose 100 percent reduction in UK greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to those two kind of 1990 levels. So contracts, then requirements play Key Parts in Meeting those requirements really, you know, as well as sustainability they could be used in other areas as well and, you know, we're seeing this a lot, you know, myself and
the team. You know, this is coming through a lot in after areas, where kind of public static clients using said Clause is to implement social value or corporate and social responsibility aspirations through the procurement effect construction projects. And this this is all filtering down into the supply chain. Are there any specific or unique? Meek considerations around sustainability for building projects within farmer and life sciences.
Yeah, I think I think I wouldn't say there's anything particularly unique about farmer and Life Sciences very much like for like a cross construction industry. But farmer and life science unit, depending on what the project is, it could be Rd, you know, research and development facility or kind of a cgmp Time. Manufacturing facility.
Everybody controlled environments and complex kind of complex buildings and places really and sometimes achieving those those The sustainability targets can be more complicated than a than a say a new-build block of flats which is obviously less complex, you know. But but I wouldn't say there's anything particularly specific about the farmer and laughs insectary only that it's a much more complicated environment, so Implement highly serviced as
well. So you know, it's a bit more complicated I suppose in summary in your view how can contracts help drive a culture on a Act, for example, and agile culture. Yeah. Yeah. I mean contrast can certainly help Drive project culture and I suppose it all comes back to to ensuring that you select the right procurement and contrast strategy that meets your own
specific requirements. Really, you know what meeting the clients objectives and business case and user requirements brief are essential really. We've talked a lot about any see in this podcast and I think it's a fantastic sweetie of contracts, but it does have its
crew. Systems which are mainly focused around those being heavily administrative, you know, with with inflexible kind of process-driven contractual requirements, I don't think there's any one size fits all type of protein in the construction playbook. For example, states, that the standard contract should be should be chosen and the following sweets and it specifically mentions any c 3 or 4 JC 2016 in and PPC 2000.
So it gives you a range of Stood options contractual Arrangements can be can be usually added to in some kind of model contracts to help deal with projects and clients specific requirements or risk so which are not covered in the main contract term. So, if you've got a kind of actual working requirement, these can be easily inserted and dealt with through a contract
Amendment wording. Or a said clause, for example, under any c, so you can easily Implement those if needed finally reflecting on the headline-grabbing vaccine rollout program from the Okay, government, which is broadly been deemed a huge success. Are there any lessons on the contracts and procurement side that we can take from that
program and use going forwards? Yeah, I mean first of all kind of in answer to that I think you know I think I think the government has done a fantastic job in the vaccine rollout program, it's something that country can really be proud of over the last Connor, 12 months. I think, you know, when compared to other nations we've really excelled in what we've done on that program. So, you know how soft to everyone that was involved in it.
Really, I personally wasn't involved in the government's vaccine rollout program, but I did did have some pre-contract involvement in the design and construction of the new build vaccine manufacturing and pandemic response facility. It was a really great project to work on but I think looking back you did need to be very thick-skinned the times whilst working on it, but I'm really proud of the role that I played or small part that I played in it.
The frames, you know, it's an absolutely great project to be involved in one of the lessons that I've learned and took for my involvement in the project is ironically for this podcast is that there's definitely a time and a place not to be overly contractual and there's definitely a need to be a bit pragmatic, you know, particularly, you know, when working with such an important projects, you definitely need to make sure that you take the time to select the right procurement
and contract strategy as part of a project initiation, you know, right at the beginning. Of a project if you don't get that right. You know, it could really the wheels could really come off on a project really special. What other Lessons Learned can we take from the last 18 months? Really? I think flexibility and
innovation in Project delivery. And contrast strategy has proved to be really crucial, you know, in the response to kind of these exceptional kind of nature of the pandemic and the challenges that we faced over the last kind of year or 18 months for A rapidly evolving kind of projects and contract requirements, iets complex changing stakeholder groups, you know, fluid Financial control, will you know, maybe there isn't so much driver to on cost, you know, you just need to get it
done. Just to kind of save lives, really high levels of kind of external public scrutiny, as well, with kind of made it necessary to kind of innovate and adapt through every aspect of the kind of contract strategy process, really? It's been achieved in a number of ways, doesn't it throughout kind of the project and program life cycle over the kind of lost 80 mums? You know, flexible procurements key design and construction Solutions need to be highly kind of strategic in your sourcing as
well. You know, aimed at maximizing buying advantage in responding quickly to risks in supply chain, disruption, brexit certainly hasn't helped That regard, but, you know, we've got through it. I think moving forward, you know, stakeholders should continue to kind of employee flexible kind of innovative procurement solution approach really. And that will allow us to adjust.
And, and flex to me, you know, growing needs going forward as part of the pandemic response or kind of, if needed in a telephone, a second or third wave now, but, you know, if we need to upscale vaccine manufacturer, we will need to be flexible. Really What my personal reflection of working through the pandemic really is, you know, I think we've learned a lot and enormous amount over the last 18 months. No against enormous odds.
You know we could we can still deliver from a contractual perspective and you know what we have seen this really you know, impossible or unattainable in 2019, we've shown throughout kind of 2020 and through into 2021, you know, it's now possible. So, you know, just keep collaborating be flexible and apply. And if it's you've approached I think we can step up and meet any new challenge that 2021 and Beyond throws.
It's just really. Thanks to Sarah and Richard for their contributions to this episode. I'd like to wrap up by summarizing some of the things that we've learned firstly contracts. A hugely important in a project context because they regulate the relationship between the parties and enable them to understand what work is being done to live it up cured. They set out in clear terms the scope timescales and processes for disputes and risk mitigation as Sara explained.
And awareness of contract is important for project managers because if they don't deliver Services properly, it could be in breach of contract. And relationships and governance could begin to unravel. Richard meanwhile explained how contracts can help Drive project culture during you select the right procurement and strategy to meet your own specific requirements, along with the clients objectives and business case, it's also worth remembering.
The contracts aren't just there to be dusted off when things go wrong because of the huge Investments of time and money that go into contracts. They should instead be viewed in a positive way, there is an opportunity for project professionals to stand up and make their voices heard. They need to see the contract, have a part in its negotiation or at least be consulted. They are the ones who have to deliver and take ultimate responsibility for the outcomes.
We also heard about the role of contracts in sustainability. Now inserting specific Clauses, can Implement social value or corporate social responsibility aspirations through, for example, procurement of a construction project. And finally have the pandemic has taught us collaboration, flexibility and Innovation and project. Delivery and contract strategy are crucial and faced with
rapidly evolving situations. With complex changing, stakeholder groups, check the episode description for links to Sarah's webinar series and Richards latest blogs for a p.m. Em. Get in touch with your feedback and suggestions at a p.m. podcast at think publishing .co.uk. This podcast has been brought to you by APM the charts body for the project profession. For more information on a p.m. visit, a p.m.
Dot org.uk. Em. Get in touch with your feedback and suggestions at a p.m. podcast at think publishing .co.uk. This podcast has been brought to you by APM the charts body for the project profession. For more information on a p.m. visit, a p.m. Dot org.uk.