Government Facilities Management Strategy and its impact on FM procurement

THE SUSTAINABILITY EXPERT’S VIEW
SUNIL SHAH,
DIRECTOR AT ACCLARO ADVISORY

The SFMI set out some guidance, based upon an investigation into best practices in FM, where ‘The 7 Principles of Sustainable FM Procurement’ framework was developed to help businesses address these issues not just at supply chain level but also within the wider value chain.

• Use of procurement to deliver sustainable FM outcomes
• Avoid placing sustainability in an ‘Innovation Box’
• Focus on the impact’s material to the client
• Create culture to negate conflicts early
• Mobilise together
• Work collaboratively
• Embed sustainability in the SLAs

In itself, the strategy seems to be ticking a number of these boxes, utilising the procurement frameworks and also the Procurement Policy Notes to implement areas such as carbon reduction plans and social value standardised reporting. The intention is to move towards a position where longer term strategies are in place, necessary for delivering decarbonisation strategies – such as extending life of equipment and assets, implementing efficiency programmes, or low carbon heat solutions – which require longer term timelines and shared responsibilities with the client. Incorporating these strategies may not always be cheapest in the short term but will provide best value over a slightly longer term and therefore achieving these goals requires a different scoring assessment to the traditional model.

How this is incorporated into frameworks is therefore important where solutions have longer term paybacks – is it included in the SLA’s and form part of financial structures to ensure sufficient focus is maintained in meeting the ambitions. The focus of frameworks and contract appointment still rests largely on cheapest short-term price – not fully articulating the desires of the strategy, leading to potential conflicts.

Procurement typically seeks to understand how an organisation performs and operates against corporate sustainability targets, rather than what can be delivered at the contract level. Research by the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor has shown that most organisations net zero plans lack substance – there is a target but no credible means for how they can be achieved.

An example of this is the Carbon Reduction Plans, which focus upon categories that are limited for FM, rather than suppliers and goods which account for over 50 per cent of typical property related emissions. Greater scrutiny is therefore required to assess declarations sometimes capturing a small proportion, coupled with the use of low-level offsetting, to ensure effectiveness. Whether these skills sets are in place across the procurement team is an open question, but are necessary for the Government Strategy to be meaningful and achieve its desired outcomes.

Placement on procurement professionals is unfair – they are part of the overall process and are driven by the organisational context. The Government context is still very much around high achieving strategies, but we are still waiting to see if the frameworks and contracts are given the opportunity to support and deliver. To meet the forward strategies, they must be given the chance. 

THE MAINTENANCE PROVIDER’S VIEW
STEVE MCGREGOR,
GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, DMA GROUP

In November, the Government published its Facilities Management Strategy, a framework which has been, truth be told, a very long time in the making.

The strategy outlines a vision to reshape the public estate, a huge swathe of built assets comprising more than 135,000 public buildings, including schools, hospitals, prisons, courts, job centres and many others in between.

In its own words, the proposal represents the first major attempt to establish “a coordinated, cross-Government vision for facilities management, setting the strategic approach and standards which will govern what good looks like and the quality of service which should be aspired to”.

This framework is long overdue and should be applauded for several reasons. Firstly, I support the development of any initiative which seeks to improve FM service delivery, embed sustainability into the sector and contribute to local communities, especially those in deprived areas.

Second, the Government has highlighted the importance of the facilities management sector to the UK economy with this publication. It also recognises that we need a unified approach to lifting standards – this, in my view, is essential to the long-term prosperity of FM in the UK.

Our industry already adds around £65 billion to national GDP every year, with the public sector accounting for around 20 per cent of that spend. This makes the Government’s Facilities Management Strategy an extremely serious and significant piece of work that we should all do our best to embrace and extract value from.

Not only does the strategy clearly set out measurable alignment between values and goals, but it also represents a framework to align and articulate FM objectives to better interface with people. This includes developing workplaces supported by slicker processes and technologies capable of realising improved productivity and more sustainable outcomes.

Although standardisation and consistency of process is crucial, we need to make sure that innovation and agility is enabled in the new FM environment in the public sector. These processes must embrace technology and digitalisation in a way that allows thought-leading SMEs to contribute new and fresh ways of thinking.

Indeed, the Government’s framework must be treated as an opportunity to move away from the ‘big is always best’ mentality. This will allow the sector to make up on lost ground in terms of technological advancement and process automation.

DMA Group’s own research confirms that 77 per cent of FM professionals believe our industry is behind the curve. Even more concerning is the fact that less than one in four know where to start their digitalisation journeys, or what the endpoint or ‘art of the possible’ even looks like.

Opportunities are therefore being missed. Our own experience confirms that through process automation our back-office efficiency has improved by 50 per cent, while our engineers are twice as productive as they were five years ago. If embraced properly, this new approach advocated by the Government could help to unlock those kinds of gains across a huge number of public sector estates.

I would also like to see a drive towards common platforms built on genuinely ‘live’ data for performance and status reporting to support better decision making, without lag or masking of performance facts and with automated calls to action. There is no reason why this strategy cannot incorporate, encourage and support the implementation of such standards.

It’s imperative to make the FM sector a more attractive career proposition – something this strategy can also help to achieve. Attracting and retaining talent is critical to safeguarding the future of the industry, and adopting smarter, tech-driven processes will no doubt serve to make FM a more enticing prospect for new entrants.

Setting a forward strategy for the Government estate is necessary and a welcome addition to meet the 2050 net zero targets and wider sustainability goals. Aspirations are clearly laid out, particularly for the environmental sustainability aspects, with a desire to be embedded into all contracts by 2030. At the top level, the strategy would move us along quickly in a structured manner through 2025 targets such as ‘Commitments on sustainability are embedded into all FM decision making and maintenance plans’. 

*www.gov.uk/government/publications/facilities-management-strategy