CONSTRUCTION PROCUREMENT
New NHS MMC toolkit ‘provides a consistent view’
Andrew Rolf, Healthcare Technical Advisory lead at Mott MacDonald, Helen Sturdy, National head and Procurement Framework and Construction lead at ProCure23, and Colin Hamilton, Sector director – Health, ISG, discuss the Government’s growing preference for the use of Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) in both new-build and ‘refurb’ healthcare projects. Against this backdrop, they explain that a new NHS Modern Methods of Construction Toolkit, and accompanying User Guide, are intended ‘to provide a framework and key themes to create a coherent MMC strategy’.
ProCure 23 (P23) is a proactive framework, delivered by the NHS, for the NHS, which aims to meet the need for improved patient outcomes, to minimise disruption, and to add social value for local communities. Construction undertaken under ProCure23 will offer life-long value, quality, and adaptability, and a reduced environmental impact, as well as creating a desirable place to work. P23 recognises that NHS Trusts need support to understand the opportunities that Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) can bring, how they have evolved over time and continue to do so, and how they provide consistency of approach and the agility to innovate.
Why MMC? MMC is an overarching term that considers construction innovations to help drive efficiencies, enabled by manufacturing- led design approaches – Design for Manufacture & Assembly (DfMA) and Platform Design for Manufacture & Assembly (P-DfMA). Both on-site and off- site techniques can be considered as MMC, including: n Repeatable and standardised solutions. n Prefabrication and offsite solutions – with modular or prefabricated elements.
n Industrialisation - the development of repeating processes.
n Digitisation (the use of data and digital technologies to drive innovation).
The adoption of MMC is a key part of the UK Construction Playbook, and its key aims include delivering improved productivity, efficiency, and quality in the construction sector, as well as enhancing certainty and health and safety, while aiming to reduce carbon and waste. Although MMC has been around for many years, several industry-wide challenges and
Standardised structure/MEP
Optimal platforms/grids
November 2013 saw the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust open its new Women and Children’s Unit at North Middlesex University Hospital – part of an £80 m ProCure21+ scheme to deliver integrated healthcare to the people of North London. The scheme was delivered by Kier Health as PSCP, via an offsite modular build undertaken by Yorkon.
opportunities have seen an acceleration of key MMC approaches.
Key dates on the MMC journey Some of the key dates on the MMC journey have included: n Nucleus – 1976 to the end of the 1990s (standardisation).
n Environmental Code of Practice for Buildings and their Services (March 1994; (circular economy).
n Rio / Paris / Glasgow COP26 climate change agreements – 1992 onwards (carbon reduction).
n Technology and skills in the Construction Industry (UK Commission for Employment & Skills report, September 2013).
n Construction 2025: strategy. Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, 2013.
Volumetric Innovation Repeatable Figure 1: Some of the key attributes of the MMC approach to construction. 30 Health Estate Journal June 2023
n The Farmer Review of the UK construction labour model – Modernise or Die, Construction Leadership Council, 2016.
n Reinventing construction through a productivity revolution. McKinsey Global Institute, 2017.
n Methodology for quantifying the benefits of offsite construction. University of Cambridge, 2020.
n The Construction Playbook. Cabinet Office. 8 December 2020.
n DfMA Overlay to the RIBA Plan of Work, 2nd edition, RIBA, 2021.
n ProCure22 MMC toolkit pilot. 2020. n Salix funding supporting heat decarbonisation. 2019.
n ProCure 23 Toolkit evolved to meet all the NHS drivers. 2023.
n NHS Net Zero Building Standard. NHS England, 23 February 2023.
Components and assemblies
Off-site manufacture Project share
NHS England
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