CONSTRUCTION AND THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK Steve Batson
For the past two decades, Steve Batson, Studio Director and Head of Healthcare at Stephen George + Partners, has focused on designing and delivering high-quality healthcare and social care environments that enhance the patient experience and focus on improved health outcomes. He has led on the successful completion of a range of acute, primary, mental health, and specialist care facilities throughout the UK, and believes in affordable and accessible healthcare for all – leading to his overseas work in India and Africa.
A Member of the IHEEM Strategic Estates Management Advisory Group, and the co-founder of the Health BIM Group, he works alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, and NHS and private sector partners, on the Integrated Health Information Model. He has over 25 years’ experience delivering healthcare projects through public sector frameworks via multidisciplinary teams.
Phil Morrison said: “It’s undoubtedly about behavioural change. Earlier I referred to the construction industry ‘marking its own homework’. In my view, what we’re seeing currently is a race to the bottom, i.e. ‘Let’s build it as fast and cheaply as possible’. I’m sure every construction company would say they look to do the best possible job, but I don’t think there’s an industry like it for defects, claims, or disputes. Recently,” he added, “and this is anecdotal – we explained to clients how the construction industry works, and they were pretty taken aback. I don’t think they quite believed us about the struggle you have with defects, and over the two-year period they came round to our way of thinking about how the sector deals with things. I think there will be an attitude change; very much in the same way as when the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 were introduced. While any deaths or injuries on construction site are unacceptable, raising this to the fore, and the bar so much higher, the industry had to comply. There’s always complaints – on introducing any regulation – that it will destroy the industry or impact profits. However,” Phil Morrison added, “you’re talking about loss of life, and what price can you put on that? “We might see something akin to a BREEAM-type regulation – where if the manufacturer’s product will be satisfying all these regulations, you can argue that you have a better, more investable, and more marketable, product? If that’s the standard you work to, I can quite easily see funders saying: ‘We want this anyway, and if you don’t incorporate it, you’ll fall further down the chain.’ I think the Act will change attitudes. People learn that standards have to be achieved. Let’s open that to the floor.”
Fewer design and build contracts? Curtins’ Andy Buckley said: “The necessary behaviour change could take years, but we’re reverting to designing buildings properly upfront and then building them, as opposed to building while we design. Could we see fewer design and build contracts?”
28 Health Estate Journal September 2024 ‘‘
One of the challenges we’ve encountered is how difficult it’s been to determine the applicability of the HRB status for existing
accommodation within a diverse estate
Phil Morrison said: “I was going to make
that point. We have a procurement route which is a design and build contract – essentially there for the contractor to take the employer’s design, finish it, and undertake the construction. The concern here is that if you hand over the design and construction to a contractor there to make a profit, he’s not going to be occupying the building or dealing with it. They call it ‘value engineering’, but they design the product down. If you’re having to do this right at the beginning, there’s less point having the contractor responsible for all the design. You may still want that single point of liability, but do you then need a contractor managing
Connie Campbell
Connie Campbell, a Senior Engineer at Hoare Lea, leads the daily delivery of projects across a range of built environment sectors, including healthcare, residential, offices, and mixed use. She ‘balances client needs and people-centric design with plant-conscious solutions, ensuring good performance through tailored solutions, and compliance with all regulatory requirements’. Connie initially joined the industry practising across all aspects of building services engineering, and providing sustainability consultancy to her clients, before joining Hoare Lea as a Mechanical Engineer. As a local leader for STEM outreach, she frequently volunteers at local schools and universities to bring awareness of the industry to under-represented communities. As Vice Chair of Hoare Lea’s Gender Balance Network Group, she actively advocates for inclusivity within the built environment.
or dealing with the design?” Andy Buckley said: “The implications
there are on programme, which translates to cost as well, particularly if before Gateway 3 you’re making changes – something I haven’t come across yet. Has anyone else?” Hive Projects’ Stuart Dalton said: “One of the challenges we’ve encountered is how difficult it’s been to determine the applicability of the HRB status for existing accommodation within a diverse estate, depending on the function and interconnection to adjoining buildings. For live projects we’ve found it a real challenge to formally appoint a Principal Designer relating to the Building Safety Act, with almost a ‘merry-go-round’ of ‘That’s not me; we need to get someone else to do it’ mentality across multidisciplinary teams. Then you get this converged, and often confused, message between different parties as whether the building is a qualifying one. ‘It might be taller, but we don’t have sleeping accommodation’, or ‘It might be lower in height, but we’ve got interconnections’.” Stuart Dalton said there were two or three differing opinions on a project he is working on currently as to whether the building is or isn’t an HRB.
Across the board Trevor Rogers of LABC said: “In terms of your Principal Designer and Principal Contractor, that’s obviously not HRB- related; it’s across the board, and we’re finding issues with duty-holders not wanting to take on the responsibility, and unsure of their role. As to mechanisms in the Act to change the measures relating to heights, storey numbers, and even different building uses, there is indeed provision for it, and it can be done, if the behaviours route doesn’t work. The Building Safety Regulator is looking at technical changes in care homes currently, with a consultation out for installing sprinklers into all such establishments irrespective of height – so you can make changes to technical standards, as well as via the legislative route.”
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