3 keys to Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding

A design developed to RIBA Stage 2 that has the early input from contractor engagement may be stronger than a RIBA 3 design without contractor engagement, as it builds confidence in your ability to deliver your project.

Put simply, early contractor input adds value to your initial design, helping you to confidently ensure you've done enough to ensure accurate pricing, that you fully understand the risks and challenges, and ultimately give you confidence that you have developed a programme that you can achieve.

Early contractor involvement in the design process also reduces the risk that the design may have to be revisited later in the project, incurring unwelcome delays and potential affordability risks for your project.

But, how soon should you engage a contractor in your bid?

One of the many benefits of our approach to public sector procurement is that our delivery partners can engage with your supply chain at an early stage to not only secure resources, but also safeguard delivery of your projects and increase the likelihood of receiving funding.

This early engagement with delivery partners and their supply chain also allows you to schedule specialist skills in advance, and avoid a dreaded skills shortage.

But, if the application portal is due to open in the Autumn, when and how do you engage with a contractor at pace?

Our integrated approach brings together an effective team to support you in the bid development/design and business case development process. If you don't already have a bid development lead/technical support team in place, one of our consultancy leads will take on this role, via our SCAPE Consultancy framework.

Ultimately, we're here to support you at every stage via our actively-managed consultancy and construction frameworks.

And, alongside our delivery partners, we have sector-leading experience in decarbonisation.

Using practical conclusions from existing research projects will strengthen and support your bid.

For instance: what happens when you put carbon before CAPEX?

Well, our Circular Twin research was conducted to evaluate the impact on project culture and design when you make whole-life carbon emissions a central decision-making criterion from the outset of projects.

We draw two major conclusions from the research:

• You cannot manage what you don't measure - we need to take carbon emissions alongside other wider measures of success into account in our project decisions for more public sector projects, and;

• You need to build a collaborative team as early as you possible in your projects to find the right answers to new challenges like low carbon building delivery.

We were delighted to see both of these points are recognised and adopted in the updated Construction Playbook, reflecting the findings we identified in this study.