Two of the CEW Award winners went on to gain the accolades at the Constructing Excellence National Awards earlier this week – Cardiff Business School and Penarth Learning Community.
Once again the CEW team and winners from our CEW Awards in June this year went to London to measure Welsh construction performance against the rest of the UK – and we were not disappointed. The Cardiff Business School (ISG) were outright winners of the Health and Safety award and Penarth Learning Community (Bouygues) was commended in the Project of the Year category.
The judges of the Health and Safety award were very impressed with the attitude, culture and overall work at Cardiff Business School. They noted that from the start of the project the team had achieved outstanding levels of health and safety, but not only among the workforce but also with the general public. Implementing the successful health and safety strategy was underpinned by the integrated and collaborative team working established on site. The safety of the general public in and around the live project was addressed through such measures as secure site access arrangements and the introduction of safe pedestrian routes with barriers and lighting. An innovative health and safety app was developed and distributed to the supply chain to help manage travel safely, including deliveries to site. The employees worked with a local cancer charity to provide on-site health screening sessions for the workforce and the local community. The site also received a merit award from the International Safety Council and the health and safety app has been used on other schemes.
No one underestimates the importance of health and safety in construction and it is fantastic for Welsh construction to be seen as a benchmark for the rest of the industry.
Penarth Learning Community gained its commendation because of one the sheer complexity of rationalising three special education needs (SEN) schools and a secondary school into a single site on time and within budget and secondly because of the emphasis on the community and total engagement with as many stakeholders as possible. Over 9,300 interactions with pupils took place, and more than 450 hours were donated to school projects. Construction ambassadors were appointed from each of the original four schools to ensure all pupils were engaged. The targeted recruitment and training strategy was particularly ambitious, aiming for 80 new-entrant person weeks per £1 million spent. Thanks to the team’s success in building strong relationships with other agencies, this goal was exceeded by 25 per cent. The project delivered genuine opportunities for 184 previously unemployed people and 83 apprentices and trainees, along with work experience for pupils from the schools involved. As much as 83 per cent of the £39 million project budget was spent in Wales, and 1,422 people were employed from within a 25-mile radius. In the true spirit of collaborative working, the contractor has shared its learning with the wider industry with the aim of improving a new school building within the sector.
