Sometimes the long term benefits of a collaborative approach and working through integrated teams is not always very obvious. Indeed, from a CEW team point of view, whilst we intrinsically know it makes sense and we advocate collaborative working from the outset of a scheme, our instincts need evidence to support our claims.

Llanwern High School is an Exemplar – it has evidence in spades to prove our ongoing campaign for collaborative procurement and team working delivers value for end users, communities and Wales. Indeed, it does not matter how big or how small or the degree of technical difficulty in a project – the principle we argue for remains the same.

Hence, whilst the Wylfa Nuclear project in Anglesey is a very different proposition from Llanwern High School lessons can be shared. Llanwern was built with an awareness of the impact of the scheme during construction on local people and the local construction supply chain. The client and the lead contractor addressed the economic, social and environmental sustainability concerns – specifically community benefits – because of the pre-planning and team work advocated throughout the project. This is what must happen at Wylfa. The Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) is too big a scheme to be planned in isolation of the rest of north Wales, let alone the impact upon Anglesey. To be a success, Wylfa and schemes like it have to be procured via a collaborative model that focuses on value and whole life costs and not immediate short term price gains.