South East Consortium, a non-profit organisation that supports over 100 public sectors buyers per year to procure services, has refreshed and increased its support of Building a Safer Future (BSF) with the aim of encouraging the industry to sign up as a Registered Signatory of the BSF Charter and subsequently embark on the BSF Champions assessment process.
The two organisations share a common goal in supporting organisations on their building safety improvement journey, and intend to continue working together over the coming months, exploring opportunities for further alignment and collaboration, and promoting the message of the BSF Charter and the benefits of engaging at both Registered Signatory and Champion status.
The consortium has 16 frameworks that renew every four years, covering opportunities right across the south east of England, and work with suppliers ranging from SMEs to Tier 1 contractors on contracts worth from £15k up to £100m. They have embedded requirements for organisations to engage with BSF as a Registered Signatory in several of their frameworks since last year, and ask suppliers to demonstrate their competence and financial standing in addition to their adherence to building safety.
David Ashby, Head of Operations at South East Consortium, commented:
“In 2022 South East Consortium prepared a report called Procuring for Building Safety that provided guidance to procurement professional, their Directors and teams, in which we identified changing the culture as a key message. This is also very much at the heart of what BSF does and we therefore wanted to support the aims of BSF by working together and promoting the work of BSF. In order to do this we have now included both ‘Building a Safer Future Champion’ Assessment and ‘Registered Signatory’ status as requirements at different levels within our procurement frameworks. South East Consortium wants to work towards supporting our Members in changing culture and bringing higher levels of competence and we are glad to support the work that BSF is doing.”
Gary Townsend Vila, Interim Chief Executive of BSF commented:
“South East Consortium have taken a clear leadership role in spreading the word about the required culture change in the industry in regards to building safety, and BSF have clearly aligned strategic commitments in this area. We are looking forward to continuing to work with them as a like-minded organisation in encouraging the industry to put the safety of their building users and residents first. We encourage other procurement frameworks to get involved and help build an open, committed and collaborative community of organisations working together for the common good.”
Organisations can apply to become a Registered Signatory of the BSF Charter to start their journey towards achieving building safety culture change. These organisations declare, at the highest level, that they are committed to supporting the principles of the Charter and putting safety first.
The BSF Champion assessment is a higher level of engagement, giving companies detailed insight into their existing leadership and culture around building safety and equipping them with actionable data and practical tools to help review and upgrade processes, driving meaningful and measurable improvement in leadership and culture around building safety.
Companies can apply to either become a Registered Signatory of the BSF Charter or participate in the BSF Champions programme by visiting the Building a Safer Future website on www.buildingasaferfuture.org.uk and completing the application form, or alternatively emailing alexander.caller@buildingasaferfuture.org.uk
