Positive treatment, please

Even the briefest of glances over QS News confirms the considerable changes the QS profession is experiencing. These changes are symptomatic of a lively and evolving profession; change is often associated with opportunity, and currently, a feast of opportunities abound for QSs.

One such opportunity is the need for action to change and challenge the negative cheapest price mentality for so long (mistakenly?) associated with QSs. This accords with the government policy report, Improving Public Services through better construction (www.nao.org.uk), which aims “to achieve value for money through efficient construction processes that deliver buildings to time, cost and quality, that are cost effective to run over their operational life, and lead to better quality services and sustainable communities.”

In addition, more specifically, “there are other pressures on departments to improve their construction performance. Departments are required to deliver 2.5% annual improvements in efficiency from 2005-06 onwards, and will need to demonstrate that they can deliver construction cost efficiently, as well as ensuring that new infrastructure contributes to efficient public services.”

Discarding reticence about their successes is essential if QSs are to play their key role in propelling forward this changed agenda - it’s no easy option. The risks associated with being a champion for change have long been known.

For example, in his treatise The Prince, published in 1531, Machiavelli wrote:-

“The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new.”

Discarding reticence about their successes is essential if QSs are to play their key role in... this changed agenda

While QSs are not normally involved with changing the state’s constitution, they must raise their profile if they want to pursue these opportunities as advocates of change. They must manage the ‘soft’ issues associated with cultural change as well as the more familiar ‘hard’ technical issues.

An example of resolute ‘action’ can be seen in the work of the QSs in both NHS Estates and construction industry supply chains who have put into practice the Procure 21 initiative. There are now over 200 of these schemes at various stages of development with a total value in excess of £2bn.

This is a radical approach to achieving value for money and for the NHS patients. It promotes partnering, benchmarking, best design and best client practice – anything but a cheapest price mentality. It is considered to be an exemplar of good practice, in improving public services through better construction, by the National Audit Office and is being emulated elsewhere by other public sector and private clients.

The work of these QSs results in patients receiving treatment sooner, in better environments than would otherwise be the case; surely it’s worth facing the risks associated with innovation for results like these?