Galliford Try’s Post

Transcript

Thank you for joining me, Claire, can you please let people know what you do and how long you've been working in the education sector for please? Thanks, James, and thanks for this opportunity for a conversation. So I'm the education director, Gallagher Try. We'll remain contractor very active in the education sector. So we're currently got 50 projects, live projects in pre construction and. Instruction across England and Scotland, so that gives you some idea of the scale of of the work. My role is I have an overview of all of the education sector, looking at sharing best practices and innovation across all of the projects in the company and I have a particular responsibility for the Department for Education framework. I've been working in the education sector since exclusively since 2007, moved across from social housing sector where I worked as a surveyor and project manager and then I joined the contracting side initially as a preconstruction manager. So we'll jump in with the first question, which has been left by Julian Robinson from LSE. Julian asks, do contractors undertake their own formal post occupancy evaluation with say clients, architects and consultants? It's normally something that I do as a client by commissioning an outside party to do. It would be really good if contractors did that. No contract has ever come to me and said we would like to do a post occupancy evaluation. That's a great question. Thanks Julian. And I think it's a real shame that he's never been asked to take part in any post occupancy evaluation at the LSC, particularly as these commissioned some amazing iconic buildings and that's a real opportunity missed for everyone involved in those projects. But yes, we do undertake post occupancy evaluation and I'm currently involved in a project which is ongoing where we're looking at our special needs schools. We've got quite an extensive portfolio of special schools that we've been working on over the last two to three years. We've currently got 18 projects that were involved in and I actually spoke about some of the initial feedback last year at Education Estates conference. So as part of that post occupancy evaluation, we undertake a structured conversation with the school. We have a tour of the building, we do an online survey of all the staff and then we produce a report on the particular school. But we also look at themes, so highlight areas for improvement for us as the contractor but for our designers. And also to kind of take back to the client and look at look at areas for improvement and just make sure that that voice of the end user is very much part of the kind of circle of lessons learned that we need to take into account. Thank you. And yeah, it's really important to learn the lessons and help shape future projects going forward. So there we go. Other contractors listen to this if you are working with Lisa or got projects coming up to do lots of bits with your clients. So we'll jump a little bit onto actually your role. Then girlfriend kind of projects you've recently been involved in. If you were to sort of pick out sort of one or two projects that you're most proud of, what would they be and why? It's quite difficult, isn't it? It's like being asked who's your, which is your favorite child, you know? I think I'm probably most proud of the projects that had the biggest kind of impact. And that isn't necessarily about size. So thinking about, again, the special schools and alternative provision schools and facilities that we've been involved in, that can have the most impact for the students and the staff, but also for the families. And I was on a recent visit at a completed special school where I was told that there was a young woman who was now back in school. Hadn't actually been in school for years and just the effect of the facilities that were now available and, and kind of getting, being able to kind of get her back into a kind of learning environment. I think that's, that's really something that I won't forget. You know, that's a very proud moment for for us and for the project team on on that project. But there's also a project that not so recent, probably my first project at Gallagher trial, which was actually 10 years ago now. There's a project called Harris Invictus Academy and I started working on it on my first day at Galliford Try, so it's quite memorable from that point of view. Very challenging project and very tight sight in Croydon where the planning authority wanted a landmark building with civic presence, which was quite a challenge with the funding available. But also it's a bit of a challenge to the operation of the school because it was on a High Street. But the whole team kind of worked really well, really collaboratively to make that successful. Project and we actually won a project of the year education states in 2018. So that's one that I'm really proud of as well. Thank you and congratulations winning that award. So we're going to move on to sort of the sector now and so over the next year or so. What do you think are the biggest challenges in the education sector faces and why in your opinion? I think we've got a range of challenges, hasn't we when we look at the condition of the the existing estate, but if I sort of focused on. Maybe the design and build of the new facilities that we're working on. I think there's two areas of challenge that we're currently probably not really addressing and, and one is again around special needs, but in terms of requirements within the mainstream school settings and also the crisis within with the mental health and well-being of young people. So we're seeing an increase in children and young people with with education, health and care plans, but there's also a whole range of children in mainstream schools who. Have special needs whose needs are not being met, although they are being met, they're being met quite differently in different parts of the country, which is probably slightly different conversation, but. Looking at. The mainstream settings, there's also a huge concern around sort of mental health crisis within young people and and whilst that needs to be addressed by the health service, I think there's also quite a lot that could be done in schools if resources were available. So the implications for the buildings and the design is how do we sort of design and build more inclusive environments, What does that look like, what does that mean for the facilities and how do we include space? And areas to improve mental health. Um, so that the support. When the support and the resources are available, you know, that can be provided within the kind of spaces and the designs that we that we've managed to achieve. And then on the flip side, sort of what you think are the biggest opportunities and that that the sector has and, and why I think that links back to Juliano's question actually around sharing knowledge, because we've got a huge community of really experienced and sort of innovative, innovative and very committed professionals working within education. Sector and so we've got this opportunity to learn from each other and and share experiences and I think over the last sort of. Three to four years in particular, you know, it's been a really challenging time since 2020, but looking at one area in particular around sustainability and low carbon design, reducing the energy consumption of our buildings, we've been on this really steep learning curve, but because we've worked together and actually shared knowledge and information, we've we've actually made some massive. Steps towards US net net zero commitments so I think you know that is the opportunity for us as a sector is that is that sharing of knowledge Ohh totally going it's you know you can you can see that at our conferences and others and that kind of coming together with the sector with a shared desired goal of delivering the best learning environments we can for the peoples and students from across the UK. So if I may I'm going to ask you a question about education states now Gallagher try have been our longest term sponsor along with our. Lead us right back in the beginning when we first came up the concept of event, your predecessor Michael, and then sort of most recently yourself. You've been great supporters of us and helped shape the program and judge the awards and really sort of throw the full might of the GT team behind the event. So thank you. In terms of attendees and people watching this that may not necessarily have been to education states, what would you say that they would get out of attending nation states? So we've loved supporting Education Estates and being part of that. Kind of journey of seeing the event, we think now really grow into the most important kind of education focused event in in England and Scotland during the year. It's our sort of key highlight of the year. And I think there's there's so many opportunities at a range of levels to sort of come together. Reconnect with people who already know, Meet people that you've not met before, have kind of just informal conversations or attend a presentation, attend a workshop. There's so much to take part in over the two days and so much that. So much going on that you don't have the opportunity to take part and everything that you actually want to. So it's quite difficult sometimes to choose which which sessions you're gonna go to. But I also really enjoy the awards dinner and evening. Not just to celebrate anything that GTA Gallagher has been involved in, but actually just to see the whole range of amazing projects that have taken place and are being sort of celebrated that evening. I think it's a real highlight for the sector. Thank you. And those those people that want to find out a bit more. Not gather, try either visit the website or come to Education States and see Claire and her team on the stand. They always put a fabulous stand on and have a very welcoming reception for you there. So can you share something about yourself that the audience may not already know Claire? So I've been a very keen kind of practitioner of yoga for many years. And one of the things that I did in one of the lockdowns, and I think it was 2021 and I probably wouldn't have done this if the fact that we actually had to stay at home and therefore. I kind of, you know, wasn't busy running up and down the country was that I did my foundation course to become the first step to becoming a yoga teacher. So you never know in a future life, I might be, I might be taking that journey further. My next conversation with Joe Marchant, estates professional at the Boxing Academy. What question would you like me to ask Joe during our conversation? So firstly, congratulations to Joe on our MBA, amazing and very well deserved. And I think, you know, I also hope that this, the awarding of the the NBA raises the profile of all school business professionals. And as someone who was previously a school governor and hopefully will be a school governor again in the future, I'd like to ask Joe, what does she think would be the most help to school business professionals in their very challenging role? And and if that is too difficult a question, then maybe top three kind of tips for for for school professionals. Thank you. I'll put that question to Joe and Claire. Thank you very much for joining me. Thank you. That you and your team do and we look forward to seeing you in Manchester in October and as they do pop by and see Claire and a team on their stand. So thank you. Thank you.