UNCLASSIFIED

Government Property Unit

The Government Soft Landings Policy – September 2012

Executive Summary

The Government Construction Strategy of May 2011 identified the need to improve the value offered by public sector construction and within this soft landings was identified as a way to improve performance of buildings and to meet the requirements of those that use them.

Working under the remit of the Government Construction Board, these objectives have been brought together to develop the Government Soft Landings (GSL) policy.

The ongoing maintenance and operational cost of a building during its lifecycle far outweighs the original capital cost of construction, and GSL identifies the need for this to be recognised through early engagement in the design process.

GSL has been developed during 2011/12, by the Government Property Unit, working with a Task Group of industry specialists. The policy is supported by the GSL Implementation Guide which provides structure and guidance on how to embed and deliver GSL into central government (see Appendix A for GSL document hierarchy).The policy is aligned with the principles and stages recommended by the BIM Task Group.

The recommendation is that this policy should apply to all new Central Government projects and major refurbishments and should be implemented by central government departments during 2013 working towards a mandate in alignment with BIM in 2016.

Application of the policy will be the responsibility of the Central Government Departments and their identified GSL Champion. A GSL Stewardship Group will be established to continue to develop and refine the GSL Implementation Guide, taking on board feedback and lessons learnt from Departments, wider public sector, industry and on-going trial projects.

Objective

As stated in the Government Construction Strategy, May 2011, Soft Landing objective:

Aligning the interests of those who design and construct an asset with those who subsequently use it

Specific Action : Trial introduction of a period (say 3 to 5 years) of post completion proving of the asset by constructors. Note connection with BIM and its potential to connect design and construction information to asset management.

Outcome sought :Project designed and delivered to required operational standards; and to allow asset to operate to the required standard for the whole of its life.

Recommendations to Government Construction Board

  1. Endorse GSL Policy and Implementation Guidance Documents
  2. Agree move of GSL to BIM team for implementation of GSL and alignment of task groups, ensuring that GSL maintains its identity.
  3. Update GSL policy and Implementation Guidance Documents October 2013 and issue updated version with feedback/lessons learnt from GSL trial projects
  4. Identify standard forms of Post Occupancy Evaluation and performance measurement for GSL
  5. Support requirement for GSL Champion’s in each central government department and ongoing membership of Stewardship group
  6. Mandate GSL with BIM in 2016 for all Central Government Department projects.

Benefits of GSL

  • Provides a building that meets the end users needs and required operational outcomes
  • Enables end user involvement at early stages and throughout project
  • Enables early challenge of design decisions that may impact ongoing maintenance and cost of operations
  • The majority of asset expenditure is during the lifecycle of the asset rather than the capital expenditure – this ensures the impact on operational costs are considered early
  • Provides fully populated asset data from COBie to CAFM, reducing the cost of data input to FM Systems
  • Ensures that full training, commissioning and handover provided at early stage and thus reducing the cost of protracted handover and enabling building to reach earlier optimal performance
  • Provides clear measurements for building performance that are monitored up to 3 years post completion with a mechanism for remedy from constructors/designers where performance not met

Early feedback from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) an early adopter of GSL has identified significant savings through the use of GSL on its new build and refurbishment projects, including a seven figure sum saving on one major project. Improvements have been identified in future design and operation of their facilities as a result of applying GSL. MoJ will now be implementing GSL into all its future projects.

Development of Government Soft Landings

GSL has been developed with assistance from the GSL industry task group consisting of members from suppliers (construction and FM), designers, architects, academics, industry bodies, central government departments and public sector representatives.

GSL is aligned to the BSRIA Soft Landings Framework (BSRIA BG4/2009).

The structure of the guidance documents is based around a series of Process Maps aligned to BIM plan of work stages and COBiedata drops. GSL has identified four focus areas where measurements, keyquestions and outputs have been identified along the project timeline. These four areas are as follows:

  1. Functionality and Effectiveness:

Buildings designed to meet the needs of the Occupiers; effective, productive working environments

  1. Environmental:

Meet Government performance targets in energy efficiency, water usage and waste production

  1. Facilities Management:

A clear, cost efficient strategy for managing the operations of the building

  1. Commissioning, Training and Handover:

Projects delivered, handed over and supported to meet the needs of the End Users

In addition, to reinforce the need to focus on End User requirements, a specific guide on how to Design for Aftercare has been developed.

Inherent in the policy is the need to set performance targets, validated throughout the design stages and evaluated post occupancy as the building comes into use. It is recommended that such evaluation should be continued during the first 3 years of occupancy. The purpose is to ensure the building is optimised to meet the needs of the end users, provide feedback to enable informed design decisions on future projects and assess performance of the project team in delivering the objectives of the brief

Fundamental to the concept of GSL is collaborative working and key stakeholder engagement at all stages of the process. End user engagement is delivered through the role of the GSL Champion, embedded into process.

GSL Guiding Principles

•GSL will be a key element of the design and construction process maintaining the ‘golden thread’ of the building purpose through to delivery and operation

  • Early engagement of end user and inclusion of GSL champion on project team during the design/construction process
  • Commitment to aftercare post construction from design and construction team
  • Post occupancy evaluation and feedback to design/construction team and lessons learnt captured for future projects
  • BIM will provide a fully populated asset data set to feed into CAFM systems and modelling will enable planning modifications, this data will need to be maintained throughout the building life cycle

Implementation

Financial value does not dictate how and to what intensity the process should be applied to each specific project (there is no lower limit on financial value which triggers implementation).

The policy and implementation guidance documents are all designed around collaborative working. They are governed through approval and sign off to all key decisions, aligned to the BIM Key Decisions and Data Drops. Hence, there is no need to define capital value as to when to apply GSL, or describe when or how each of the key focus areas are to be adopted specific to each project; that decision making is built into the process – the stakeholders decide how to apply GSL specific to each project

It is the responsibility of each Central Government Department to implement the policy. Successful implementation will be through identification of GSL Champion(s) who will ensure that GSL is applied to the department projects and become members of the GSL Stewardship Group. It is the responsibility of departments Heads of Estate/Construction to ensure that GSL Champion(s) are identified and put in place during 2013.

The GSL Champions will be identified from within existing departmental estate/FM/construction roles with knowledge and experience of Facilities Management and building operations, they will represent the needs of the end user within the project team. The department will ensure that each project has a GSL champion on the project team.

Governance

GSL is governed by the Government Construction Board.

Ownership of GSL October 2012 onwards will move to the BIM Task Group led by Mark Bew. This is to ensure that BIM and GSL are in total alignment and work towards the combined mandate in 2016.

Head of Facilities Management, Deborah Rowland from the Government Property Unit will continue to be the key central government stakeholder and owner for FM and will remain as a member on the BIM Steering Group as well as the Government Construction Board.

The GSL Stewardship group will become the legacy group for ongoing ownership of GSL.

Alignment with best practice

GSL does not, and cannot, operate in isolation from other procedures, standards and statutory guidelines. It is designed to be inclusive and add value to standard design processes:

  • Implementation and stewardship will continue to be supported by the Government Soft Landings Stewardship Group and BIM task group
  • Industry best practice will be fed through the BIM4 groups and BIM Regional Hubs, Construction Industry Council and FM Industry organisations.

The following documents, developed by the Usable Buildings Trust and BSRIA, are useful for understanding the origins, principles and generic recommendations around the Soft Landings concept:

The Soft Landings Framework – BSRIA BG 4/2009

The Soft Landings Core Principles – BSRIA BG38/2012

Ongoing GSL Development

  • Develop GSL communications plan internal (departments) and external (FM/Construction industry) – BIM is a tool for GSL – benefits to FM to be articulated - joined up approach with industry bodies – BIM regional hubs and BIM4 groups to embrace GSL. GSL to maintain its identity.
  • Identify standard Post Occupancy Evaluation methods and forms of measurement for GSL
  • Identify contractual method and measurements for tie back to design and construction– explore extended defects liability (e.g. Procure21) – virtual trias with Willmott Dixon and Laing O’Rourke with support from NEC.
  • Monitor and track benefits of GSL in trial projects and feedback lessons learnt to update policy and guidance documents
  • Develop standard approach to input data from COBie to CAFM systems
  • GSL for infrastructure to be developed with support from ICE

Appendix A - GSL Document Hierarchy

UNCLASSIFIED