This year’s Procurement Skills Accord Best Practice and Awards Event 2024 was a great success, with 28 companies being recognised for achieving and exceeding the standards of the Accord.
The Procurement Skills Accord was established in 2016, a UK-wide initiative from the Energy & Utilities Skills Partnership and led by industry, tasked to embed skills development within the procurement process, in turn increasing the recognition for suppliers and the investment made by organisations in skills development, helping to support a sustainably skilled sector workforce.
Key achievements made by signatories over the past 8 years include:
- All Partner signatories (asset owners and large contractors) include skills development within at least two of the four areas of procurement* measured under the PSA, with 50% including skills development in all four areas measured.
- Industry feedback confirms that the PSA is responsible for greater collaboration between client and supplier in identifying and addressing common workforce and skills development issues.
- The introduction skills development questions within the Achilles UVDB system.
- 100% of signatories demonstrate they have processes and systems in place to ensure current and future resource requirements can be met, in technical and/or operational activities.
- 100% of signatories are committed to creating social value within the communities they serve, and in some cases, are able to measure the impact of their activities.
*Procurement areas measured as part of the PSA include Pre-Qualification; Tender Evaluation; Contracts; Post Contract Monitoring.
Following these successes and recognising that the principles of the Accord have been embedded within organisations across our sector, the decision has been made to discontinue the Procurement Skills Accord in its current form, instead continuing the work the Accord has achieved with the following activities:
Membership of Energy & Utility Skills offered to existing signatories for an introductory price for 2024-25.
Engaging with government on a version of the proposed “Green Jobs and Skills Charter for Employers” and investigating ways of the supporting the sector in delivering against the framework’s commitment and actions.
As way of celebrating all the achievements seen over the years, the annual Best Practice & Awards event took place on 08 May 2024, hosted by Steve Barrett, Director of Membership and Strategic Engagement, and Phil Beach CBE, Chief Executive of Energy & Utility Skills, which celebrated the achievements made by organisations since the Accord was established and recognised those who have demonstrated their commitment to the Accord.
The event included presentations from three signatory organisations, Anglian Water, HV Solutions and United Utilities, who presented on how the PSA has been embedded within their organisations and what best practice looks like for them, in areas such as supplier collaboration, workforce planning and approach to training and upskilling people in green skills. In addition, and following a rigorous judging process, four companies were awarded with Excellence Awards, recognising how they have excelled in their respective areas.
UK Power Networks – Excellence in Workforce Planning & Training
UK Power Networks provided a comprehensive description on their approach to workforce planning, including their use of bespoke tools and real time data. They demonstrated how their training programmes are driven by their workforce resilience plan, and how they ensure they have appropriate cover for critical roles within the business.
RJ McLeod – Excellence in Social Value
In a category which many companies excelled, RJ McLeod are commended on the activities they undertake to support their local communities.
Morgan Sindall – Excellence in Procurement Processes
Morgan Sindall provided an excellent description of how they embed skills development within all of the procurement processes measured within the Accord – Pre-qualification Questionnaires; Tender Evaluation; Supplier Contracts; and Post Contract Monitoring.
Burns & McDonnell – Excellence in Supplier Engagement
For a second year in receiving an excellence award, Burns & McDonnell demonstrated how they support their supply chain in skills development, holding various dedicated supplier events throughout the year, gather 360 feedback and work collaboratively to address skills challenges.
Phil Beach CBE, Chief Executive, Energy & Utility Skills, “It has been an honour and a privilege to support this project with such dedicated organisations focussed on creating and maintaining sustainability through investment in skills. The results delivered this year and throughout the past 8 years have ensured that skills are now a key consideration in the procurement process of all those participating in the Accord. The next stage of this evolution requires a wider focus on social impact and collaboration on joint initiatives that will support the mitigation of the risk of climate change and delivering the governments net-zero target. I would also like to thank the current Chair, Colin Scott for his unwavering support of the project. Without his dedication and commitment to this collaboration we simply would not have achieved the results we have.”
We’d like to congratulate the following organisations who met the PSA criteria for 2023-24:
- Alpha Construction
- Anglian Water
- Avidety
- Balfour Beatty
- Burns & McDonnell
- Clancy Group
- Dunphy Combustion
- HV Solutions
- Keltbray
- Knights Brown
- Laing O’Rourke
- Lanes Group
- Morgan Sindall
- National Grid
- Network Plus
- Northern Powergrid
- Northumbrian Water
- Pennon Group
- PN Daly
- Prysmian Group
- Public Sewer Services
- RJ McLeod
- Rockmount Utilities
- SSE
- UKPN
- United Utilities
- Wood Group
- WSP