North West businesses celebrate success with framework wins

Mike Forsyth of Safer Sphere

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) has launched its new Construction Consultancy Framework and St Helens Construction (Design and Management) safety specialists Safer Sphere have been appointed as one of the successful consultants.

The framework is open to both the NHS and the wider public sector and allows them to access a variety of services from civil engineering to principal designer advisors.

The four-year framework is expected to save the public sector around £16m and supplies the clients with a fully compliant route for public sector purchasing, as they will gain access to construction consultancy services that have already undergone a thorough procurement process.

The new framework replaces the older framework that was awarded in 2014 and has saved the public sector in excess of £12m.

Last year, more than 300 organisations purchased construction consultancy services via the NHS SBS framework, with almost two-thirds (66%) being non-NHS organisations.

Mike Forsyth, managing director of Safer Sphere said: “We are delighted to have been appointed alongside other great industry professionals on this framework. We have been fortunate enough to work alongside various NHS Trusts and local authorities, and this framework opens up even more opportunities to work alongside both current and new clients.”

The framework is now active and has more than 100 core members and in excess of 800 associate members ranging from housing associations to NHS Trusts across the UK.

Meanwhile, Manchester-based Dooley Associates has secured a place on two influential procurement frameworks this month: The Heritage Lottery Fund’s Register of Support Services and the National Health Service’s Share Business Services, both for a duration of four years.

The firm, which was established in 2003 by Brendan Dooley, also operates additional offices in Birmingham and London.

Dooley Associates’ place on the NHS’s SBS Framework means that it can be called on to provide quantity surveying, project management and principal designer roles on projects up to £10m in the North West, West Midlands and London areas. The new framework comes into operation in May.

The HLF RSS’s Strategic Funding Framework launches this month and will operate for a period of five years.

The new framework will be UK-wide and will have fewer consultants registered than in previous years to ensure a better return on investment for HLF and support decision making and delivery of the projects that it funds through its grant process.

Consultant appointments will be relative to the nature of the risk for the HLF of a particular project.

Current and recent clients for Dooley Associates include Manchester Cathedral, where it project managed a number of complex heritage projects; a £12.5m veterans care village for Broughton House in Salford; working with Craigleith and EasyHotels on a 109-bed Chester hotel development; with the Shangri-La Hotel in London; and recent appointments by The Derwent Group.

Mr Dooley said: “As we hit our 15 year anniversary this year it’s testament to our strong growth over recent years that we’ve been successful in achieving a place on these two important frameworks having worked with both the NHS and the HLF on individual projects in the past.

“We’re looking forward to more formally addressing winning work from these important clients as we continue to expand and grow in the coming years.”

Dooley Associates works across all sectors – industrial, mixed-use, residential, retail/leisure, commercial, education, health, heritage – has particular experience in the hotel sector where it has operated in Prague and Russia during its evolution, and is currently on a three-year expansion plan.

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