SOCIAL VALUE IN ACTION
WEST LONDON COMMUNITIES BENEFIT FROM TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
We talk about the two industrial facilities at Prologis Park West London on page 9 and this project also required the creation and delivery of a social value strategy. The drivers for our commitments were Prologis’ Supply Chain Charter – which commits to a minimum of 20% Social and Local Economic Value (SLEV) of the overall contract value using the national TOMs – and the Section 106 agreement’s specification of an Employment and Training Strategy tailored to meet the local needs of Hillingdon Borough residents.
Prologis set the tone for community engagement early on in the project when it offered charities, schools and support groups free office furniture that had been left in the GSK building and when engaged, we started working collaboratively with QualifyMe – Hillingdon Council’s coordination service – to fulfil the local employment and training targets on the project. Targets exceeded across the board:
- 285 weeks of local employment have been delivered, exceeding the project target of 100 weeks
- 30 weeks of work placement
- 17 community engagement activities
- 7 local people started training opportunities at the site, contributing 92 training weeks.
Winvic team members ran a STEM activity at a school careers fair that involved building a wall to hold a specific weight, so the students had to consider the foundations. The careers event was structured so that all year groups could attend and throughout the day in excess of 900 students attended along with many of their parents. A local student from Brunel University completed his Year In Industry placement with us and we hosted 10 college students on site to learn about mechanical and electrical installation. We also provided and installed a new gate for a local nursery, which ensured the site was secure and our team donated items to a local foodbank.
weeks of local employment delivered
David Ribbands, Director, Development Management Prologis UK
“Prologis takes great care to be a good neighbour, being a force for good and positively contributing to our communities. These are values shared with Winvic who, as a trusted partner, worked to deliver our ESG, sustainability and social value goals during the construction of Prologis Park West London DC5 & DC6.”
Heidi Salmons, Head of Marketing, Communications and Social Responsibility, Winvic
“Winvic has made a pledge to make long-lasting and positive legacies in the places in which it works and when coupled with targets specified by our clients and Section 106 agreements, the impact on the community is even greater; from providing on-site employment and training opportunities to educating the next generation about construction careers and sustainability. By working closely with Prologis, supply chain partners, Hillingdon Borough Council and QualifyMe we’ve been able to exceed the social value targets at Prologis Park West London and I couldn’t be prouder of our one-team effort.”
705 SOCIAL VALUE WEEKS DELIVERED ABOVE THE 513 WEEK TARGET AT KNOWSLEY
Winvic completed a fulfilment centre in July 2022 at Knowsley Business Park. Our client was PLP, and the occupier of the unit is Amazon, but we also worked closely with Knowsley Council’s award-winning social value delivery intermediary, Fusion21, Knowsley Chamber of Commerce, and of course our subcontract partners to deliver social value commitments.
Our dedicated project and social value teams worked as one with partners to collaboratively deliver activities through a tailored approach to meet local needs and best possible outcomes for the local area. Target met, plus another 700 social value weeks:
- 1,218 social value weeks have been delivered, exceeding the project target of 513 weeks
- 37 local residents were employed – from labourers to electricians to a health and safety manager – during construction
- 7 local Knowsley businesses were contracted
- 3 charities were supported
- 1 Apprentice worked on site
A local catering company who were facing collapse during the pandemic were contracted to cater for up to 100 construction workers each day.
We worked with our subcontractors to support a range of local community projects including providing bark mulch, timber posts, a new trampoline and a playhouse, and repainting the walls at a local community garden / playground. We supported a local primary school by relaying the block paving in the playground and repairing damaged high-level soffits. Six park benches were donated to Ormside Education Centre in Cumbria, which offers Kirkby and Knowsley school pupils the chance to take part in a three-day residential trip packed with fun educational activities at no cost to the young people and their families. We coordinated some brilliant community asset work for local food charity Incredible Edible. This included repairing the park bandstand so that it can be used for local community events and installing a doorbell so local residents can access the site more easily and safely. To promote physical and mental wellbeing within the workforce, an Occupational Health Day was held on site; 40 health checks were carried out including height, weight, blood pressure cholesterol and blood sugar. Winvic was highly commended for its efforts to benefit the local community at the Knowsley Business Awards.
social value weeks have been delivered
Keith Wilson, Development Director at PLP
“When PLP invested in Knowsley, Fusion 21 was instrumental in helping to introduce us to some fantastic local businesses and when Winvic came on board as the main contractor, they continued to prioritise activities that would benefit the local community. Winvic stood out as being committed to being a responsible business in partnership with Fusion 21 and the local authority’s service we are proud to have left a lasting positive, social, environmental and economic legacy in Knowsley.”
260 LOCAL PEOPLE EMPLOYED ACROSS TWO PROJECTS IN KETTERING
Winvic worked with Fusion 21 again on the social value strategy at SEGRO Park Kettering Gateway along with client SEGRO and North Northamptonshire Council’s Social Value through Planning service, Fusion21. At the site we were constructing three industrial facilities for SEGRO including a beverage packaging plant facility for aluminium can manufacturer Ball.
Targets exceeded once again:
- 436 social value weeks have been delivered, exceeding the project target of 249 weeks – two SEGRO facilities alone
- 70 people living within a 20-mile radius were employed on these two units
- 190 full-time roles were undertaken by local residents on the adjacent Ball site
- Between both projects, 49 local companies were engaged to undertake work, also supplemented by those people using local services and accommodation
- Three local A-level students completed on-site work placements
We welcomed one of our Year In Industry students to the site as a Trainee Quantity Surveyor; he featured in a South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership campaign called Real Role Models where he spoke about his experience. During Women in Construction Week, we helped launch a new pathways programme that engaged 30 local girls across Northampton to consider a career in construction; some of our female team members took part in presentations and practical activities and this led to a bespoke discovery workshop to inspire further students from one of the schools who attended the event. Teams from both projects donated their time to Burton Latimer Allotment Association’s spring and autumn Big Allotment Clean Ups along with a skip and we donated a selection of tools for their raffle. We also partnered with social enterprise Community Wood Recycling, which provides work and training opportunities to disadvantaged people; 7.2 tonnes of wood was rescued from the waste stream – which is a saving of 4 tonnes of CO2 – and from this, 2.4 tonnes was reused and 4.8 tonnes recycled.
local companies were engaged to undertake work
CAREERS INSPIRED, LOCAL BUSINESSES ENGAGED AND HONEY MADE AT BRACKMILLS
In West Northamptonshire, we constructed three Net Zero industrial units at Brackmills Gateway for Newlands Developments.
Rather unusually, approximately 2,000 bees had roles on site! Biodiversity was a key consideration within the Environmental Strategy so when we found out that the gatekeeper was also an avid beekeeper, beehives were relocated to behind the site cabins. The colony developed over a short period of time and our man in the know was able to extract honey from the hive and distribute it between the site team. Upon competition of the project, the bees were then relocated. And again:
- 350 social value weeks have been delivered, exceeding the project target of 257 weeks
- 45 local residents obtained full-time roles on the site
- 23 businesses from within a 20-mile radius were contracted
- Another 47 people were employed from the wider county impact area
Members of the Winvic team attended a construction future skills exhibition at Moulton College for students to learn about new and innovative technologies currently being used in the sector and about different career pathways. We took a VR headset along so that the students could virtually walk around a completed warehouse and find out how a Digital Engineer uses Building Information Modelling (BIM) and 3D technologies.
The headset was also well received at a STEAM Northants event where we also showcased our 3D health and safety hazards game and at a college career fair we spoke to students about the different types of career pathways and placements there are available. We also donated materials to a nearby Special Educational Needs school so that the students who were learning how to lay bricks, could build their own wall outside the school; two young people were so inspired that they have since started a brick laying course at college. Thanks to the relationship built during the Brackmills project, we’re delighted to extend our collaboration with Billing Brook School to other Winvic projects within the Northampton area.
local residents obtained full-time roles
Sarah Maguire, Head of Social Value at Fusion21
“We were delighted to work in partnership with Winvic to deliver social value that made a real difference to local people and their communities. Winvic is extremely proactive in its delivery of positive social impact and Brackmills Gateway is a great example of how it goes the extra mile.”
THE WINVIC ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME – A BLUEPRINT FOR HANDS ON STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
The Winvic Enrichment Programme helps our clients and education providers to meet their ESG and enrichment activity aims, but also upskills and improves the confidence of students in further education. Four programmes have been delivered since May 2023 in partnership with three colleges and several of our subcontractors; they have also led to subsequent professional development training with tutors who wanted the opportunity to get hands themselves with the very latest real-world scenarios and technology.
You can read more about our most recent cohort of Design, Surveying and Planning T-Level students from Walsall College in a recent new release - feedback from tutors and students was outstanding. Our social value, HR and training teams are always considering new ways to make long-lasting, positive impacts in the communities where we work, and the Enrichment Programme is just another one of our innovative ideas. We identified how The Hub facility at Prologis’ DIRFT in Northamptonshire could be utilised for construction upskilling and training and we had conversations with college tutors about the benefits of hands-on interactions – the notion of a series of sessions started to come together. However, we’re always ambitious and we decided to go further and craft a full-on flexible programme that could work for colleges up and down the country. Our menu of activities considers the broad qualifications, career paths and roles within construction – both from a main contractor’s point of view and specialist trades – and also contains sessions beneficial for all young people, such as CV writing. Importantly it’s flexible to meet the needs of colleges and their students; for example, engineering students have different requirements to those studying construction management or a trade.
Programmes can be arranged for consecutive days in one week or across a few weeks, so please contact traning@winvic.co.uk if you think our programme could benefit your students or help meet your enrichment activity or ESG aims.
Kayleigh Merritt, Winvic’s Talent Development Manager
“We have been working to shape the Winvic Enrichment Programme for some time with subcontractors, clients and colleges, so it’s exciting to see it coming to life with students already giving wonderful feedback. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do at Winvic and our experience in delivering social value activities illustrates that you can always do more and benefit more people when you work together. The Winvic Enrichment Programme supports the objectives of our clients and building occupiers, further education providers – offering numerous qualifications – and students who want to be work ready, armed with practical experience and accomplished soft skills. I’d like to thank everyone who has been involved so far and I’m looking forward to rolling the five-day initiative out to many more projects in the future.”
A HANDFUL OF AWARDS FROM THE CONSIDERATE CONSTRUCTORS SCHEME
We have just been awarded six Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) Leading Lights Awards this November and we celebrated a whole host of top mark scores from the CCS evaluators during 2023. Naturally those site teams are over the moon, but we wanted to say a special thank you in Winvic Word to every single person across our business, as the smallest contribution helps us to achieve great things. Under the Community banner, we won two Community Enrichment awards and one Community Engagement award for our strategies and activities that are making a positive and long-lasting impact to people who live and work near to our projects. One was for the Winvic Enrichment Programme, which we talk about above, the second for Corkfield in Edgbaston (see page 16 and 17) and the third for SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton (see page 6). The latter was also given an Energy Efficiency and overall site Environment award for its Net Zero strategy. Also under CCS’s Environment pillar our adoption of an AI-enabled Combined Noise and Dust Monitor has been recognised with a Natural Environment Enhancement award. You can also read about this outstanding recognition of our team’s work in a recent news release.
TOP MARKS FOR TOP TEAMS – 45/45 CCS SCORES
The DZ3 project at IM Properties’ Hinckley Park has just been completed in November 2023 and comprises a speculative 340,000 sq ft BREEAM Excellent and EPC A logistics and manufacturing unit with office space totalling 17,000 sq ft. The CCS assessors awarded the project 45 out of 45 on both visits in March and July.
“It is apparent from the site visit that the project team takes great pride in its work and that promoting a positive industry image is part of the company’s culture. The project team, together with the client, gives the utmost consideration to the impact the site has on its neighbours and the public.” CCS Assessor Units 3 and 4, which make up the completed Phase 1 at Symmetry Park, also received top marks in June and September of this year. You can read all about this project as well the second phase that is due to be handed over before Christmas on page 8. A project for Prologis at DIRFT III containing two industrial facilities of 660,000 sq ft and 330,000 sq ft achieved 45//45 in April 2023. “It is clear that the site team are engaging with the CCS Code of Conduct. The activity has scored excellent throughout the checklist” CCS Assessor Holloway Head is one of our five Birmingham multi-room projects and in September 2023 the site team welcomed the CCS assessor to site; we were delighted to be awarded full marks. What’s interesting about this project is that the split site was home to Girlguiding Birmingham, so we constructed one building to the seventh floor so they could relocate to their new state-of-the-art ground floor premises. The old Girlguiding HQ on the north side could then be demolished and construction of a second tower could commence. The 484 build-to-rent scheme will be handed over to client Invesco in two sectional completions; the south side of the site will be handed over in Spring 2024 and the north site will reach practical completion in late Winter 2025.
“Community wise provision of general information is excellent which is tracked and recorded by project team. Excellent to here that the project objectives are to contribute to the local economy with provision of employment opportunities. Project updates are on social media and Winvic project website. Protection for the environment is excellent. Provision of facilities for the workforce is excellent. There is comprehensive commitment for fair treatment of all. There is an excellent provision of training available to all operatives. Excellent to see promotion of construction industry.” CCS Assessor Those aren’t all, there were seven other projects that were awarded 45 out of 45 and you can read about some of them across this issue of Winvic Word. SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton (see page 6), Prologis Park West London, both the build-to-rent and student accommodation projects at Redcliff Quarter (see page 14), Redditch Gateway, St Modwen Park Chippenham and Peddimore (see page 9) all impressed the CCS assessors.
SITES RECEIVED FULL MARKS
Emma Alderman, CSR Manager
“We're immensely proud that Winvic's commitment to both respecting and enhancing communities has been acknowledged, earning us two CCS Leading Lights Awards for Community Enrichment and one for Community Engagement. Furthermore, our business wide focus through our Community pillar, has seen 13 sites – and 17 audits in total –achieve full marks from CCS assessors in 2023. This recognition reflects our expertise in tailoring engagement and social value activities to deliver meaningful positive impacts. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do, it's a collective endeavour involving internal departments, site teams, our clients, the supply chain, and local stakeholders.”
Ian Goodhead, HSEQ Director
“Winvic has been strived to meet the standards of the Considerate Constructors Scheme for seven years as safety, the environment, our workforce, the community and the appearance of sites are all important elements in doing our job right. The awards and recognition we have received during 2023 is a testament to our people’s commitment across every department. I want to sincerely thank the team for their dedication, belief in collaboration and being at the forefront of considerate construction.”