Programme and Project Management

Developing a clear vision, forming an agreed corporate strategy and creating robust business plans are all prerequisites for the effective deployment of capital and revenue expenditure programmes.

Faber Maunsell’s Programme & Project management team work closely with the client’s in-house team, developing clarity in corporate objectives, undertaking feasibility analysis, reviewing affordability, and helping to secure authorisation for expenditure programmes.

The team’s initial approach is strategic, with its effectiveness reinforced at a tactical level by sound implementation through good project management processes. The team is supported by access to specialists within Faber Maunsell’s own Buildings, Environmental and Transportation Divisions.

Our approach

The methods by which private and public organisations develop, manage, enhance and maintain their property assets are changing. In place of individual discete projects – a single new school, a new store, a new office – they are extending their portfolios by means of long term transformational programmes, driven by broad strategic objectives.

For public sector bodies, this change is expressed in programmes such as ‘Building Schools for the Future’, through which the Government aims to refurbish or rebuild all the secondary schools in England over the next 15 years – a far cry from the one-off ‘firefighting’ approach which characterised education procurement in the past.

For private sector companies, a key challenge is to remain competitive in markets that are under pressure from overseas competitors benefiting from lower cost bases. To thrive in these circumstances and to compete globally, companies need to be agile, scaleable and innovative. For example, if an opportunity arises to expand into new overseas markets, directors must rapidly analyse the costs, benefits and risks, before deciding whether to rent, buy or build their own local premises. Speed may be of the essence, but even a rapid decision must be based on solid data and robust evaluation.

Faber Maunsell is well established as a full service consultancy with its roots in building design, transportation planning and engineering, and environmental management. Experience in these overlapping sectors has given us first-hand understanding of the financial, commercial, legal and operational dynamics of individual projects and longer term programmes.

We have established a specialist Programme & Project Management team, staffed by senior consultants with knowledge and experience of procurement options, financial structures and investment vehicles, in addition to specialist construction and facilities management expertise.

This breadth of management experience is supported by the specialist engineering, planning and consultancy skills that are available to the Programme & Project Management team from within the three divisions of Faber Maunsell itself – enabling the team to consistently add value on behalf of the client at every stage, from strategic thinking to technical planning and design.

Service delivery

The range of services that the Programme & Project Management team provide to clients is already extensive and is constantly expanding as our clients face new commercial, financial, regulatory and operational challenges.

In the public sector, we provide strategic support to clients from inception of projects through to completion. In the education field, for example, we are members of the Partnerships for Schools Technical Advisors framework and on the DfES Academies Project Management framework. As the Government pursues its objective of transforming secondary education through a major long-term capital investment programme, we are well placed to support Local Education Authorities over the next decade.

Our consultants are engaged by funding authorities to monitor and manage the risk of the debt and equity exposure of PFI/PPP projects. Contractors and service providers rely on us to support tender preparation and financial closure. Local government use our technical advisors for specific phases of projects or on a rolling basis throughout a programme of works.

For local and central government we provide a range of ‘multi-disciplinary’ services to support capital investment programmes, from small scale refurbishment of civic facilities to sustainable new build schemes.

We work closely with our clients to develop the initial brief in alignment with their strategic objectives.

We then support the internal capital authorisation process and manage the delivery of design and construction activities before handing over a completed facility. Typically, the objectives will focus on the scope of work, budget, schedule, risks, technology, financing, planning and land-related issues. We aim to add value by applying proven management practices, based upon PRINCE2®, to integrate discrete project elements into a cohesive and flexible whole.

The following services are typical components of our consulting service:

• Business case preparation
• Feasibility analysis
• Budget estimating
• Design management
• Change and claims control
• Constructability reviews
• Construction supervision
• Consultant co-ordination
• Contracting strategy
• Detailing estimating
• Detailing scheduling
• Procurement
• Value engineering
• Risk assessment and management
• Handover management
• Post-occupancy evaluation

Our clients

• Local and Central Government
• Senior debt and equity providers
• PFI/PPP consortia
• Contractors
• Service providers
• Commercial developers
• Owner / Occupiers
• Higher Education
• NHS / Primary Care Trust