Save ProCure 21

Industry opposition to the abolition of NHS Estates and concerns for its impact on ProCure 21 gathered pace this week with both the Specialist Engineering Contractors (SEC) Group and Be, the industry reform group, calling on the government to protect the future of the initiative.
In a letter to Lord Warner, parliamentary under-secretary for the Department of Health (DoH), SEC Group chief executive Rudi Klein praised ProCure 21 for helping the construction industry "become more efficient, productive and profitable" by introducing new methods of working and greater efficiencies.
Klein also praised NHS Estates for challenging the industry to innovate, for including specialist contractors early in the process and for promoting fairer supply chain relations.
He warned against NHS Estates being absorbed into a general NHS procurement unit. "This could endanger the achievements of the ProCure 21 initiative. Since such achievements have been at the cutting edge of construction procurement, they are unlikely to be sustained within a more general procurement function."
Klein also raised the spectre of ProCure 21 being privatised. He called for NHS Estates to remain within the public sector or risk losing its authority and drive for change in the industry "with the result that the current success of the ProCure 21 programme will be compromised".
In a separate letter, Be chief executive Don Ward warned Lord Warner of the danger facing NHS Estates. He called ProCure 21 "the single most important construction framework initiative in the UK construction industry".
He added: "It is the leading example of collaborative working - its core requirements include supply chain integration, early involvement, innovation and value - and its lessons are thus vital for the future reform of the industry."
He concluded: "ProCure 21 is a good start, but much remains to be done, and in abolishing NHS Estates you risk throwing out the baby with the bathwater."
The Construction Confeder-ation (CC) also raised concerns this week at the future of ProCure 21, but was more sceptical about the effectiveness of the initiative.
CC chief executive Stephen Radcliffe told CJ: "Our concern is that NHS Estates set up a framework agreement that has very little work coming out of it, which is spread unevenly between the framework contractors and is not a mandatory system. Any institutional changes could cause even more disruption to this initiative."
Two weeks ago, National Federation of Builders chief executive Barry Stephens wrote to CJ, expressing his concern for ProCure 21 (CJ 11 August).
"ProCure 21 isn't perfect, but it has provided a beacon for procurement practice within central government and constitutes an important building block for partnering between the public sector and the industry," he wrote.
"With the removal of its dedicated procurement arm, the DoH should place even greater emphasis on ProCure 21."