Balfour Beatty P&R

CONTRACT LENGTH: April 2018 – April 2020

We were subcontracted to undergo work on behalf of Balfour Beatty for their contract with National Grid. They were required to design and install modern polyethylene gas distribution mains to replace old metal pipes.

We were also required to provide a scheduling service at our premises, which involved devising teams to allocate 300-500 jobs daily.

A challenging aspect of the contract was to provide gas engineers at short notice to ensure that Balfour Beatty could fulfill their duties for National Grid. We were initially given a target of recruiting 15 experienced and competent engineers to make up our task force. Prestige Skills was also working the same contract for the West Midlands region, and therefore the workload was doubled, requiring exceptional time and resource management.

It was also challenging to ensure that the client induction process remained consistent.

In the first instance, we collaborated closely with key representatives to understand the scheduling required and the necessary time limits so that we could tailor our approach accordingly.

When recruiting in the North West, we recruited double the number of staff we needed to ensure that we could fulfill any number of vacancies requested by Balfour Beatty, facilitated by Bullhorn & Broadbean, our resource management software.

Prestige Skills devised bespoke and detailed RAMS (risk assessments and method statements) to ensure that operatives could mitigate risks and complete works to high standards. We also outlined environmental considerations to ensure that asbestos risks were minimised and that a reduced-waste approach was adopted.

Our safe systems of work ensured that both operatives and members of the public remained safe and that waste was disposed of appropriately. Any deviation from risk assessments was authorised by the Site Manager and in agreement with the client to ensure that health and safety was promoted.

We obtained permits to work for isolation and any hot working undergone.

When Prestige Skills is notified of the jobs required by Balfour Beatty, we assess the workload and check our database within an hour of receipt. We then draft the proposed engineers and respond to Balfour Beatty with the engineers for the work required.

Following the completion of the job, Prestige Skills reviews the job records for any complaints or technical concerns. If any issues have been flagged up, we arrange to meet the engineer in question or audit them on their next job to ensure that we maintain our performance standards.

We successfully delivered the work on this contract, which meant that we retained our relationship with Balfour Beatty into the following year, the eighth year of their contract.

So far during our contract with Balfour Beatty in the North West of England during the 2 years, we have delivered it, we have reviewed 1062 potential CVs and conducted 467 interviews. This has enabled us to attend over 46,000 properties in the North West of England.