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“One Team Wessex” Hits the Ground Running with Award of First Contracts

Successful mobilisation of the “One Team Wessex” – Multifunction Framework between Network Rail and Osborne has continued with call-off contacts totalling over £17m already being agreed and initial building blocks in place on the journey to gaining BS11000 accreditation.  Vast quantities of development, procurement and planning work have already been undertaken, with the first site work under the One Team Wessex mechanism already underway at Yeovil, Wandsworth and several smaller sites.
To ensure the framework got off on the right foot, roles and responsibilities workshops were used to establish the combined Network Rail and Osborne Leadership Team.  Under the guidance of One Team Wessex Managing Director, John Dowsett, the best person for each role was chosen, pooling our skills to avoid man marking and provide efficiencies, whilst driving a step-change in cultural safety behaviours to delivery each and every project more safely than ever before. Together the newly formed Leadership Team defined what the success of the framework looks like to create an agreed vision, mission and strategy.

With the “One Team Wessex – Line of Sight” agreed and with safety at our core, a launch event was held at The Kia Oval with great success.  Excellent engagement from Osborne, Hyder and Network Rail gave the teams the opportunity to challenge and develop their thinking about how they can support each other.

The collocated One Team Wessex, based at Waterloo, has now grown to include 45 people working on the framework, with 15 of those being employed by Network Rail, 20 by Osborne and 10 by our design partner Hyder.  The truly collaborative team is really taking great shape with the initial BS11000 Relationship Management Plan having been produced and comprehensive sessions held on values, behaviours and to develop agreed KPIs.

A supplier forum with the key suppliers for the Year One works is being established with a Director from each supplier.  This is aimed at clearly defining the behaviour and performance expectations of the One Team Wessex and to ensure sign-up by all.  The team are working hard with our supply and design partners to look for further efficiencies, in true demonstration that we are delivering the required volumes and efficiencies that we promised we would within our bid.

The sheer volume of development work to get the Year One projects to site remains the real challenge, and the workload is continuing to grow almost daily.  Further projects have been introduced into the Year One workbank with Year Two development also already underway.  The first contracts include a number of bridge reconstructions, station refurbishments, along with repairs to embankments, structures, scour damage and tunnels.

John Dowsett, MD One Team Wessex at Osborne said:
“This has been a great start for One Team Wessex. Our people are sharing the same vision – to really make a difference and deliver the efficiencies, innovation and knowledge sharing vision that we promised, not only to our individual companies but the wider rail industry and indeed the communities in which we work.  This opportunity is exciting to our up and coming engineers and ensures we can commit to developing the leaders and trades of the future.  A truly great challenge and opportunity which I am proud to lead and I know those involved will remember with pride for many years to come.”

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