Consider this...

The CCS's green tick logo is a familiar site on hoardings and other collateral across the UK. And, appropriately, it shares its birthday with the first appearance of the children's television character, Bob the Builder. To paraphrase the question asked each episode: can we CCS fix the construction industry's image?

It's certainly trying hard to. At time of writing, 4,000 constructors or contractors across the UK fly the CCS green tick on site, having pledged to conform to a voluntary Code of Considerate Practice. It's based around three pillars: respect for the community, care for the environment and value of the workforce. Constructors pay fees to register both their organisation and each site with the scheme - and comms professionals report this framework is of great practical use.

MAKING LIFE EASIER
It's certainly made life simpler for Erica Jones, account director at Maxim, a Kent-based agency which supports the Rochester Bridge Trust, a centuries-old charity maintaining crossings over the River Medway. CCS membership, she says, "has made my job looking after the external communications for their [2019-20] 18-month refurbishment project a lot easier. The Trust and its contractors had clear parcels of information relating to each element of the Code to pass on to me with minimal distraction from their day-to-day work. I could then use that information to communicate with the community."

She adds, "We found that people who understand why works are being carried out are generally much more receptive to those works, leading to fewer complaints and a happier life for this communications manager."

POSITIVE ENGAGEMENT
Alongside PRs, politicians have also engaged positively with the Scheme. For some years, CCS principles have been cemented in the Government's Common Minimum Standards, and the CCS website boasts that, since 1997, "all Government ministers involved in the construction industry have voiced their support for the Scheme".

The number of registered sites and the sheer fact of the Scheme having been around for 25 years are signs it's doing something right. After all, how many communications professionals will have worked on industry initiatives or partnerships which barely got off the ground, or fizzled out within a year or two?

A 25-YEAR CHALLENGE
"For over 25 years we have challenged the industry to go beyond what is required of them by law and regulations, and to focus on creating positive legacies for the future," says CCS chief executive, Amanda Long, who leaves the organisation at the end of 2022. "We never rest on our laurels," she adds. "We keep raising the bar of expectations, expecting the industry to do more in respect of the local communities and the environment it impacts and to improve its workforce standards."

The Scheme has also branched out in recent years, and now runs an industry scheme created in the wake of the horrific tragedy at Grenfell Tower (see Building a Safer Future Charter, below). 

Caroline Romback, a non-executive director of CCS and a director of construction industry PR specialist Copper Consultancy, argues that the Scheme "harnesses a natural spirit of competition in the industry for the benefit of the public. It provides a commonality of approach to make best practice easy for sites large or small, rather than just being the preserve of prestige projects with major budgets. 

"It's a model other industries could learn from," she suggests.

THE POWER OF THE THREE Cs
"If we could draw a lesson from what is working well at CCS," comments Liz Male MBE, founder of construction comms firm Liz Male Consulting, "I think it should be about the power of the three Cs: C-suite commitment to do and be better, Collaboration across tribes and Consistency in our messaging about construction's positive impact on society and our planet." 

Male says that other industry schemes have failed to deliver on the first two fronts in particular, meaning they're inevitably less successful. And consistency of messaging, she adds, is in the construction industry's DNA. Lengthy project lifecycles lend themselves towards long-term, strategic thinking in a way that, despite our best intentions, can be hard for comms professionals and business leaders in other sectors.

One criticism of the scheme is that, despite its deep industry penetration, its voluntary nature means some constructors can remain outside the tent, especially smaller ones.

Dr Ronan Champion, a lecturer from the University of Reading's School of Construction Management & Engineering, argues that CCS needs to take inspiration from the Federation of Small Business. It needs to reach out to smaller contractors and encourage them to sign up. "Those smaller contractors need to see the benefit for themselves, even if it's just easier passage when dealing with the local authority," he says.

Champion does, however, acknowledge that the Scheme has had an impact even outside of its paid-up membership. "[The construction sector] has now got to a stage where planning conditions include significant restrictions on everything from hours of work, noise, traffic management and so on - all of which effectively mimics what would have been expected under the Scheme. 

"Forty years ago, scant regard was given to the neighbours of any building project, whether this was noise, pollution or mess on the local roads, or the safety of people in the immediate vicinity. Today, in the UK at least, it's radically different." Although he caveats that the Scheme cannot take sole credit for this. 

To borrow the language of the sector, CCS may not be the primary contractor in the work of maintaining better standards and community relations for the construction industry - but it's clearly a key sub-contractor.