Transcript for:
NEC4 Early Warnings Overview

hello everyone um Welcome to our webinar we're just going to give it a few minutes for people to join um and as we do I will share my [Music] screen no okay um welcome everyone to our webinar on early warnings a introduction uh this is the second of our NEC 101 series with SH prad and um Laura Campbell uh before we start I just want a sort of quick housekeeping um at any point if you have any questions please feel free to drop them in the Q&A bit uh the Q&A section of the webinar um also at the end of the webinar we'll have um there'll be a little quick survey and I'm very eager to hear your thoughts on how this webinar went and if you have any ideas for future webinars so please um if you have the time answer that um and yeah um let's begin so so um yeah today I guess the agenda we are going to do a quick overview or um on early warnings common mistakes general advice and best practice uh and we'll be doing that through the lens of the nec4 engineering and Construction contract the ECC um our speakers um we have with us Laura Campbell senior senior associate of sh prad um and Robert Gerard um senior NC consultant um and they'll be taking us through uh the rest of the webinar um and yeah I'll I'll stop talking now and I'll leave you with um laora and BR thanks thanks very much ban um it's really great to be here again in the NEC community and as fan has said we're going to talk about um early warnings under the NEC Suite of contracts focusing on the nec4 ECC um so the way it's going to run is I'll talk through the slides and and um Rob's going to chip in as well and we'll we'll just have a conversation really about how this works um in in practice and and how the contract um looks at early warnings so the first question um looking at the principle of early warnings what actually is an early warning I'm sure you've all come across it if you're um working on anyc contracts but as a very basic um initial point it's not actually a defined term in the NEC swet contracts so you won't find it in Clause 11 if you're looking for it there it's not capitalized it's it's not italicized it's it's simply not there so it's it's it's its own thing um so it does actually have its own section in the contract so when you're initially looking for early warning Provisions you're going to be looking at Clauses 15.1 to 15.4 the core Clauses in the nec4 ECC and mostly across the suite that is replicated where the early warning mechanism is included um and essentially the early warning mechanism is a contract and risk management tool and it fits in very much with the spirit of mutual trust and cooperation which is key to managing and understanding the NEC forms of contract um and you'll find those core Provisions in sections 10.1 and sections 10.2 of the contract um it is beneficial to both parties as it deals with all risks under a Construction contract that's run under the NEC forms it's not a one-sided approach um and it is supported by an early warning register I'm sure you've come across those or perhaps the former um name for them in the nec3 was risk register so it's it's similar to that it's similar to a risk register um and similarly um so um for the early warning register there isn't actually a defined or prescribed form for that in the NC contracts we quite often get asked you know um where can we find this what um what form does it take and there isn't a prescribed form it's something that you'll develop on a project by project basis um in in a format that suits your project really and I mean I'm sure there are templates floating out floating um about out there which different consultancy firms use for example which different clients use um but it's it's really there's no prescribed form for that it's however you think it's going to be easiest to set that up to manage your project um so in terms of notifying early warning if you do become aware of one of the effects placed in Clause 15.1 and I'll come on to those um then you you do have to notify it it's an obligation under the NEC to notify an early warning if you've become aware of an event that could have one of the effects stated in Clause 15.1 um so what are those effects so there are four of them um an increase to the total of the prices a delay in completion a delay in meeting a key date or impairing the performance of The Works in use so those are the the um the items which need an early warning so basically cost time um delay and meeting a key day or something that's going to lead to an impaired performance of the work so the usual core aspects of Construction contract there are a couple of additional ones and as with the NEC um as with many aspects of the NEC um whilst there is there are core Clauses in relation to the early warnings um as I've mentioned Clause 15.1 to 15.4 there are of course other Provisions dossed around the contract such as x1.35 if you become aware of something that's going to impact on the information model or if you're using Bim or another kind of information model then there is an early warning in relation to that similarly X1 12.3 and X20 29.3 if you're using them um so X12 obviously it's multiparty collaboration um so if there's something that's going to have an impact on the partner partnership approach achieving their objectives then you need to um notify an early warning to comply with Clause X1 12.3 and X 29.3 is in relation to climate change so if you've got climate change objectives in your contract if you've selected that option then there is an early warning there as well just to make you aware of those um and we've said here these are all threat type events so um events which could have a negative time cost or project objective impact on your project um and as I've mentioned they're not all in one place they're not confined to Clause 15 so that's just a point to be aware of that you can look in Clause 15 but you need to look a bit wider as well um so next slide please hang on chip in let me chip in yeah go for it just just back on for hand um Ju Just yeah two points on the on the register so that it's quite a minimalist approach as as you rightly say the um the early warning register the contract expects at least two columns you can have 10 if you want to but the two columns are uh description of the matter which is basically the subject of the early warning and also description of the actions to be taken to avoid reduce the the the matter itself so if you want to you you can obviously put numbers against each early warning you can put uh things like likelihood and severity and dat of last discussion anything you want really be careful not to make it a a monster but you know the two two most important things is really a simple form of risk management is what is it and what are you going to do about it you what is it what are you going to do about it so so back as Laura rightly says that the the contract basically mandates notifying early warnings for those events that would we put here the word threat so if you look at look at Clause 15.1 in particular it starts with the four bullets with the words uh increase delay delay and impair so they're they're threat type events there's absolutely nothing to stop you notifying an early warning that has the reverse of those so you know what what is increase decrease sure what the opposite of is but never mind bring forward improves whatever whatever the wording is um but the contract does mandate the your obligate no of early warnings that has those threat events and we'll see later uh that there'll be a sanction for not doing it okay thank you back to you Laura and for next slide then um so I think we've covered a couple of these points um so yes so you can notify an early warning for anything else um perhaps opportunities or the reverse of the threats as robs just mentioned um and that's covered in the last sentence of clause 15.1 of the NEC contract um so really just to sum up what an early warning is it's simply a warning it's it can be good or bad something that could happen um so the way we look at it is that um it's a no surprises approach to contract management and risk managment in your NEC if you've got your early warning register and it's in good condition and you're keeping it updated and come on to that um shortly then you know you should have those risks identified in the early warning register so that you are identifying those risks as soon as possible and coming up with ways together of trying to resolve those risks before they escalate you know it's kind of it's that kind of working together approach again let's look at these risks early and see what we can do about them before you know the cost really starts to um increase or the delays really start to to to rack up so I think that's that's the way we would look at yeah I think there was um I it's during the creation Ry for some some of the some of the drafting group meetings uh there was some feedback historically that early warning is quite a negative thing it's in your mind it's a red flag isn't it a warning warning is is is negative and could the terminology be changed to something else uh you can see other other contract drafters who D use the term early warning for obvious you know obvious um criticis we find find other terminology perhaps in a similar vein I don't have a problem with it so you know it's it's a warning be good or bad or something that could happen remember always that it's a warning something that could happen not something that has happened if it has happened what is the point of notify early warning because we cannot go back in time fix the problem so early warnings is definitely future future focused okay thanks Laura foran yeah so thanks Rob um so so as as we've mentioned if the matter has already happened um it's it's not something that you would then notify so it's it's as Rob said it's future looking future proofing your contract through that early warning mechanism um so you know I mean the language says it all really it's an early warning it's not an after the event warning so um those are obviously things to be notified in advance um so just to note that it's um it could have an impact on other problem and on other aspects of the contract or the project as well um so so if there's an early warning and that event's actually happened and we've given an example um here if there is a delay to completion because the supply is going in or the supply went insolvent last week well that's happened so there's no point giving an early warning about that because it's something that we know about something that's happened but you might have an Associated early warning which is that um you know this is maybe quite a bespoke supplier for example and it's it's going to take a while to find a replacement so then you would notify an early warning in that kind of scenario to say okay so the insolvency event that's happened that's occurred um but we're giving an early warning now to say that um there might be a delay to the project because as a result of that insolvency we need to find a new supplier there aren't many of them out there um so so here's the early warning and let's get together and let's discuss how we can best find that other supplier you know is it a case of um working together to maybe carve up that work it maybe that there are various suppliers and they could come in more quickly to to provide you know the equipment or to do the parts of the works that need to be done so it's it's that kind of um although there may not be an early warning in relation to the main events that's caused an issue there may be an Associated one so don't overlook those however small or minor they may seem um and just to note as well that there's often a misconception that early warnings are a precursor for compensation events and they're not quite linked in the way that you would maybe expect them to be and we will come on to that um but there are separate processes for notifying those and we will talk about that shortly so next slide please unless Rob's got anything no no I'll be quiet because I keep saying what it's coming on the next slide because I already forgot what's coming so my apologies it's because we've prepared so well we know you know exactly what we want to say um so um notification under any contract but particularly under the NEC really important there are Provisions in the NEC about who notifies when how Etc um so again the first Port of Call for this is Clause 15.1 so who notifies it's the project manager or the contractor so there are two options there and it's as soon as they become aware of a matter that could happen from the list of those that you are obligated to notify so that list that we talked about earlier the in 15.1 um the time cost Etc impacts of the early warning um so it is important to notify it as soon as it becomes an issue so the parties are aware and so they can start thinking about how they might resolve the issue um so in addition to that the provisions in Clause 13 also need to be followed and those are kind of basic communication Provisions so 13.1 for example um the communication needs to be in a form which can be read copied and recorded um so basically in writing it's it there's no point just agreeing this verbally or saying to somebody in a site meeting for example or or phoning somebody up and saying oh we're notifying you of an early warning that actually needs to be properly notified if you're using a communication system um then that's probably the right channel but as long as you're consistent with your form of communication it's that form of communication that should be used um it needs to be sent to the correct address I know that sounds like a really basic point but you know if there's an address in the contract for notices um it needs to be sent to that address or sent via the communication system which is identified in the contract and it needs to be separate from any other communication and again I've seen this on a number of occasions where um there's a notification of a compensation event and an early warning in the same notice but they have to be separate they're not the same thing and the NEC does require that delineation between a notification for an early warning so that it can be assessed and managed under the early warning mechanism and and a notification for a compensation event so that similarly can be assessed and managed under its own set of criteria so there is that that specific um there are those specific Clauses there in relation to how these are notified who notifies them um and when on uh let's get a bit of free uh legal advice from you Laura what what how do you think a judge might receive uh where um something where there's a dispute where a matter has been notified as an early warning and a conversation at the at the same time would would they be prepared to to accept that as a valid communication or would they have something to say I I get the the contract is saying yeah this this is the way you should communicate nice and clearly and separately don't mix things together people a chance to deal with the correctly at the time of the correct process but how might it be ultimately received I know once or twice they've looked back and implied I don't know something said in a minute of a meeting perhaps as I deem that to be an instruction so they got this canny Knack of doing whatever they want as a court but how do you think they might receive that so I'm going to say what all lawyers say it depends on on and yeah um I mean I think if you know if you reading the contract strictly it's very clear that those Communications must be separate so you know if if you're looking purely at the contract that's how it must be done if they're not separate then there's an argument that they're not valid notifications because they haven't been issued in accordance with the contract um but the courts tend to apply commercial common sense um in you know in in making decisions and um quite often they will look at the context of you know what what else the contract says so for example you know there are the provisions in the NEC about Mutual trust and cooporation and working together uh collaboratively there's also the point that if that's what the parties have been doing if they've been bundling up notices um throughout the whole contract then I think you know there would potentially be an argument for um for conduct having been established but again it really turns on the facts of each particular project um so I think you know the answer really is the contract says they should be separate so they should be SE kept separate and you know it's as easy really in practice probably as setting up separate templates for different things such as you know if you have to issue an early warning notice here's a template we use if we need to issue a compensation event notice here's the notice we use that those forms are already set up and prescribed and then you know there shouldn't be that sort of desperate need to issue a notice and and you know somebody just doesn't read the contract and um puts it all into one notice I think as a practical um point on that that's that's a good way of managing it having those templates set up right from the outset to avoid that becoming an issue anyway yes special advice as always is read the contract understand the contract yeah and and apply the contract don't get yourself into a mess otherwise and a little plug here for about the 10 or plus uh contract management software systems out there who actually help you follow the contract they don't let you conflate these things and mix things up so they're they're nicely sort of uh you know separate forms for each one of these sort of notifications instructions proposals acceptances and so on so um good okay very good great thanks Rob good question um so on to the next slide please so working through some mistakes advice best practice which is what we've been doing anyway you know we've already talked about a little bit of that um so we've already said that an early warning does not double up as notified compensation event um it doesn't count as notification strictly under the contract as we've discussed [Music] um and also when looking at an early warning don't forget about Clauses 10.1 and 10.2 so again there's there's a tendency sometimes when these things come up you know it's it's all sort of very urgent to deal with and you've got to sort of find a solution that and that should always be the the the key aspect of any contract um you know finding a solution that works in the best way possible to keep the project on track um and and on budget um but it's a case of not simply just looking at those Provisions in Clause 15.1 um well 15.1 to 15.4 um it again it's very easy to look at it and say oh yeah great that's where the early warnings are dealt with yes they are are um but they're not in isolation to the rest of the contract so we've already mentioned a couple of examples of where there are other instances where you need to give an early warning such as um if something happens in relation to climate change objectives um if something happens in relation to information modeling if something happens in relation to partnership working there are those other Provisions so again it's really important to look at it in a more rounded way so obviously you know look at the provisions in Clause 15 to start with that's where the core Clauses in relation to early warning are set out but also do have a look in the index where else is early warning mentioned what else do you need to do what else do you need to consider um and skim the contract if in any doubt skim the contract um and 10.1 and 10.2 will definitely come into play and that's this whole point again about collaboration trust Mutual cooperation and those apply to early warnings and how they are dealt with it's you know it's not that traditional contractor employer relationship it's um although they are of course named the separate parties in the contract um it's about applying those principles and saying Okay so we've got an early warning Something's Happened on site or um you know in relation to the project let's try and find a solution to this together because that is collaborative working you know the contractors are out there on site every day they've got the market knowledge um the client knows what the project is that they want but actually you know rather than fighting about it it's much better to try and come up with a solution together because ultimately the objective is to get the project finished to get it on time and on budget so really important to keep all of those core principles in mind um we've already mentioned the risks of giving early warnings verbally again it's very easy when you're dealing with a project you have meetings you have calls it's very easy for somebody to say oh yes by the way um this might happen you know this might there might be a cost increase here or um a delay you know because of bad weather or something like that um it's fine obviously to mention it to talk about it but that needs to be followed up in writing so again using your template or using your contract management system or an email whichever form of communication you've decided is the the one you want to use for your contract again consistency is key um you need that audit Trail um it's very unlikely that you would remember everything that was said about that early warning and I think you know having that detail it it just makes sure that everybody's on the same page about exactly what the impact might be and exactly what the early warning is um so it's it's really important to document that and that's the same with anything in contract management um documenting it is really key to making sure that you're managing it well um and then just a final note on this slide um there isn't actually any need to reply to an early warning notification um but I think out of courtesy um you might want to do that anyway you probably want to acknowledge it and say yes okay we note the early warning um notification and you know we we look forward to discussing it in due course it would be obviously the subject of an early warning meeting but I think although there isn't a need to reply um it just seems common sense that you you would want to reply unless it was perhaps looking a bit contentious and then you might pause a little bit before um firing out a response just saying yes that looks like an early warning so but I think generally um you know responding to that just to acknowledge that um it's been raised there should not be an issue with that I must admit I've never replied such like that before but I would um it depends on the severity of it first thing I would do is pick up the phone or walk across the office ideally you're in a collocated thing you're in the office next door and you say what on Earth is this how on Earth you know did you come across this information what on Earth are we going to do about it and almost organizing an early morning meeting as soon as is possible to start using your combined intelligence to uh to tackle the problem but you know just to say that strictly people say how long have I got to respond you don't have to respond you just have to put it on the the early warning register and it's the job of the project manager to do that either party basically the project manager or the contractor can then call an early warning meeting whenever they want to discuss any part of the early warning register whatsoever so it's about judgment as to the where to spend your valuable time you know which however you order them in whatever order of importance or notification or when they will might hit the project negatively first up to you use your intelligence and your judgment to uh to to sort that out and and also Laura mentioned about you know look at the contract read read the contract find the Clauses that talk about early warning I am a bit of a dinosaur but I finally got rid of all my paper copies of NEC and I and I'm you know definitely W to the digital version now it's so much easier to search the word early warning and it would say here you are there are 11 entries or whatever there are and here they are all list out for you so another plug for for digitizing all of these things which have to be the way forward of course thanks Robert and yes I agree that's made it so much easier um having searchable versions of of any type of contract um so much easier for for things like this so next slide please there any sanctions for not giving an early warning um simply put yes um so it might be that the contractor doesn't give an early warning that they should give or it might be that the project manager doesn't give an early warning they should give um so again it works two ways um so if the contractor fails to notify an early warning then and it should and should the event become a compensation event then the compensation would still be assessed as if an early warning had been given um so under Clause 61.5 the project if the project manager decides that the contractor um didn't give an early warning and it's something that an experienced contractor should have given an early warning about then the project manager states that in the instruction to the contractor to submit the quotations um and then under Clause 63.7 if the project manager has stated in the instruction to submit quotations that the contractor did not give an early warning of the event and it was something that an experienced contractor could or should have given um an early warning about the compensation event is assessed as if the contractor had given the early warning so there's a slight difference there um there could could also be disallowed costs if you've got an option C D E or F contract in this context and again this is where searching for early warning in your contract is is really important because you'll see that this comes up in these other Clauses um there could be a disallowed cost in those options I've mentioned um and this is a cost which would not have been incurred if the contractor had given an early warning which it was required to give under the contract that's a really key point to take away um and if it's something that the project manager failed to notify this could cost the client time and money so again um it's really important for the project manager to make those early warning notifications as well to not put the clients at risk yeah um so direct sanctions against the contractor and uh indirect sanctions against the client for project manager failure really client loses in in both instances really and I suppose you could say that that that that loss is shared in option C or D that we're potentially missing the chance to give us time to to solve the problem we we you know we're pretty brilliant as people aren't we but um we we can't solve every problem that comes in front of us so if you aren't if you do get if you notify receive notification of conversation of a an early warning then there's no guarantee we can fix it in a in a time or you know or or or a cost effective way um it's it's about giving yourselves the chance to avoid reducing mitigate that event as best we possibly can so it could be you just turn a dial or you spend million dollars or whatever who who knows what the answer might be if indeed there is an answer sometimes it just just it is what it is there is literally nothing that one can do about it but more of than not you know combine some intelligent people's minds and we can solve many a problem that is is uh is is presented to us okay thanks Laura thanks so what happens next so um you've identified that there's something that requires an early warning to be notified it's been notified um what happens next so you've probably all been wondering about the early warning register we've talked a little bit about it um and the early warning meeting we've not said too much about that um so the project manager adds each early warning to the early warning register that's set out in the contract that's a contractual requirement a responsibility for the project manager um so they they add that early warning to the early warning register we've talked about the different forms that might take and how um that something that can be drawn up to do your project it could have two columns it could have 10 columns as Rob said um um and this early warning register should have been initially drawn up by the project manager within a week of the starting date of the project so whatever date you've identified in your contract as the starting date within a week of that you should have access and this is all parties should have access to that early warning register um so that's the project manager's responsibility um and that a bit like the program it's not a static document it's um it's it's not a fixed document it moves as the project progresses so um it's something that is not fixed it's supposed to be continually updated um as the project progresses I mean obviously if there aren't early warnings um you know if you're lucky and you don't have have to notify early warnings as part of your project then it may be that it doesn't ever get updated but I think that would be very rare um so I would expect that to be updated as and when those early warnings are notified in terms of the early warning meeting that as we've said on the slide may be called at any time and again robs mentioned this previously that if you're working in um if you're co-located then it's probably best to try and set that up straight away if an early warning notification comes in um then you'd be probably going across the office as Rob said to have a an initial discussion about that and get the meeting set up so it can be established at any time um and um the first one's supposed to occur a couple of weeks into the contract so I kind of see that as an initial review of the early warning register so the project manager produced it you've had you've had it for a couple of weeks so all of the parties have the opportunity to review that and say yes that looks sensible or um no actually we take a couple of things off there you know that they've passed or um or actually now that we've started now that we're a couple of weeks in there are a couple of other items that we would suggest adding or that you know we think should be added um I mean obviously the obligation to notify early warnings commences as soon as the contract is entered into so even at that meeting at the start there shouldn't be any surprises if there are things that immediately you become aware of that need notifying as early warnings you should be doing that um so that meeting is really a chance to capture any of those initially um once the project has started um so that happens a couple of weeks into the contract the project manager does have to instruct the contractor to attend that meeting so if you're a project manager that's an additional responsibility um it doesn't happen autom atically I mean I'm sure that would be set up as part of the project startup anyway you know I'm sure on your project plan you would have that scheduled in for a couple of weeks afterwards um but just a note there not to forget to invite the contractor um so then the early warning meetings during the course of the project they'll either happen on an ad hoc basis as and when you need them as and when an early warning is notified but if for example it's all going well and no early warning notices have been notified I mean there are two things that could happen there either um the either early warning notices haven't been issued because no early warnings have come about or there haven't been notifications because the contractor or the project manager has failed to make those notifications so it's going to be one of those two scenarios um so if there isn't a need because no early warnings have been notified then those meetings should still take place um but it should be at no longer than the interval describ in the contract data or as otherwise instructed by the project manager or the contractor so again in the contract Data before you enter into the contract you will have identified an interval for those early warning meetings um again you know practical thinking dictates that that would probably be every couple of weeks once a month once a quarter depending on the complexity of the project and depending also on what the early warning register says initially you know if you've got if it's really detailed and you've got a huge amount of early warnings there that could arise then you'll probably want to be monitoring it quite regularly if you've got a couple um and you know that they're not happening they're not arising then probably you might have a larger interval but again that's Project Specific um it's just about taking that sensible view before you enter into the contract about how often you want to have those meetings and there's no prescribed limit in terms of how long those meetings should last it may be that you say we'll have every two weeks um and you know it might be that they're part of a general meeting about the project and one part of that agenda is an early warning meeting um and you know you have a quick look at register you say yeah that's still all in order nothing's happened in the last couple of weeks um early warning meeting that that's been covered um so it might be as as simple as that or it might be that you know they're set up more formally um for once a month once a quarter to go through that list in more detail there's no prescribed format for those again it's Project Specific just like the register just like the um the forms that you would use to notify um but you must keep to those intervals so um if you say in the contract data we're going to have these every month and every month you know for whatever reason other things are more important and the meetings slide that's not really in compliance with contract so then um you know it becomes an issue if early warnings are suddenly notified and nobody's really been keeping an eye on the register or attending the meetings so that's just another practical point you know it's in the contract for reason so do keep those meetings going foran just interrupt you just go back a slide that you skipped on one so just to make sure I'm back another one backwards that's it that's it stop yeah still got a couple of other points um thank you rob um so we've got um so I think we're on to bullet point three um yes so what actually happens in that early Waring meeting and again I think we've alluded to this um a little bit already um the emphasis really is on problem solving and working together to do that um so again it's in line with those key NEC principles of mutual trust and Cooper cooperation and collaboration um which is set out in Clauses 10.1 and 10.2 so again um the early warning meeting um it's a chance for everybody to get around the table and discuss what the nature of the early warning is and what can be done to avoid that escalating into a compensation event um so there are five bullet points set out in Clause 15.3 so again um if you get an early warning or if you're going to be notifying an early warning if you're on that side of it the key place to look is Clause 15.3 um which sets out what needs to be considered in that early warning meeting and again they're they're quite simple so making and considering proposals for how the effects of each matter in the early warning register can be avoided or reduced seeking solutions that will bring advantage to all those who will be affected deciding on the actions which will be taken and who in accordance with the contract will take them so again it's it's about allocating and managing risk and involving everybody in any decisions that are made about how that risk is managed it's not one-sided it's all encompassing um you know I really like the fact that it it says seeking solutions that will bring advantage to all those who will be affected um it's you know it does include everybody in that decision-making process and as I've already said um collaboration is really important because who knows who's going to have a solution um so those are really important um and some of the other functions of the meeting are deciding which matters can be removed from the early warning register so um as the project progresses there may be early warnings which were notified fairly early on but actually they've been dealt with you know the early warning mechanism worked you you had an early warning you had a meeting you came up with solutions they were implemented and so that doesn't need to be on the register anymore so that's another function of the meeting just to kind of keep it updated to keep refreshing it as the project progresses to make sure it's current and up to date and then reviewing actions recorded in the early warning register and deciding if different actions need to be taken and who in accordance with the contract will take them so that's a bit more of a backward looking piece a reflective piece um and whilst the main emphasis of early warnings is looking forward again it's a case of reviewing them periodically in those early warning meetings to make sure that if there are actions in that early warning register which for whatever reason need to be changed there is the ability to review them and to change that so it might be that some information comes up about a supplier for example if go back to the insolvency situation so you're looking for um an a replacement supplier it may have initially been decided that you would approach three particular suppliers for a quote let's say um so that might have been an action that somebody took away from that initial early warning meeting about that early warning however in the interim information has come to light that actually um you know those suppliers are not in a very good financial position either so it might be that actually you know the course of action needs to change and that whatever your getting from that supplier that you're looking to procure needs to be carved up and shared around between some smaller suppliers perhaps um so it might be that actually that is a different action that needs to be taken and that's something that could be recorded and changed in that early warning register um and then a final point on this slide is that um again the project manager is then responsible for updating the early warning register and circulating that as a record to all of the parties so that the meeting is documented and so that everybody knows what their actions are to take away from that meeting and what they need to do to to kind of come up with that solution and um not just think about the solution but actually go ahead and and take the steps that needed to try and put that into place give you a chance to draw breath Laura yeah so so seek Solutions that's what this is all all about isn't it really seeking seeking Solutions uh and a really interesting part of clause 15.2 15. through that I like is the fact that after the first early warning meeting the contractor has the right to instruct the project manager to attend a meeting I mean I wouldn't say attend a meeting at my office 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning but you could try it but you know you have the right to shut the project manager to attend a meeting have an event which you think could happen and it's 100% your fault because you forgot to order something I've forgot to order something from A supplier completely my fault you told me 10 times I completely forgot now can we have a meeting please to discuss how we might mitigate that it's quite you know that's an interesting perspective but contract says you have the right to instruct the project manager uh should attend the meeting and under Clause 10.1 they should act accordingly 10.2 they should act in that Spirit of mutual trust and cooperation and pitch in some ideas to solve the problem so this is not about blame you know may maybe you blame at some point I don't know but let's just focus on solving the problem there's a problem in front of us who's ever making it is let's set about trying to solve the problem so the contractor has the right to instruct Pro maner to attend an early warning meeting it's not oneway traffic I mean an interesting statistic would be how many early Wars are notified by contractor versus how many by project manager top of my head I would say that I I observe 90% of early warnings come from the contractor which is wrong I actually think most of the early warnings come from the should come from the project manager because most conversation events in turn that start the life out perhaps early warnings come from instructions from the project manager to change the scope so actually you are obligated when you're thinking about changing the scope that you believe could delay completion or increase the prices you should be notifying an early warning but I don't find that happens in practice is so couple of just interesting observations okay thanks Laura so next slide right thank you so um another slide on mistakes advice best practice um as the slide says if you're in any doubt then notify an early warning so you know if if you're dithering about it or is it an early warning isn't it um the best thing to do is just to issue a notification and then you're covered either way um and you know it will be added to the register um it will be discussed at the meeting and if you go to the meeting and you know all parties agree that actually it's probably not going to have a Time cost impact on the project um or you know any other sort of negative or even positive effect you know um then it can be taken off the register it doesn't need to be on there forever and that's why those Provisions are in the contract about that being continually reviewed and updated after those meetings um to deal with scenarios such as that um so again we've talked a little bit about form of the early warning register um it will have at least two columns you may add more if you wish to depending on your project and then onto meeting attendees so this again is an interesting one um which we don't really see in other forms of contract um so 15.3 deals with this and it's really a case of thinking about who is best place to attend that meeting so um obviously the contract to the project manager the the client but there is the ability to invite others into that meeting it's not just the party to the contract um and I find this really interesting because it could be that you need to invite subcontractors along there could be other third parties for example if you're having issues with um a statutary um body for example you know a water board or um you know electricity Gas provider that sort of thing um and that's having a real impact on the operations on site it might be that you want to invite a representative from from that organization along to your early warning meeting because obviously you've got to work together to find a solution to that problem now if you're having issues getting the electric connected to the site for example um then it might be appropriate to bring in somebody from um an electricity company to get them around the table as well to help them to understand what the issues are and for them to input into how that might be progressed um subcontractors similarly um obviously they're managed by the main contractor but if you're having issues with getting subcontractors to um you know to to work to time and budget then again it might be really helpful to bring them in um and to have that round collaborative conversation rather than again you know working on a kind of pushing down the blame basis so um again it might be the subcontractors actually once you sit down with them if there is an issue then um discussion always helps I find with with anything under a contract you know you can send emails you can you can write letters to each other but until you actually sit down and understand what the issues are they don't tend to get resolved um in a in a collaborative way and I think there can be a lot of misunderstanding so I think these early warning meetings including those other parties are really a good way of doing that of really understanding okay what is the issue that's going to arise what can we do to resolve it you know what what's going to get us to where we need to be um so again have a think about who it might be necessary to invite um who's going to be affected by the matter um that that is the subject of that early warning who who is it going to be bring them into the meeting um obviously if it's going to cause if it's going to be contentious then again maybe you wouldn't bring them in but it's kind of applying Common Sense again and thinking is it worth us having a conversation all together with that organization to try and move this forward um and then finally on this slide a couple more points um and I think I've mentioned this already there isn't really a format set out for an early warning meeting there's flexibility so it's something that you can organize in a way that suits your needs that suits the needs of the parties of the project um there's nothing to say it can't be done in person or remotely um it depends how you're working um and then it's really important to document meeting to make sure that all parties know what is expected and what decisions have been made and then keeping others informed so again if you've invited others to the meeting or you've at least let them know that there's an early warning that might affect them so let's say subcontractor um just making sure that they're kept informed about what's happened so um if so when the early warning register is circulated then it's worth circulating it to them as well so that they can see what's been captured um and then when it comes off the early warning register if it's if the issue is resolved which we obviously hope it will be then making them aware that yeah your input was really really valuable and as you know we've resolved this issue we've now taken this off the early warning register so it's keeping those channels of Communication open and again we've got Provisions in the NEC forms of contract about communication about working with um trust and cooperation so again this all feeds into that um and that should be considered at all points yeah I'm a big fan of clause 15.3 my advice would be turn that into your agenda for the meeting you not you'll need to slightly reward it but essentially you've got the the bones of a meeting haven't you you say I mean I I would actually promote the the second well mix the second bullet around a little bit um Laura talked about who will be affected so I quite like think about this before the meeting decide who should attend you say well who will be affected by this how would they be affected why would the affected in what way so be a bit nosy try and get your head around the implications of this matter that should help you shape best attendees to the to the meeting then when you've got the meeting set up with the right attendees then you could start making and considering proposals for how the effects of each matter in the early warning register can be avoided or reduced so let's go around the table then who can you know make and suggest uh proposals for that uh let's seek some solutions so what do we all think then how what Solutions do we think having heard about the problem that could avoid or reduce this so you can actually turn the bullet towards 15.3 into your agenda items and if you're sat there contribut absolutely nothing to this meeting whatsoever why you at the meeting so you need you you you perhaps need a different atud of mindset the right people for that meeting are the sort of creative problem solvers we don't need any blame there's no good going there you know I I've told you 10 times blah blah blah blah blah you will tend to just the the the shutters will come down in front of you so you know use 15.3 bullets as your agenda would be my advice okay foran I think probably about through now aren't we yeah bunch of questions as well so yeah if we just skip over that one to the summary because I think I've actually put the wrong flow chart in their apologies um so summary um again I think we've said quite a few times early warnings there's this conception that there're a negative that they're a threat and whilst there are those scenarios where an early warning is used to as as it says to warn in good time about something that's going to have a negative impact on the project they are still actually a positive aspect of the NEC contracts they're that positive contract risk management tool which helps you to understand in advance what might happen um so as as we've said already they're forward focused they're forward-looking um and they are a good way of of of keeping the project under review um so that there aren't any surprises the project manager and the contractor and anyone else at the early warning meeting is um so so anyone else can come to that meeting we've just talked about that the project manager is responsible for making sorry everyone is responsible for making and considering proposals and coming up with Solutions so as we've discussed it's a very practical way of understanding the issues from a really rounded perspective from from everybody's point of view um and as as Rob said which I think was a really good point um it's really good to have those creative people around the table to get those Solutions in place um do keep a record of what you discuss at the meetings um do ensure that the early warning register is kept up to date and shared so that everyone is aware of what they need to be doing um what what actions they they've committed to take away um you can revisit those actions you can revisit those early warnings you can remove them from the register or you can add new ones to register as and when they occur um it is as we said it's a it's a mechanism designed to involve all parties collaboratively to avoid and reduce the impact of events on the progress of the project obviously the ultimate aim is to get your project finished um and ultimately the aim of these is to avoid compensation events arising if the early warning register is managed and the meetings are managed properly it's forward-looking it's a creative Sol problem solving um mechanism to avoid cost time and other types of slippage so um there are threat and opportunities which can be subject of early warnings um but generally I think it's a positive contract and risk management mechanism in the contract fantastic so I I love it to bits to me it's my my favorite part of the contract the only one thing I don't I'm not a fan of in Claus 15 uh three or so is basically removing those early warnings which have which have gone which have dealt with I'm not a fan of that quite like keeping the audit Trail so I would have a column which said live or dead and even some of the ones you think are dead or actually could come back to life again so I would just push them down to the bottom and just promote the big ticket on to the top and have a live and dead split so thank you la that was fantastic so the challenge now we got about eight minutes to go we got a bunch of questions Laura's done brilliant let me see if I can uh uh create a miracle and go through these in a short space of time so if you're following these that the first question came in at 11 minutes past 12 UK time from Anonymous to 10d if you look in the Q&A box there are the questions so let me have a go chiping L if you think I've got something completely wrong so has a contract do with request for information rfis well technical queries tqs it doesn't you're making these processes up that's what we've done for a million years in the industry I would not use them that is my advice it can be argued that an rfr TQ is not in fact an early warning you know you didn't follow the country you didn't notify it separate from other Communications it is not called an early warning you just run that risk why run the risk of one day have an argument about whether or not the thing that you said in rfr TQ was it wasn't an early warning just use the language of the contract I get that often these are technical things but have a secondary box says notify an early warning a little box underneath it say but really I mean RFI or TQ maybe on a busy job they send different early warnings to different parts of the project management group if it's multiple I don't know use the language early warnings my friend Kimmy in Hong Kong sub isues associated with an event already happened still no friendly warning if you think something has happened that in turn as Laura said there's some consequential effect that we haven't addressed it's about addressing that consequential effect isn't it not about the thing that has happened so yeah other other matters May pop up as a result of the thing that has happened and those things that pop up may need to be the subjects of an early warning Newan uh not no need to reply whether a risk reduction meeting is required risk reduction meeting nc3 terminology no need to reply have the meeting go in with an open mind you might think something is so obvious and straightforward maybe it isn't be that active listener you know somebody believes they may be wrong but somebody believes this is worthy of a discussion an early morning meeting coming on in person online uh over the telephone by WhatsApp if you really want to um it can last a minute an hour a day two people six people up to you judgment cut your cloth according to the problem in front of you uh next one 25 pass you must not place blame well we're humans aren't we sometimes we are so infuriated we've been through this 10 times you didn't listen I can't believe it but try and stay calm Steam and Madness and shinness S doesn't generally get you anywhere so solve the problem maybe there's you you have a have a a post meeting discussion about how on Earth we arrived in this position but I would suggest try and stay calm try and use the word we not I or you or point and you find we is a constructive word that will hopefully help people focus on on on solving the problems but you you know you can't can't stop people being infuriated sometimes particularly for stupidity uh next one instances where errors exist between printed copies of the nc4 and digital ones whoa I'm not aware of any of that whatsoever it's nothing to do with that is that your own early warning to us or the early early warning to the world watch it I'm not aware of that I've never heard of that at all so um please follow that up or send me an email I'd like to know Steven 33 minutes pass I've got 3 minutes left PM repeatedly fast to respond by an instruction W blow me what would you suggest hopeless project manager incompetence uh try and get them replaced it is nice possible ways you can I that that that's hopeless isn't it my advice to the contractor stay calm keep doing what you know he's right but that that is uh that is not acceptable if You' got a non responsive I would call them an indolent project manager at that point Chris Christian let see notes conversation says blah blah blah can you elaborate if you if you're aware of something that could happen tomorrow that we've got the chance to fix today and you do not give that notification maybe a gate is locked and you can you've seen the gate is locked and you thought it was open and somebody's put a Locker on say something none early warning we du to go in there tomorrow and somebody put a lock on is the lock coming off don't wait until you turn up tomorrow and say oh it is locked we can't get in there we're on standing time you knew it yesterday you should have said something yesterday so you would if so the conversation is the failure of the client if you like to give the contractor access because the gate is locked could have avoided it if you'd have opened your mouth yesterday and notified an early warning so it is a conversation but you would assess it as if what would have happened so you have to bit theoretical but what would have happened had you have known about the problem yesterday I would have unlocked the gate problem would have gone away so that that's how you would judge it not a question but an observation no question there does it have to be a separate early warning part of a CP CP I don't know what that is progress meeting you can have a meeting anytime anywhere you might be having a progress meeting and say actually let's let's slip into an early warning meeting I don't I don't mind TR try and have that early warning register on a laptop with your register saved to the cloud so you can pop into it in and out at any time going to R out a timean mistakes spe practice yeah they're all mixed up actually I think each of those line you could you could you could think about it in a way that is a mistake is a best practice and and so on uh we tried to hollow out which which way it went but you could mix them uh yeah agree option e yeah yeah trace it Trace everything write these things down uh Stephen PM uh neither attends the meeting we've addressed that one short question haven't got time for that I don't think right we'll have to do the rest there's quite few more aren't there so we're St there for har you got we'll export out all the questions just like we did in the previous well the ones I didn't answer let's be clear because the ones I have answer on the video my watch my watch is trying to talk to me at the same time I'm trying to talk to you you guys but you know I normally swear it it and it normally says I cannot I cannot reply to that but I've been very well behaved fors anyway sorry you very much um and just before we go just a few things here I think um I've set this up correctly but if you click on the resources button on uh the screen you should find links to our upcoming conference um the 16th of June in London um it's a great event I'm sure Rob can vouch for it loads of workshops networking best practice um not to be missed and also at the end of the conference there will be the awards the Martin bonds Awards so if your organization or a client you know or someone um has has done an outstanding thing we're here to recognize that Excellence so submit your entry um if you think that's relevant um and finally yeah more webinars the NEC 101 series we're hoping to continue with Laura and Rob um like I said before there's there'll be a quick survey three questions so if you do have any ideas or any feedback we uh we'd love to hear from you um and if you've missed the first um episode you could go back on the past event section of the website where you could find um all the past events so all the webinars uh recording slides uh and questions and that's where the recording slides and questions for this webinar will also um end up and uh finally um a huge thank you to Shar Richard and Laura Campbell for joining us uh and Robert Gerard and our contact details are here if you would like um to find out more or get in touch uh so yeah thank you very much I don't know if you guys have any final things to add no thank you Laura well done thanks for your questions guys and we will answer the ones that we didn't get round to then and uh enjoy the rest of your day everybody and I hope your weather cheers up for you in the UK thanks everyone bye bye