RICA FORUM – 29 NOVEMBER 2023

It was good to see many of you at the Foundling Museum on Wednesday for an interesting and informative session.

We started with information on forthcoming changes to:

• ·         National Occupational Standards – if you would like to help with the update you can start HERE

• ·         Authorised Person (Level B) training – extending from 3 to 5 days

• ·         Hand Trolley Controller competence moving back to Sentinel

Members discussions included:

• ·         New government rules on payment terms and whether payments from 1st tier providers were getting slower – NEW RULES link HERE

• ·         RISQS - consistency of auditors and apparent unnecessary inclusion of Temporary works and CDM in some manpower suppliers audits

• ·         Work prospects for CP7 and whether there will be enough money to go round

• ·         Skills shortage and unwillingness to actually use apprentices despite the pressure for RICA members to take them on. Link to NSAR Report HERE

• ·         Problems with fake certification in signalling

• ·         Contractual changes through changes in standards – D&A + Test equipment etc

• ·         The RICA optimism survey – coming soon – and useful to highlight industry concerns to Network Rail and more widely.

At the end of the morning we heard from Ryan Morgan – Services Manager, Railway Benevolent Fund and a link to his presentation is HERE

After lunch and an opportunity to network we heard from:

STEVE DIKSA (Martin Biggin was unable to make the event due to illness) who told us about the work being undertaken on the COSS Enhancements Programme – presentation link HERE

PHIL SMITH – RISQS Scheme Manager who told us about forthcoming changes and the areas of concern that were causing the most audit failures – presentation link HERE

ANA MARIA CASTILLO SERNA and JON ROAN from Network Rail Southern, who discussed the current industry difficulties, the effects of the new procurement act and how they plan to work with the supply chain in CP7.

RICA FORUM – Wednesday 23 November 2022

As usual there was enthusiastic discussion and in the members part of the meeting we covered topics including:

• IR35 and the repeal of the repeal!

• Work prospects and what the government is really saying

• Current and future staffing and the effect of inflation

• The new fatigue standard

• Is GB Railways really happening in 2024?

• The practicality of the new random D&A requirements

• Christmas staffing challenges

Our guests were:

SIMON MORGAN – N RAIL HEAD OF HSQE

Who spoke on fatigue and the over complication of the new standard – he has provided a copy of a flowchart which will be included in the standard at the next update and which you may find helpful here together with details of the SHELT and SLT working groups here

DARREL HICKEY AND RICHARD HAMER – NW & CENTRAL

NW & Central procure about £1bn per year and Darrell provided a list of their current pipeline. He discussed how the Network Rail Regions were collaborating on procurement and responded positively to comments and questions from members.

He went on to provide feedback on where suppliers fall down on tender submissions and suggested that an ongoing dialogue with RICA would be helpful to both sides.

Rick Hamer talked about the transfer to the NEC contract which while needing some adjustments to cater for the rail environment will not be biased in favour of the client, as happens with some other clients.

He also discussed devolution and the “new” problem of high inflation

Copies of Darrel and Rick’s slides are here

STEVE HEWITT & CHRISTIAN MELTON – N RAIL TECHNICAL AUTHORITY

Took us through the history and potential changes coming for both the Welfare and the Hazard Directory standards and answered questions relating to these.

RICA MEMBERS BACK TOGETHER FOR AGM & FORUM - 25 May 2022

RICA members were delighted to meet in person again at our AGM held at the Foundling Museum

During the AGM existing members of your board were re-elected and Paul Bateman of Total Rail Solutions was elected as a new board member.

Details of the RICA Board can be found on the "Board" page

 We had reports from the Secretary (Pino DeRosa of Bridgeway), Treasurer (Roger Stewart of Coyles) and Don Clarke as Independent Chair.

A new method of interaction between board and membership was proposed and approved and consists of:

§  On the first Tuesday of every month a call for QUESTIONS or CONCERNS will be sent to all members

§  On the second Tuesday of every month the Board will try to answer the questions (or find the answer) and address the concerns or decide how this should be done

§  Initial feedback from the board on the QUESTIONS and CONCERNS will be provided to the members within 7 days of the board meeting

We then held a series of really useful discussions on a number of current topics – in particular we discussed the proposed changes to the Standard governing Drugs and Alcohol which includes an increase in randoms to 20%

In the Forum that folowed the AGM we heard from:

JANE KING Business Support Manager who gave us clarity on how Network Rail manage their IR35 responsibilities, She was accompanied by Jonathan Curtis –Procurement Operations Director and Michael Hunt, Head of Group Tax.

Anna Maria Castillo Serna, Comercial Director and Sarah Drew, Supplier Manager from Southern Region who outlined how best to interact with their Region and explained the drive to increase use of SMEs. 

Rupert Lown, Chief Health, Safety & Wellbeing Officer for N Rail who told us about the new collaboration arrangements for HSE. 

RICA AGM - 9 June 2021

The AGM was held and reports heard from the Secretary, Treasurer and Chair

Following this the New Board were voted in and their details can be found on the “Board” page

We then heard from Emma Jones and Jo Aster-Duggan of SENTINEL who’s presentation can be found HERE 

WEBINAR - 28 Jan 2021

We were delighted to hear from:

·   The Chair of the Supply Chain Sustainability School who told us about the extensive resources available on their website which are available free to members. Link to his presentation is here 

·   Nathan Thomas – Strategic Category Manager Infrastructure for Network Rail who outlined the way Network Rail is developing category strategies and the progress on the strategy for Buildings and Civils. Link to his presentation is here 

Upcoming Webinars include:

·   Free Training Brokerage and Worker Database

·   An update from Network Rail on their SME supplier development

Dates will be advised shortly 

RICA AGM deferred until September 2020

IR 35 Delayed

Speaking at the despatch box in the Budget debate in the Commons on Tue 17 March, Steve Barclay (Chief Treasury Secretary) confirmed that the changes, which will clamp down on tax avoidance by targeting contractors for companies who are, in practice, providing the same service as employees, would not go ahead in April as previously expected.

Instead, the measures will come into effect on 6 April next year.

RICA Annual General Meeting

Provisional date for AGM is 9th June 2020 but this is not confirmed due to current circumstances

If any members would like to join the RICA Board please contact the Company Secretary, Pino DeRosa - contact details on the "Board" pages

RICA Forum - March 2020

A really busy day of presentations, discussion and debate.

Nathan Thomas - N Rail Category Manager for Infrastructure explained the new approach to supplier relations for both prospective and ongoing suppliers. He went on to outline the plans regarding their Frontline Labour contract (formerly Contingent labour) advising that the current contracts will be extended for one year from April 2020. This extension will be used to trial a number of improvements and they will be tendering for new suppliers during the coming 12 months.

Ken Blackley - N Rail Commercial Director, Route Services told us of the progress being made against their SME action plan which seeks to ensure that at least 33% of their work will be carried out by SMEs by 2021/22. He also provided details of the spending pipeline which they hope to make available in a format that will be useful to smaller potential suppliers.

Rupert Lown - N Rail Group HSQE Director and Eoin O'Neill - N Rail Capital Delivery Director NW & Central talked about the tremendous progress on safety that had been made during CP5 but emphasised the need to continue the push for improvement during CP6. They then led a discussion with the members about how both N Rail and their Principal Contractors can do things better in order to enable improved safety and quality from the second and third tier suppliers

All our guests kindly make their presentations available to RICA members

RICA Forum - October 2019

• Guests included Ken Blackley - Commercial Director Route Services for Network Rail, who is also their SME Champion and is approaching this task with energy.

• He told us he wants to hold a RICA Focus Group to help inform him as to how best to help SMEs get more work. This will take place at the start of 2020

• We also circulated the BEIS Export Survey letter provided by Ken to enable members to compete the survey if they wished to

• Bill Cook - Head of Workforce Safety for Network Rail told us he is part of the selection process for the next round of Contingent Labour contracts and asked for feedback as to what they could do better with this.

• Chris Barry and Shane Canning from the GLA told us about the new Good Work Standard. Their presentation included a link to take you to the start of the journey to become accredited.

• Finally the RICA Board promoted a discussion on the format of future Forums. It has been suggested that we start earlier - say 09-30 with breakfast baps from 09-00 and finish at lunchtime to allow members to do something else in the afternoon.

The RICA Forum and AGM - May 2019

• At the AGM we had reports from the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer and copies of these are available to members on request.

• In the morning we heard from a team from the Western Route about the changes coming which will remove the need for "Strapmen" and facilitate the use of narrow track access windows

• Women in Rail founder Adeline Ginn told us of the advantages of diversity and her work to promote women in rail

• Chris and Paul from JSA Crest told us about the developments with IR35 and the forthcoming dangers to agencies who may face liabilities if they don't make the right preparations for the changes coming in April 2020

• Bill Cook from Network Rail provided an update on some remarkably sensible developments within workforce safety

RICA Forum - January 2019

• Members discussion on HAVS

• Contingent Labour

• SWL Feedback Review

• PTS course changes

• Guests included

  • RISQS Scheme Manager

  • Highways England

  • Network Rail