Working for the FC is it worth the hassle

[County 764]

Hi All

 

Was looking at a tender to join one of the Forestry Commissions small scale forestry frameworks. Decided to give it a miss partly due to all the red tape in the 61 page, 12,388 word tender document.

 

The overheads in refreshing just about everything to join an approved list of contractors for 2 years was slightly off-putting.

 

How do others find working for them? Do they charge a premium for the extra hassle?

 

Also its hard to find sub contractors that tick all the boxes.

 

Think its something I'll end up looking into at a later date. Currently busy enough with privet sector contracts.

[MattyF]

Stay in the private sector if you have a good client base , every one seems to be cutting each other's throats for the scraps of FC work and to be honest its demoralising ! If you have nothing to loose in filling one of there tender forms go for it but gone are the days when the beat forester would recommend and put who he thought could do the job for a fair price on it.

[jmac]

The fc frameworks are a joke! You don't have to be good at the job just good at filling out the paperwork and telling a good story about how great you are. 😛

[Scott Walker]

The fc frameworks are a joke! You don't have to be good at the job just good at filling out the paperwork and telling a good story about how great you are. 😛

 

This is very true a friend of mine had the contract with them doing tree surgery work, he'd been working for them for years, then they dropped him like a stone because of all the new rules and paperwork. The new contractors take twice as long to complete any work, but have all the paperwork etc in place.

[MattyF]

That pretty much sums up working for them.. Again pricing so you don't or won't ever make a profit or cover over heads will win you a contract too.

[10 Bears]

Interesting comments. I used to work for a chap over 10 years ago who did very well from FC contracts, mainly in the Cumbria area. He wasn't exclusive to them of course, and we did plenty of private and estate work as well.

 

I suppose the benefits we brought were that we were a very experienced crew and took on a lot of the difficult work that the FC weren't geared up to, or perhaps even prepared to, handle. As we were providing added benefits, this meant that we were valuable to the FC and as a result, were well remunerated for our services.

 

I used to handle the paperwork at the time, and yes, this was over 10 years ago - so perhaps things have changed significantly since? That said, even then I was providing EIAs, environmental statements, staff profiling, emergence response details, method statements, LOLER and PUWER certs etc. etc.

 

Perhaps we were setting the standards and now its catching up everywhere else?

[gnfencer]

I've worked as an employee of the FC, and as a contractor, the bureaucracy in the disorganization, is ridiculous,

If you go for the work have risk assessments, and method statement ready, I down load templates and just change location and other site specific stuff,

 

They don't know their elbow from their arses a lot of the time, when I worked for them as employee,we used to say first job was to get in van, open window and throw out all common sense.

 

To be honest I'd be very surprised if the fc exists in ten years, the torys have unfinished business, they have tried to privatise them twice and failed, and they won't escape the next attempt, staff moral is low and they accept the end is nigh, I expect forestry commission Scotland, Scottish natural heritage, to be merged and I would suspect similar merges will happen elsewhere,

 

I would say that, they were quite easy going when actually carrying out work, and payment was guaranteed and prompt in my cases

[oldwoodcutter]

Ive seldom come across anyone nowadays who makes a good living from the FC . I always seemed to get the feeling the commission were letting me have the crumbs off the table.

[agrimog]

all your friends at FISA have the fiorestry industry tied up tighter than a bow string, if your not part of the clique, your unenployed, as gnfencer says, I to will be surprised if the FC still excists in its present form, Itll be a private company bleeding public money for a select few clever operators

[County 764]

Cheers for the replies

 

Good to hear other peoples thoughts on the FC. I never bothered submitting an interest based on all the above reasons.

 

I was talking to someone at the FC recently and they think in Scotland a lot of the districts are going to be merged into one.