Good Practice Guide

Architects are finding the procurement landscape increasingly complex and competitive. This book shows practitioners the ways that fees are calculated, negotiated and managed. It will increase your understanding of the different fee-earning roles for architects, professional services contracts, how to calculate sustainable fee levels and improve negotiation skills. It also includes information on how to monitor and manage fees and the resources required to deliver projects, managing change in the scope of the project and related services, where to add value and to highlight risk areas that may impact on sustaining the business. Case studies explain good and bad practice to illustrate effective fee management, drawn from the authors’ direct experience as practitioners and investigating client complaints.

Architecture can be a high risk and low-income profession. Planning to manage risks is essential. Workloads tend to be cyclical and managing lean periods and booms whilst being prepared for the next downturn is a key requirement. This book is a how-to guide to build business resilience into your architectural practice, offering methods for managing business-critical events and crises. It shows you how to analyse trouble, pre-emptively tackle pitfalls and gives you confidence in decision-making to stay ahead. Featuring case studies with expert insight into sole shareholder and director experience of a small practice, it’s aimed across all levels with straightforward, honest and accessible advice. It is structured with people and organisations as the core framework, exploring practice, staff, clients, projects, consultants and providers. It provides operational advice on the day-to-day running of practice and how to respond to disruption.

How do you obtain permission? How can you satisfactorily tackle objections? How can you convince planning officers of the value of your work? Drawing on substantial experience from both applicant and local planning authority perspectives, this book provides tactics and practical steps to help architects secure early validation of applications and successful outcomes. It’s a practical guide to understanding the planning system and maximizing the potential for successful outcomes. Readers will develop a greater understanding of the principles that are vital in the preparation and negotiation of applications against the very complex detail of regulatory arrangements.

Pharmacovigilance Medical Writing covers the preparation of pharmacovigilance documents for all stages of the drug development process (i.e. from clinical development through to applications for marketing authorisations to the post-marketing stage). For each document, the book presents a review of the regulatory framework that governs the content of the document, followed by practical guidance (e.g. scheduling, source data, department/functions involved in document preparation/review, appropriate timelines and planning activities), ending with a generic model document compliant with the current guidelines, which can be modified to meet specific company and product requirements.

A professional guide for architects about calculating and negotiating fees to maximise profits. Packed with worked examples and comprehensive in its coverage, it explores how to evaluate costs, explains the anatomy of a fee offer, and advises on getting paid. It also outlines the essential management tools for keeping track of the whole process.

Professionalism is not automatic with qualification. It is decided by the manner in which you carry out your professional life – the conduct and qualities that you bring to your role. In architecture, it is founded on the principles of honesty, integrity and competence, and a concern for the environment and others. As a trusted expert, it is essential that you gain respect for your skills and knowledge while maintaining veracity and transparency in your relationships and dealings with clients, end users, design and construction professionals and the wider public. With a focus on professional judgement, this book is a personal guide on how to be a self-aware and successful practitioner, aspiring to best practice. It will give you the confidence to create meaningful industry connections and handle contractual disputes, insurance and negligence claims while maintaining a high standard of conduct. By paying attention to business planning, financial processes, good management and effective communication, it will help you to protect your practice’s reputation and increase profitability and cashflow. Ultimately, it will enable you to not only avoid professional pitfalls but to benefit from positive working relationships.

There are many activity manuals on the market today but this publication is the first to offer a clear guideline on exactly what constitutes good practice in activity provision. Written by the National Association for Providers of Activities for Older People (NAPA), a charity whose remit is to set standards and disseminate knowledge of good practice in activity provision and to support activity providers who work in care settings for older people, this guide offers: a model of good practice in one concise volume; a benchmark against which activity providers can measure and evaluate their practice; clear links to current national standards; guidance for care home owners and managers who wish to respond to the recent government initiatives on providing activities for their clients; and a call for clinical governance in the emerging 'profession' of activity provision.