Celebrating 10 years of FIS
FIS is marking its 10-year anniversary this year, celebrating a decade of unwavering commitment to FIS members and the wider sector. The FIS community includes contractors, manufacturers and distributors of ceilings, partitions, plastering, drylining, operable walls, steel framing systems, and specialist interior fit-out and refurbishment businesses operating in every type of building.
Formed between a merger of two trade associations in 2015, FIS has grown to represent over 600 members with a combined turnover of over £12.7 billion and a workforce of over 250,000.
Achievements and initiatives
The guiding principle of FIS is to be member-led and it is this support from members through the members Board, working groups, regional events and day-to-day close working that focuses direction and ensures FIS, not only has a clear and informed voice when working to influence change, but that activity is laser focused on delivering practical and tangible benefit to the community and wider sector.
Amongst the notable interventions and achievements over the last 10 years a few stand out, these include:
Steering the industry through Covid
We worked with the wider sector and key stakeholders to ensure members had access to advice in real-time, providing concise daily updates. The work also included mobilising a small working group to develop key H&S support (including the FIS COVID RAMS to support close proximity working). During this time, FIS was a founder member of the Construction Industry Collective Voice in Scotland, working with colleagues from across the nation to collaborate and optimise the support for the wider construction industry in one of the darkest times we have collectively known
Navigated the implementation of the Building Safety Act
FIS fed in to change and developed its Product Process People Quality Framework and Integrated Management Standard to help members manage compliance. FIS guidance on the Golden Thread was recognised as best in class in the industry and the free to member Building Safety Act training course has supported over 450 members to date.
Developed a bank of technical information and guidance
In the last 10 years FIS has developed an impressive bank of information to support the specification and installation of walls, ceilings, floors and SFS Facades. Dedicated Working Groups ensure that this growing wealth of technical information that includes our Best Practice Guides, Specifiers Guides and technical guidance notes help support best practice and training in the sector. Concerns raised in developing guidance for Partitions and Operable Walls led to the formation of the FIS Acoustic Verification Scheme, ensuing members claims about acoustic performance are verified. The scheme was expanded to embrace pods in 2024.
Established the Tall Building Working Group
In 2019 FIS established the Tall Building Working Group to lead research into concerns associated with creaking noises in tall residential towers. In this work FIS collaborated with industry experts from around the globe to study test data and movement of tall buildings and their impact on installations. FIS raised funding and conducted around £100,000 of testing to help identify causes of concern and start to help lead the sector in finding mitigating strategies.
Collaboration with industry bodies
Collaboration has remained at the core of FIS work and we have worked with a number of trade bodies and the wider sector to develop the Firestopping of Service Penetrations Guide – specifically targeting concerns related to the penetration of fire compartments. This work helped inspire the formation of the Passive Fire Knowledge Group, encouraging and leading collaboration outside of traditional industry siloes and latterly the publication of Walls as a System (looking at compatibility concerns).
Commissioned academic research and market data
In addition to an impressive array of benchmarking and market data available to members, FIS has commissioned academic research. The largest study to date was The Reading Report, a collaboration with the University of Reading and AMA Research with nearly 300 business contributing to this seminal study on challenges derived from contracting, procurement and payment practices in the sector.
Enhanced legal support for members
FIS Legal Support has ratcheted up over the past decade and the organisation has produced template contracts, training, a legal helpline and a contract review service delivered through an impressive array of leading industry experts. This work is pivotal in helping members avoid and manage disputes. Over 21 calls have gone through the FIS legal helpline.
FIS launched Project Reuse
In 2021 FIS established a Sustainability Leadership Group. This has become a vibrant forum for action and has specific training pathways to help ensure the workforce is engaged and knowledgeable. Tools to support a standard for pre-refurbishment audits have also led to setting up FIS Project Reuse, a live facility helping overcome practical problems aligned to reuse of products in commercial projects.
Helping to address the sector skills shortage
The skills shortage remains perhaps the biggest strategic challenge for the sector. Constantly changing the angle of attack, the FIS BuildBack programme helped to introduce 160 new entrants into the sector. FIS has developed new apprenticeship standards for Drylining, Ceilings, Demountable and Glazed Partitions and Plastering as well as frameworks to support demonstration of competence against the new industry standard. Work with My Professional Passport to develop the FIS Competency Passport was referenced in a recent Department for Education report written by Mark Farmer into training practices in construction as a tangible example of how innovation can help support change. Most recently FIS introduced a new partnership with The Skills Centre, bringing a modern and agile, employer focussed approach to delivery of apprentices.
Looking ahead
Looking ahead to the next decade, FIS President, Ian Strangward said:
“The success of FIS is that it works closely with us, the members, to interrogate and understand problems, tapping into the collective wisdom. This means that they are uniquely placed to develop targeted guidance and provide a platform for collective action. The world today is about more than what you know, it is about how you know. Much of the success of FIS is built on a structured approach to research and analysis of the problems. This work has seen us emerge as a real thought leader, not just challenging the behaviours and shortcomings in the sector and regulation, but looking at practical ways we can collaborate to improve.
“Who you know also remains important and all of the great work of FIS means it has never been in a better position to influence change.
“In FIS we are blessed with a modern, driven and effective trade body that stands us, as businesses, in a good place to navigate the uncertainty that is the world today and position ourselves in the best possible position to adapt and meet the changes head on”.
FIS continues to evolve and the next chapter involves the launch of a new collaboration with the University of Reading looking at the low-rise housebuilding sector, a renewed focus on health and safety, using innovation and e-learning to target occupational health issues that are putting workers at risk and shortening careers (adding to the worker shortages). The organisation has embarked on developing technical guidance into targeted training through the new E-Learning Hub. This work looks at how information can be better targeted with the scope of FIS support extending to cover with more specificity, in a modular way to support roles like contract management and estimating. Attention is also starting to turn to how AI and digital solutions can help drive productivity and support both the work of the organisation and the sector as a whole.
The FIS team remains passionate about supporting members in building stronger, more resilient businesses to take the industry forward. As we reflect on the past decade, we want to express our thanks to all our members for being an integral part of the FIS journey. Here’s to many more years of collaboration, innovation, and success. Thank you for your continued support.
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How has the FIS helped you in the past 10 years?
