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

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.

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.

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 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.