The Final Report of the Competence Steering Group for Building a Safer Future, ‘Setting the Bar- A New Competence Regime for Building a Safer Future’ has been published.
The report has been written following engagement with more than 300 organisations and through 13 working groups, with a unified vision to improve the competence of those who work in or on higher-risk buildings (HRB), be that design, construction, inspection or management as well as focusing on the safety and compliance of products used during the build and future renovations.
The report focuses explicitly on the competence of installers working on and in HRB’s and how best to ensure their competence and identify them.
Michael Andrews, NAPIT’s Chief Executive Officer comments: “It’s great to see a focus on ensuring the accredited third-party certification of companies alongside the verification of individual competence and supervision playing a key role within the recommendations set out in this report. Accredited company certification allows for insurance and consumer protection requirements to be mandatory and provides a route for monitoring the competence of individuals working for those companies. We fully support the proposal to require all installers working within HRB’s to have a core knowledge of fire safety within buildings and agree that requiring individuals to demonstrate their ability to work within HRBs, through regular third party assessments and CPD is a positive step forward for the industry- especially if authentication is digitalised.
“We fully support the recommendation for constructive dialogue to continue between the Constructive Leadership Council, Working Group 2, the Competence Steering Group and Competent Person Schemes to ensure that competent individuals employed by a registered company are not having to jump through costly hoops to get additional cards with a particular logo on. Government Approved Schemes, namely Competent Person Schemes and TrustMark, should not be overlooked within this review as they are integral to the industry ambition of defining and identifying competence.”
Following the publication of the final report from the Competence Steering Group, it is now up to industry to continue to work together on the implementation phase and ensure the recommendations within the report are put into practice. This work will be closely monitored by the new Building Safety Regulator, being set up within the Health and Safety Executive.
NAPIT played an active role in the Installer Working Group which fed into this report, and will continue to work with industry to ensure that the recommendations within this report are realised in a way which enhances the existing system.
To read the report in full please see below:
Setting the Bar- Final Report http://cic.org.uk/setting-the-bar-annexes.php
Setting the Bar- Executive Summary http://cic.org.uk/setting-the-bar-annexes.php
