Some developers and clients could simply pay lip service to the reforms of CDM 2015 by appointing “principal designers” from their pool of existing CDM coordinators and changing their designation, it’s been suggested.
Alternatively, clients could appoint their architects as Principal Designers on the undertanding that they will outsource the role to existing CDM coordinators.
The view from an experienced health and safety adviser comes as the HSE published the latest version of the revised regulations, due to be implemented from 6 April. As highlighted in Construction Manager, there will also be a “grace period” of six months for projects that are already underway up to 5 October.
The main change in comparison to CDM 2007 is the removal of the role of CDM coordinator, with the bulk of their duties now taken on by the principal designer.
But one amendment in the documents published last week compared to the consultation version is the introduction of an obligation for all duty holders (in Regulation 8) to ensure that principal designers, designers, principal contractors, and contractors have suitable “skills, knowledge and training” to take on their specific roles safely.
Other changes, as highlighted by the Association for Project Safety, the representative body for CDM-Cs, are:
- greater emphasis on the principal designer being in control of the pre-construction phase;
- clarification of default appointments on domestic projects and the contractor having to undertake the client duties;
- clarification of the client’s duty to provide pre-construction information;
- the explicit requirement for principal designers to advise and assist clients with the preparation of pre-construction information and management arrangements for health and safety.
But Steve Coppin MCIOB CFIOSH, partner and head of health and safety services at Rider Levitt Bucknall, says that many “educated” clients have advised him that they plan to simply utilise their existing CDM-Cs as “principal designers” rather than risk appointing a principal designer from the design team who isn’t up to the job.
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“CDM 2015 is focused on the client getting a designer to fulfil the role of principal designer, but in my view around 15% of educated clients will use an existing CDM-C. The client is really up against it – they’ve got to ensure principal designers and principal contractors are capable of fulfilling their responsibilities for all work, including non-notifiable maintenance and repair,” said Coppin.
“The principal designer takes on 80% of the CDM-C’s role, as they don’t have to legally check the construction phase plan. But if the principal designer does not have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience – for instance, to collate pre-construction information, such as utilities surveys or asbestos reports – then the client is taking a chance and a big risk.”
“Plus many architects are planning at the moment to outsource the CDM H&S coordination function of the principal designer role to existing CDM-Cs. So some clients do not want to take on the risk of using an architect that either isn’t up to the job, or will simply outsource the function.”
Asked whether it would be legally possible to appoint a “principal designer” who did not have any design qualifications, Coppin pointed out that the the HSE had not published a set of competencec criteria for the role, as seen with CDM 2007 for the CDM-C role. Instead the legal requirement was focused on their “skills, knowledge, experience and where necessary training” relevant to the project.
He added that clients operating frameworks that extend beyond April 2015 would either have to negotiate with their existing [framework] CDM-Cs about switching to the principal designer role, or go out to tender mid-framework. “If they’ve already got CDM-Cs on board, why take the risk of appointing someone who’s not capable? Why fix something when it works?”
And APS president, Richard Wilks, said: “Whilst the proposed regulations will remove the role of the CDM Coordinator (CDMC), the CDMC’s duties have been distributed between the client and the new principal designer. It is clear that, for the majority of commercial projects, the principal designer will need to have the skills, knowledge and experience of a CDM coordinator at their disposal if they are to discharge the role effectively and in accordance with the new regulations.”
The newly published documents also suggest that clients assess safety competence by looking for membership of the Safety Schemes in Procurement Scheme (SSIP) and/or assessing against PAS 91.
But Coppin predicted that this approach would still leave many clients relying on a range of well-established, third-party accreditation schemes – even though another thrust of CDM 2015 was to rein back the “competency industry” and prevent duplication of accredititation to satisfy different clients.
Last week, the CITB also published a suite of guidance documents targeted at specific duty holders – amounting to 78 pages in total – which will replace the 140-page Approved Code of Practice.
The HSE’s plan to produce a shorter “micro” ACOP, as previously highlighted in Construction Manager, has apparently been shelved until later this year.
