The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) and associated secondary legislation have focused attention on competency throughout our industry. Every individual carrying out building or design work in England must have the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours, and companies must have organisational capability.
It is the duty of clients, principal designers and principal contractors to ensure that every organisation and individual working on their project meets the requirements and can demonstrate competency.
Beyond the moral and legal requirement to ensure competency, this should also reduce the time and money wasted correcting defective or non-compliant work.
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However, ensuring and demonstrating competency requires a seismic shift in the construction sector, and whilst this change is indisputably required, businesses are grappling with the challenges associated with measuring and demonstrating individual competency.
Demonstrating individual competency
Guidance documents such as PAS 8671 and 8672 are great resources to help frame how we measure the competence of principal designers and principal contractors. Using the same criteria for both also helps to ensure compliance.
The real challenge comes when, as principal contractors, we need to assess the competence of the individuals who are completing the “building work”. Without clear standards to measure against, establishing the competence of trades working on building safety-critical elements is both difficult and subjective.
However, we must discharge our duty – we can’t wait for someone else to provide a solution.
Nor can we rely on subcontractor statements: the BSA requires us to go far beyond this.
That’s why, at McLaughlin & Harvey, we request enhanced CVs from all individuals working on packages identified as building safety-critical, detailing previous project experience, alongside a skills card specific to their role and evidence of formal training.
While this covers relevant skills, knowledge and experience, behaviours are more challenging to evidence. It falls to organisations to demonstrate they have policies in place to instil these, for example, anti-bribery and whistle-blowing procedures and company values.
To support our teams in assessing competency, we’ve created a contractor competency assessment checklist outlining our expectations of contractors and subcontractors.
Establishing organisational competency
Designers can provide comprehensive ‘building safety organisational capability statements’, setting out their commitment to compliance, policies and procedures, alongside supplying enhanced CVs for their teams.
However, it has been difficult to get responses of the same quality from contractors and subcontractors. As a principal contractor, we must work with our full supply chain to support them in demonstrating organisational capability and if we are contracting the right people, this will be achievable.
Supply chain engagement
While awareness has improved, worryingly, some contractors and subcontractors are unaware that the BSA applies to them. Equally, among those who do understand their work falls under the regulations, there is confusion about the requirements. As a principal contractor, we have a role to play in raising awareness, so we engage our supply chain through broadcasts and briefings, outlining our requirements before they receive tender invitations.
We also recently collaborated with other Tier 1 contractors to create an educational video with ConstructionLine covering who the Act applies to, why it was introduced and how it can be adhered to. This encouraged suppliers to answer BSA questions in the common assessment standard to demonstrate that they have the required skills, experience and competency.
Competency: what help is available?
Trade bodies
Guidance from industry bodies is starting to emerge, such as the Joint Competency Initiative (envelope) and the Association of Specialist Fire Protection, which have developed standards for assessing individual competencies. However, we need a set of standards for every trade and there is some way to go before this is achieved.
Professional bodies
The CIOB Principal Contractor Competency Certification Scheme (PCCCS) provides a route to proving competency as a principal contractor, as required by the Building Safety Regulator. It is suitable for individuals performing the role of the principal contractor under the BSA. Similar routes for principal designers are run by the Association for Project Safety and the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Documentation and guidance
There are several documents that contractors can use to better understand their duties and guide their approaches to competency. These include the Design and building work: meeting building requirements guide and the Industry Competence Committee’s Setting Expectations on Competence Management draft document, which is currently out for consultation. At McLaughlin & Harvey, we’re comparing our own policies and procedures to this document to ensure we can demonstrate compliance.
Formal training
Investing in formal training is crucial for demonstrating skills and knowledge. For example, 14 members of our design team recently completed the CABE Certificate in Building Control, providing them with an improved understanding of legislation, regulatory requirements and routes to compliance, as well as helping us evidence team competency.
Collaboration is key
The BSA has triggered a need for transformational change in the construction industry, and rightly so, given the failings which led to its introduction. Employers, principal contractors and designers must fulfil their duties and ensure every organisation and individual completing design or building work has the competency to deliver safe, high-quality buildings.
Whilst progress has been made since the Act’s introduction, there is work to be done establishing standards for all trades to provide clarity on what competency really means. To make this happen, contractors must set aside their company badges and collaborate with the support of the regulator and trade bodies to determine what good looks like and drive a much-needed cultural shift across the sector.
David Wellwood is design and build director at McLaughlin & Harvey.
