New National Standards programme to raise professional competence in the built environment sector
BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, has unveiled a new National Standards programme which is intended to raise professional competence in the built environment sector.
The standards aim to tackle the competence shortcomings identified by Dame Judith Hackitt in her independent review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, Building a Safer Future. They are a part of the package of measures recommended by the Steering Group on Competence for Building a Safer Future (CSG) which were set out in Raising the Bar.
The government-funded programme is designed to support the delivery of regulatory policy and the new regulated roles responsible for building safety set out in the Building Safety Bill, that was published yesterday. It is also aiming to enable the large-scale industry-led programme to raise competency across the sector.
It includes an overarching competence framework standard for everyone working on a building. This is intended to be used by key professions and trades including designers, contractors, fire risk assessors, building managers and others in specialist technical or corporate roles. The framework will provide a set of core principles of competence, including leading and managing safety, communicating safety, delivering safety, risk management, regulations and processes, building systems, ethics, and fire/life safety.
The framework will be developed and made available for use from this Autumn. After three periods of public consultation and refinement, it will then be published as a British Standard.
It will also include a set of competence requirements for the three newly-regulated roles: Principal Designer, Principal Contractor and Building Safety Manager. A set of fast track PAS standards will be produced to meet the urgent need for competent individuals to fulfil these roles set out in the government’s new Bill, to ensure the safety of residents.
These key roles have overarching responsibility for the main activities affecting building and life safety at each stage of a building’s life-cycle: design, construction and operation. They require enhanced competences in addition to any discipline-related competences, relating to their overarching role to ensure that the design intent of the building is maintained and that workers employed and used in design, construction, refurbishment, maintenance and operation are suitably competent.
Scott Steedman, Director of Standards at BSI said: “Dame Judith Hackitt’s report asked the Built Environment industry to change its culture to safeguard people and their properties. In response to the call to put clear responsibility at the heart of the system, BSI as the UK’s National Standards Body, has launched the Professional Competence standards programme. The new industry-led standards will support the Building Safety Bill by ‘raising the bar’ across workforce competence.”
Building Safety Minister, Lord Greenhalgh, said: “This Government is determined to put residents’ safety first by bringing about the biggest improvements in building safety regulations in 40 years. Regulatory reforms alone won’t achieve this – we need to raise skills across the industry, backed by a strong national competence framework, and we are working together with the BSI and industry to make this happen. We welcome the expertise they bring to the vital work of raising standards of competence to make sure all residents are safe, and feel safe, in their homes.”
To find out more about Built Environment Professional Competence Standards, please visit: https://www.bsigroup.com/built-environment-competence-standards-uk
