Setting the Bar is the second and final report of the Competence Steering Group (CSG) covering building fire safety. It’s an update of its Interim Report, Raising the Bar, published in August 2019, itself arising from the recommendations in Dame Judith Hackitt’s review Building a Safer Future, after the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017 in west London, pictured.
A proposed overarching system of competence set out in the report has four parts:
– a new competence committee sitting within the proposed Building Safety Regulator;
– a national suite of competence standards – including new sector-specific frameworks developed by 12 working groups;
– arrangements for independent assessment and reassessment against the competence standards; and
– a mechanism to ensure that those assessing and certifying people against the standards have appropriate levels of oversight.
You can read the full report or a summary at the CIC website.
The CSG says it and its working groups have consulted widely and taken feedback. The frameworks will provide the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours needed to carry out specific roles, and deliver a more rigorous approach to the training and assessment required for fire safety.
Competence requirements for the new role of Building Safety Manager have also been completed. Setting the Bar includes a summary of the key points under the Working Group 8 (WG8) section, but there is a full and separate report published by WG8 alongside this report, Safer people, safer homes: Building Safety Management, reflecting the fact that WG8 is establishing a new role and the competence needed.
The CSG is recommending that all whose work on higher-risk buildings is likely to materially affect safety outcomes, or who work unsupervised on these buildings, should meet the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours set out in the competence frameworks.
CSG Chairman is Graham Watts, Chief Executive of the Construction Industry Council (CIC). He said: “We would see higher-risk buildings as an essential starting point for the new competence frameworks for the whole of the built environment, which would result in a step change across the sector and change of industry culture.”
The CSG says it has worked with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government; and some of the Report’s key recommendations have already been adopted, including the proposal for a Committee on Industry Competence as set out in the UK Government’s draft Building Safety Bill.
The CSG is urging government to make mandatory the assessments against the frameworks for those working on higher-risk buildings, and is calling on UK Government to take the lead by requiring that the competence framework must be met by any company or person working on any higher-risk building.
Watts said: “There is no time to lose in casting aside the substandard practices that have shamed the industry. In this document we have set a new bar and we would urge all those working in life-critical disciplines to attain these higher levels of competence. Only then can we rebuild the trust of those who occupy and live in the buildings we design, construct and manage.”
Anthony Taylor, Chairman of WG8, and director, H&S for Avison Young, said: “Developing the completely new role of Building Safety Manager has been an enormous undertaking, which we have worked closely with MHCLG to achieve. We believe the competences and job functions we have set out will deliver the reassurance and trust to residents that their buildings are being managed safely by landlords.”
