project safety matters · 04 Project Safety Matters Stop Press – Breaking NEBOSH News Members of two leading providers of construction education and training will be able to access

projectsafetymatters Issue 10 I Autumn 2019

The voice of good practice in design & construction, health & safety risk management

Building a safer future

15

All change: What’s up ahead for the sector

06

Embedding healthas well as safety

08

RecruitmentIssuePage 10Planning your career

Page 12Recruiting for talent

Page 22The challenges ofhealth and safety recruitment

Two brand new courses from Safety-Zone

Safety-Zone - working to make training inexpensive and accessible for individuals and organisations throughout the UK!

NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Health and Safety Leadership Excellence (Option of a 1-day or 2-day course)Understanding the importance of safety leadership is critical for any organisation that wants to create a safe working environment. Learn how to nurture the natural leaders in your team to take your commitment to safety to the next level.

NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation (1-day course) It’s critical to learn from the past and prevent accidents from occurring in the future. “If minor incidents and near-misses are investigated well, organisations could potentially prevent more serious or catastrophic incidents happening.”

0007-

01

1449Accredited Centre

Take your safety and compliance training to the next level. Help your colleagues, managers and directors learn how to build and support a workplace culture of safety.

T 01463 233007 M 07977 023 254 E [email protected]

www.safety-zone.scot

In this issue Features

Wellbeing on siteNew guidance from CIRIA

Page 18

Raising the Bar– improving competence, building a safer future

Page 28Employment legislation - what next for IR35?

Page 20

04 CEO’s foreword

05 Finding leaders who keep staff safe

06 All change: The future

08 Embedding a health as well as safety culture

10 The long haul

12 Recruiting for talent

14 News in brief

15 Building a safer future

18 New guidance: wellbeing on site

20 Legal update: employment legislation

21 APS and CIC membership

22 The challenges in health and Safety recruitment

25 CIC appoints new Chair

26 In the regions

28 Raising the bar

31 Autumn 2019 CPD

While we aim to use images that demonstrate best practice in this magazine, some are for illustrative purposes only.

APS5 New Mart Place, Edinburgh. EH14 1RWGeneral enquiries: 0131 442 6600Enquiries (non-UK): 00 44 (0)131 442 [email protected] | www.aps.org.ukEditor: Rosalind Grozier | [email protected]

Design and production:darlingforsyth: 0131 476 2170Printed by: Allander: 0131 270 6000Advertising sales and enquiries:Contact Publicity: 0141 204 2042

CopyrightThe ownership of copyright of this material is asserted by the Association for Project Safety. Any infringements of copyright may be actionable by the Association. Views expressed in the PROJECT SAFETY MATTERS are not necessarily the official view of the Association, nor do individual contributions reflect the opinions of the Association or the Editor. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the information herein, or for any consequences arising from them.

03Issue 10 I Autumn 2019

Autumn 2019 CPD:Construction fire safety now and in the futurePage 31

Two brand new courses from Safety-Zone

Safety-Zone - working to make training inexpensive and accessible for individuals and organisations throughout the UK!

NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Health and Safety Leadership Excellence (Option of a 1-day or 2-day course)Understanding the importance of safety leadership is critical for any organisation that wants to create a safe working environment. Learn how to nurture the natural leaders in your team to take your commitment to safety to the next level.

NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation (1-day course) It’s critical to learn from the past and prevent accidents from occurring in the future. “If minor incidents and near-misses are investigated well, organisations could potentially prevent more serious or catastrophic incidents happening.”

0007-

01

1449Accredited Centre

Take your safety and compliance training to the next level. Help your colleagues, managers and directors learn how to build and support a workplace culture of safety.

T 01463 233007 M 07977 023 254 E [email protected]

www.safety-zone.scot

on the whole of the construction sector and how it does business so, here at APS, we will be tracking developments closely and will keep you all closely in touch as things develop. For that to be effective APS is going to leverage every inch of influence it has through its membership of the CIC. You will be able to get president Stella’s take on how we maximise our bang for your buck in her regular column. We also have news about the government’s consultation on reform of the building safety regulatory system in England. APS consulted members widely and we responded to the call of information directly to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government on your behalf. We also contributed to a pan-industry response that went in from the over-arching industry body the CIC. Scottish readers will be interested to note that there is general agreement that the English system ought to be brought in line with the regulations north of the border. And lastly there is some exciting news about APS’s relationship with another leading health and safety organisation as well as our usual

There are interesting recruitment and career insights from Dominic Jacques from Mattinson Partnership, this year’s wonderful headline sponsor for the annual APS conference. Mattinson Partnerships provide tailored recruitment solutions and Dominic talks us through many of the challenges facing the sector. Both he, and Shona Paterson of Shirley Parsons, point out that there are big opportunities out there for people with the right skills and attitude. Our regular legal feature is also looking at the workplace particularly in light of Brexit, that other autumn storm on the horizon. At APS we are well aware that this is an anxious time for many people so we have even included a piece about how to lift the burden of workplace stress so everyone can thrive. We have an update on the wind that has blown through the construction sector since Grenfell with news of the work the industry has been doing on competencies. We have a report about the Construction Industry Council’s [CIC] working groups that have been looking at the baseline abilities that should be expected of construction professionals as well as the particular skills individual specialist areas will require. This is going to have a deep impact

feature about what is going on around our regions. So wrap up warm and settle down for a good read – it’s a great way to spend some time as the night’s draw in.

CEO’s forewordAs the trees begin to turn APS has another sort of leaf-turner for you in the autumn edition of Project Safety Matters. I’ve always felt my spirits lift at this time of year. Edinburgh in the autumn always symbolises new beginnings for me. It was the city where I studied for my undergraduate degree and later took my first tentative steps out into the world of work – altogether appropriate in an edition of your membership magazine looking closely at recruitment and skills.

APS News

04 Project Safety Matters

Stop Press – Breaking NEBOSH NewsMembers of two leading providers of construction education and training will be able to access for ‘mates rates’ the courses and services provided by both organisations. The Association for Project Safety [APS] and NEBOSH have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that opens up a wider range of health and safety training and information. The new agreement aims to help raise the competence of health, safety, risk management and environmental professionals. The MOU comes about after talks between the two associations in August. The talks - led for APS by president Stella Clutton-Saunders, director Ray Bone and Barri Millar from the headquarters team and for NEBOSH by Director of Strategy Barry Wilkes and Head of Strategy Matthew Powell-Howard – build on a long-established working relationship and will see APS involved in the NEBOSH construction certificate and review.

It is critical for leaders to have a deep understanding of the day-to-day challenges employees face. But there are other types of leaders you need. Individual workers play a key role in maintaining safe practices and cultivating a safety culture. Natural safety leaders can emerge among the group. Recognising them and empowering them to take on leadership responsibilities in their teams will help your organisation maintain safety at work.

Understanding the importance of their role is critical. This requires learning how to nurture them. In many organisations, however, we see low trust, poor communications, management lacking credibility, and front-line employees who are not engaged. How do we change that?

A safety leader not only exhibits personal safety as part of their


Need to know

How to find the leaders who will keep staff safeHealth and safety relies on leaders. Senior managers and directors are collectively and individually responsible for workplace health and safety. They establish the standards and values and have the power to enforce safety requirements. In this article, Robin Clark explains that there are other kinds of leaders who are necessary to ensure health, safety and wellbeing in the work place.

Author: By Robin Clark, managing director of Safety-Zone Ltd

own behaviour but also inspires others to follow suit. They follow safety protocols precisely but also speak up in a constructive way when others are not acting safely. Anybody can be a safety leader if they understand and follow safety procedures, report safety issues when they arise, proactively prevent safety problems, implement new processes to improve safety, and encourage others to take safety seriously. They don’t have to be managers or supervisors. They can be anybody who has a positive social influence over their peers and an interest in improving safety.

A safety leader should be less like a hall monitor and more like a cultural influencer. The best safety leaders are people who help their peers improve without their even realising it’s happening. They are the people on the team who others come to

for advice because they know their response will be both correct and useful. Ideally, an organisation has safety leaders across all its teams so anyone can step into the role.

Leadership is different from management: leaders create the vision and managers implement it. Some employees are naturally inclined toward safety leadership.

How to nurture them

Identify them and empower them to develop their leadership. Look for employees with the best safety records and observe how they interact with their peers. They might provide gentle reminders to wear safety gear or offer advice about safer working.

Encourage them to share and implement their ideas. They tend to be willing to take on extra work if it contributes to a safer environment, so tap into that engagement to make improvements across the organization.

Train them so they can learn even more ways to engage with their colleagues about safety. This might include experiential learning to help people become more comfortable with their new leadership skills before applying them on the job.

Safety leadership is not a single role. The more safety leaders your organization has, the more likely you are to achieve your safety goals. Achieving those goals requires leadership, from executives and from those doing the front-line work. Safety leaders are not always in managerial roles and those in the front-line roles often have deeper insight into what will improve safety.

About Safety-ZoneSafety-Zone operate throughout mainland Scotland and in particular, the Highlands & Islands, offering a diverse range of health and safety training and consulting. Safety-Zone provides health, safety, and wellbeing solutions to all sizes and types of organisations.

Visit: www.safety-zone.scot

Anybody can

be a safety

leader who

understands

and follows

safety

procedures,

reports safety

issues when

they arise,

proactively

prevents safety

problems.


All change: The future of design, architecture and construction. When approached to write an article about the future of design construction and recruitment in those industries, I jumped at the opportunity. Little did APS know that I was right in the thick of searching for a new role myself so recruitment and Brexit were to the forefront of my mind.

Author: Alexander Naraian, President, Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists

As I write this, I have just accepted a new and exciting role starting in early September. What I have learnt through this period is that the market seems to have polarized. There are some practices struggling due to Brexit and others that seem to be flourishing – it’s feast or famine.

We are clearly living in a time of turmoil and unprecedented uncertainty. But along with this always comes opportunity and change. It is during these periods that it is important to take a step back and look at the emerging trends, linked to economic, social and political drivers.

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs)SMEs continue to thrive in the current market and I cannot see this trend changing. Being smaller, there is nowhere to hide if their service is less than good. Their agility, ambition for growth and personal care and customer focus all feed into their success. This is hugely positive for the UK and will continue to be so.

As a result of this growth, serviced office spaces, work/home hubs, coffee shops, flexible meeting spaces and flexible working patterns are on the rise. Connectivity and space standards

Guest article

...businesses

need to

embrace

constant

change and

to expect

and respond

effectively to

the unexpected.

manageable. Targets are easier to monitor, a smaller team-spirited working culture can be attained and more agile and innovative thinking comes about as result with happier, healthier staff.

Some of the larger juggernauts on the other hand have struggled in recent years. They tend to be slower to react and proact to change, unwieldly in their operation and accounting procedures, and consequently we have seen a number of these giants go to the wall as a result. It really is an age of survival of the fittest. There is no room for complacency in business or in our market at this time.

This means businesses need to embrace constant change and to expect and respond effectively to the unexpected. Customer service focussed businesses are doing well and some of the old values of putting the customer first, face-to-face communication and the added personal touch are re-surfacing as the digital age releases up time to get back to focussing on these ideas.

The future of design and construction We now live in a post-industrial age and we are amidst the tech revolution. The age of digital disruption is hitting and re-shaping our industry in unprecedented ways. Artificial intelligence is taking on the big data handling and processing tasks. BIM working practice has come of age and the IT world’s focus is now on construction.

We are being dragged into the 21st century whether we like it or not. The world is changing at an exponential rate around us, driven by the need to house its population, in an efficient and sustainable way and to cope with rapid urbanisation, against the backdrop of climate change. Facebook are now manufacturing and producing homes. India’s response to housing their entire population by 2021 is moving at a rapid rate fully embracing offsite manufacturing to assist in meeting their ambitious target.

These challenges in the way we design, construct and recruit can only be met through innovation and a willingness to evolve and reinvent.

are high on the agenda and becoming embedded into our built environment.

SMEs are also becoming more innovative. Not just ‘in house’ but also in their strategic and inventive approach to punching above their weight when competing against larger businesses. By collaborating in partnership with complimentery, SMEs, this strength in numbers approach and ability to adapt quickly to change is presenting greater opportunity for business. SMEs are challenging the longer established, larger organisations, who are having to re-think the way in which they do business and learn from these smaller, more agile, cost-efficient, business models.

Larger BusinessesLarger businesses on the other hand are critically reviewing how they do things. Flexibility in how they operate, empower staff, introduce agility and embrace continuous growth are key here.

I have seen a shift in multi-disciplinary practices which often sub-divide to create the feel of a group of smaller businesses working together. This means everything becomes more


Here in the UK, we must embrace these technologies rapidly to deal with the housing and skills shortage. I believe we have reached crisis point caused by historical resistance to change and habitual procrastination. In doing so we have not moved forward with the times. We only need to look across the pond to the US and their working practices to realise this. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

We must now seize this opportunity to move forward and bring about solutions addressing the housing and skills shortage.

Looking AheadIn the near future the way in which we design will move away from two dimensional design tools like the keyboard and mouse and move forward digitally with true three dimensional design utilising virtual reality and hand gesture design.

The intuitive nature of these tools will mean that the designer is free to design, rather than getting bogged down in the complexity of software required in the current two-dimension digital environment. This is a very liberating time that we are living in. These tools will require of us to be willing to change the way we design,but will not take inventiveness away from us. It’s a shift of focus.

Academia and IndustryThis shift in working culture and innovation is driving industry to work more closely with academia.

Academic institutions are more business-focussed and fiercely competitive driven by yearly intake numbers for course viability. Employability statistics feature highly in the sales promotion for degrees and courses.

With such a shift in the way we do things, fresh, innovative, challenging minds are required. Equally the skills required to execute the delivery of the built environment are evolving requiring a balance of old school skills along with skills to deliver modern methods of construction.

Health and SafetyProject safety must be integrated and embedded into all we do. There is no room to treat it as an afterthought. Membership organisations like the APS and Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists will continue to play a huge role.

It is the responsibility of all the allied professionals to ensure that this remains high on our agenda for we serve society as professional bodies and part of that service and privilege is to provide a safe built environment for all.

Guest article


Embedding a health as well as a safety cultureWorkers in construction are 3.7 times more likely to commit suicide than workers in other professions yet the health of the workforce is rarely tackled effectively at organisational level compared to safety. This is often and simply due to lack of knowledge about how to do this. Clare Forshaw is a consultant at Park Health and Safety. In February this year she was commissioned by The Highways Sector to look at how it tackled the ‘health’ in ‘health and safety’ when it came to its employees. This article considers the general status of approaches to workers’ health in the construction industry and looks at the solution The Highways Sector is developing.

Author: Clare Forshaw

who work in construction have been diagnosed with a common mental health condition. Even more concerning is that workers in construction are 3.7 times more at risk of committing suicide compared to the national average in other professions, with the highest rate of suicide amongst low skilled construction workers. The Construction News Mind Matters Survey 2018 found that nearly a third of respondents had taken time off work due to mental health issues. Of these respondents, 63 per cent said they had hidden the real reason for their absence from their employer.

FatigueThe effects of shift work and fatigue are also highly relevant to the construction industry. Both are recognised as having a potentially significant impact on the health and safety of the workforce. It comes as no surprise that the disrupted sleeping and eating patterns caused by shift work are likely to have a knock-on effect on a person’s concentration and general good health, however it is less well known that shift work is a category 2A carcinogen as classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Therefore, employers should be meeting their obligations to investigate the potential risk and prevent exposure where possible.

Fatigue can also lead to errors and accidents, ill-health and injury, as

Work and health are inextricably linked. Individuals bring their own health to work and their health is affected by their work and workplace, so they have both a positive and negative impact on each other. Most organisations are confident in understanding their roles as leaders in safety and have the right attitudes, behaviours and tools in place. However, they are often less confident in applying the same principles and tools for health especially as the scope of health is seen as very broad. Organisations are often less clear about what is expected of them. This means the topic can become a huge headache, often ending up in the ‘too difficult’ box.

Against that, there is a plethora of evidence proving the benefits of ‘good work’ for the individual, for business performance and wider society as well as the economy (Waddell & Burton 2006, Black 2008, Taylor 2017, Stevenson & Farmer 2017, DH&SC 2018). There are also emerging and growing implications for investing in the future health of our workforce especially with an increasingly aged workforce, a skills shortage and in attracting and retaining high calibre recruits.

Mental HealthIn particular there is an increasing focus being placed on mental health in the workplace, from government, charities and leading industry and professional bodies. 1 in 6 people

well as reduced productivity. Fatigue results in slower reactions, reduced ability to process information, memory lapses, absent-mindedness, decreased awareness, lack of attention, underestimation of risk, and reduced coordination. Consequently fatigue needs to be managed effectively to prevent ill health and increased risk of injury, and to reduce the risk of unplanned operational outages, associated lost time, damage to plant, property, equipment and reputation.

Moving ForwardIn conjunction with the survey we have developed a health improvement framework which will house a number of resources to guide different audiences to a suite of specific tools and information. This provides a more bespoke response.

The aspiration is that the framework is an ever-evolving pool of information, populated by industry best practice as well as peer reviewed guidance and standards.

The OpportunityThe ambition within the highways sector is to be more proactive and engaging in health matters with a true sense that change is needed and the time is now. This opportunity provides the whole sector with a standardised approach that is evidenced and scalable and can be embedded alongside current initiatives or the stand-alone

1 in 6 people

who work in

construction

have been

diagnosed with

a common

mental health

condition.


approach to health. It is developed by the industry, for the industry and will be driven forwards by the sector sharing known solutions that have worked to encourage better standards of care and protection for the health or our people.

The FutureHaving a healthy and productive workforce is more important today than ever. Having a structured, scalable and bespoke approach allows the industry to produce specific and achievable improvement plans. Monitoring progress year on year and ‘closing the gap’ provides the potential for a sustainable drive towards a healthier future for the industry and its people, keeping people healthy, happy and at work.

About Clare Forshaw

Clare is an Occupational Health & Hygiene Partner with Park Health & Safety Partnership. She previously worked at the HSE and has over 20 years’ experience in workplace health management. Clare is an Associate Member of the Faculty of Occupational Hygiene with post graduate qualifications in both Occupational Hygiene and Health Ergonomics.

Her role involves assisting organisations in achieving their goals in health risk management. She is actively involved in advising many industry sector working groups to embed a strategic health roadmap of improvement and sits on cross government committees to influence and evolve understanding and approaches to improving health through the workplace.

About Park Health & Safety Partnership: https://parkhs.co.uk/#home

Developing a solution – The Highways SectorThe highways sector is taking responsibility to improve working conditions for the future health of our workforce; focussing on improving maturity in health risk management and specifically addressing two of the key health issues that the industry faces i.e. mental health and fatigue.

Like a lot of organisations, they had a relatively clear idea of where they are, what they are good at and where they need to improve. However, surveys and other investigations they had carried out to determine this had left them without a clear idea of what to do to address the lack of progress. This is an industry-wide issue and is often particularly true for ‘health’ where misunderstandings and miscon-ceptions can then be easily reinforced and a sustained lack of impetus prevails.

To overcome this a structured, supported pathway to embed an effective culture of control and care for workers health has been developed. The initial consideration was what particular health issues could be monitored as indicators of performance in order to provide specific measurable outcomes. This was resolved by agreeing on two specific areas of health concern for the sector, so that questions were developed to specifically explore performance in the two areas of fatigue and mental health man-agement. Both management and the employees would answer questions then the two results can be compared, the organisation would then need to work to close any gaps between the results.

Clare Forshaw

Recruitment

The long haulHowever elevated or modest your career goals you are more likely to achieve them with a plan.

Author: James Irwin, Director, Irwin & Colton

you there. This is not necessarily a time-consuming task but, if it’s not scheduled, years can easily fly by without stopping to reflect, assess and plan. Professionals undertake planning day in, day out for the companies they work for, but not always for themselves. To address this, first define your goal - the clearer you can make it the better. What industry do you want to be in? What location? What size of team do you want to manage? You may even want to specify the companies you want to work for. The seniority you aim for does not have to be the global director or head of department. While some feel this may be the definition of success not everyone is cut out for

these roles. Many of the happiest professionals are those who excel at being second in command or business unit leaders or those who have found satisfaction in their niche position in a big team. Whatever your goal, as the author Paulo Coelho put it in The Alchemist, “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. The world changes and flexibility is key when setting goals. The role you set your sights on now may not exist when you reach the right level to take it on, but it is essential to know where you are aiming at any point. Qualified SuccessesMost senior health and safety risk management leadership roles need a solid technical background and qualifications. But for many professionals safety and health is not their first career. This means people often have qualifications from different fields so have to study again to secure the more senior positions. Qualifications will probably not be critical when you are applying for senior management roles. Until then, they will probably play a big part.

Building your career in safety and health management is a marathon not a sprint. The journey could take 40 years, but if you run even slightly off course for long enough, you will find yourself far from your intended destination. To avoid looking back on a career and regretting either missed opportunities or a sense of not having reached their potential practitioners have to map their professional routes. Typically, there will be four to seven roles on this journey but, regardless of how many you fill in your career, safety and health is a niche area and opportunities can be limited. As a result it is imperative you invest time knowing where you want to go and develop some sort of map to get


James Irwin

...flexibility

is key when

setting goals.

The role you

set your sights

on now may

not exist when

you reach the

right level to

take it on, but

it is essential to

know where you

are aiming.


The qualifications route to senior leadership positions can start with a variety of qualifications. Each will have different learning regimes to suit individual preferences and available time. It is important to look again at your goal. What other qualifications will you require? What will set you apart from other candidates? What skills do you need to build? Should you broaden your experience? Looking at the people who are in your target roles and companies now could give you a good steer. The soft stuffThe ability to persuade, influence and achieve buy-in from top management and the workforce are essential for any senior safety and health leader. These are also the skills in the highest demand and they mark out the best candidates. There are two major questions candidates need to ask: how do I identify where I need to improve; and how do I improve those skills and competencies? Once you have identified your skills gaps, start with easy wins. Talk

to people who can help with your career goals and help you build the necessary skills. You might find your HR department can help you to create a plan. It may also offer training courses or mentorship schemes. Many large organisations have programmes to develop future leaders - find out if yours does and how you can get involved. Seek out a mentor - someone you admire - who is the kind of leader or manager you would like to be. They can offer valuable advice and support and help with the challenges you face along the way. Health and safety is a friendly profession and there are probably more people than you think willing to support you. Finding a mentor can be easier if you have been with an organisation for a long time - the career paths of many of the most successful practitioners include a period of seven or more years with one organisation. In retrospect, such practitioners often say this longer spell with a single employer was critical because it gave them the opportunity to find mentors as well seeing the fruits of medium-term strategy and planning. Non-technical competencies do not have to be solely work focused. Most organisations will be interested in examples of how you have developed skills outside work. If you are involved in a sports club, charity or other organisation where you have a position of responsibility, make sure this is on your CV and highlight it in interviews.

Network keyOnce you have the skills, qualifications and experience, you have to put yourself in the right position to get noticed and stand out. There are two key ways to do it: network; and raise your profile. You can do this in many ways: for example, attend events, go to alumni meetings, conferences and branch events. Alternatively, you can connect with your existing network through coffee meetings or engage with trusted recruiters. This will give you an up-to-date understanding of the recruitment market for senior roles and an insight into jobs on offer. Many companies will look to their most senior safety and health professionals to raise the profile of the organisation by taking up speaking opportunities across the industry. They will often look for examples of this in a candidate’s career. However, it can be tricky to get the chance to be a spokesman if your immediate boss gets the invitations. It might be worth asking to see if there are opportunities through your organisation’s development programme. Finally, remember your plan has to be flexible. Recession, redundancy, mergers and other factors beyond your control can knock you off course. But having a positive mental attitude can translate these apparent setbacks into learning opportunities and allow you to get back on course.

About Irwin & ColtonIrwin & Colton is a leading specialist agency focussed on health, safety and environment. They are based in Hertfordshire and recruit across the whole of the UK.

More about Irwin & Colton: www.irwinandcolton.com

12

Recruitment

quickly than most other sectors of the economy, now accounting for nearly 7% of all UK employment. Not enough people have come into CDM either at entry level or through retraining. The skills shortage has been exacerbated by CDM 2015 which has encouraged organisations to take the principal designer role more seriously.”

Shona explains “Most of my clients are consulting practices ranging in size from fewer than 10 people to ones employing thousands, though not all of those work in CDM. CDM is what we term a candidate led market. For several years the salaries for CDM people have grown much faster than for those in other related sectors.

“Most of the consultancies ask my team for help because they can’t find the people they want themselves, even when they are large enough to have in-house talent acquisition teams. Having specialised in CDM for such a long time my team has all the contacts needed to know who the CDM people are. But that is the easy part. It takes us longer than other teams in Shirley Parsons to find the right people and when we do the shortlists we can present to clients are much shorter - typically one or two candidates rather than four or five. Frequently these

This article looks more closely at the people who work directly or indirectly in matters concerning CDM and the careers available to people who want to focus in these areas. There are a small number of opportunities to work in the public sector on the legislative or enforcement areas such as the HSE, or to work in professional bodies such as the Association for Project Safety or the Chartered Quality Institute. However, most careers are with organisations working as suppliers to the principal contractors such as training businesses and consulting practices. This is because - in the main - principal contractors and asset owners tend to outsource CDM related work, retaining oversight capability in house. Few people remain with their first employer for the entirety of their working lives and the sector dynamics in CDM have tended to encourage movement. Simply put the laws of supply and demand apply and for some time the CDM sector has been somewhat out of balance.

Shona Paterson, CDM Talent Practice Lead at Shirley Parsons takes up the story: “I’ve worked in recruitment for over 15 years and most of this time has been in the CDM sector. There has always been a talent shortage. Since 2010, the construction sector has not only grown, but grown more

candidates will also have several options.”

A recent situation illustrates Shona’s point: “My colleague Georgie was recently asked to find a CDM consultant for a large consultancy. Georgie eventually found two excellent candidates, both with the right motivations to move and who would be a good cultural fit for the consultancy. The first candidate was offered the position and accepted it. She then resigned, however two weeks later went on to accept a counter offer from her current employer to remain.

“Her salary was £40K at resignation. She accepted an offer from the new company of £48K. Then she accepted a counter offer from her current employer of £55K which was outside of the salary bands permitted at the larger consultancy. Fortunately for the consultancy, the second candidate had been kept “warm” and eventually accepted an offer that was at the top of the pay scale of the hiring consultancy. If the second candidate hadn’t accepted then it would have meant starting the search again from the beginning.

Shona also explains how a good agent works for both clients and candidates: “Because demand for CDM consultants and principal designers is so high, candidates who are actively looking for a new role will often have interviews with several clients within days of starting their searches. This seems great for candidates but very hard to manage for the clients who often feel that they are in a bidding war. Moreover a candidate’s motivations for change can rapidly morph, with money becoming the sole driving factor. When this happens considerations regarding being a good fit or a good career move are secondary to the money. Hires made in such circumstances can often result in a shorter tenure with clients continuing to lose out on their investment in talent acquisition.

“At Shirley Parsons our approach is to keep in touch with candidates constantly, acting almost as a career agent. This means that most of the time we speak with people they are not actively looking but will come to us when they do decide that a move is right. Understanding candidates’ aspirations helps us to provide better guidance on what the next move will be to help fulfil those aspirations.

Project Safety Matters

Recruitingfor talent The CDM regulations, introduced in 1994, aim to improve health and safety in the industry. The overall goal being reducing the risk of harm to those who have to build, use and maintain structures. Whilst there was a significant improvement in the early years, the last few years have seen those improvements largely flatten out. There are a range of factors that contribute to why this is happening. This article considers one of those factors – the people. It is people who make the legislation, people who oversee the designs and make the plans, people who train and get trained, people who follow or ignore process and ultimately people who have accidents or lose their lives.

Authors: Shirley Parsons and Shona Patterson

Being able to

attract talent

is one thing

but retaining

talent is another

challenge.

Do you

understand the

aspirations of

your people and

what role your

organisation

plays in helping

your people

to fulfil their

aspirations?


Working in this way helps us to present candidates to organisations knowing that “the fit” is the main consideration for interviewer and interviewee. Bidding wars are largely avoided and of course an appropriate market rate for today’s markets is always paid. Good talent still commands a good price.

“Being able to attract talent is one thing but retaining talent is another challenge. Gaining experience by working on exciting projects is great, but what happens next? Does your organisation have a clear set of pathways for your people? Do you understand the aspirations of your people and what role your organisation plays in helping your people to fulfil their aspirations?

“At Shirley Parsons we are often asked to help our clients to shape their talent retention strategy. The strategies are generally straightforward, but determining the detail is less so. Everything about your business feeds into talent retention.” Finally, Shona adds that it’s important to consider the softer skills: “If you find a candidate who has these skills you are on to a winner. Someone who has excellent communication skills, commercial awareness and the ability to spot opportunities will pay for themselves many times over, discovering opportunities, winning new business and being a great ambassador for their company.

“Softer skills can rarely be taught, but they can be developed if you have something to work with first. Think about finding people with the right softer skills and teach them the technical side – in the long run this will help your business.

“To sum up, to improve safety in the construction sector we know that legislation, compliance and punishments are all drivers that have an impact, but it is people who drive changes. More “people time” needs to be spent on eliminating the causes of accidents and fatalities, automating process elements, eliminating errors and preventing mistakes. In effect making it easier for safety to happen. To get more “people time”, people need to be available to provide that time. When the sector is struggling to keep pace with ‘Business as usual’, it’s harder to make time for the improvements that technology and process re-engineering offer.

“Staff shortages will continue until action is taken to address the issue. Staff shortages mean that salaries are much higher than the equivalent grades in other related HSEQ areas. If employers want to address this imbalance, then they need to work together with other parties to entice more people into the sector.

“Employers need to work with Universities to turn out more CDM specialists and they need to work with training organisations to cross-train

people with other backgrounds. In the latter case, particularly selecting those who know construction from the engineering and architectural side will reap rewards. Employers should also look at taking more junior people and training them over a longer period, making longer-term investments rather than hiring the best of what is available at the time

“Once this happens, then instead of focusing on addressing talent issues, the sector can focus on investing in improvements.”

More informationShirley Parsons, CEO of the company that bears her name, has 40 years in health, safety and environmental consulting and latterly talent acquisition.

For advice on anything talent related, both she and Shona Patterson can be contacted on 01296 326551 or visit: https://www.shirleyparsons.com

Shirley Parsons Shona Patterson

News in Brief

A construction company has today been fined £35,000 after failing to ensure the safety and welfare of workers on site during the renovation of a property.

Preston Magistrates’ Court heard how, between 12 December 2015 and 14 June 2018, Navkaar Limited put its workers at serious risk of personal injury or death at a construction site in Blackpool. The company failed to prevent risks from falls from height, exposure to asbestos and dangerous electrical systems. There were no suitable welfare facilities and no measures to prevent fire on site. Employees and contractors on site did not have the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to complete the work and were carrying out work in an unsafe manner.

As well as the fine, Navkaar was ordered to pay costs of £3,860.

Kevin Campbell who was working at night on a construction site in Stratford, was struck by an excavator mounted vibrator (EMV) attached to a 35-tonne excavator. Mr Campbell died from his injuries. Another site operative, who was directly next to him, was nearly struck.

An investigation by the HSE found the construction company which was the principal contractor; Clancy Docwra Limited, failed to ensure the safety so far as is reasonably practicable of its employees and of others who were not their employees working on the site. The investigation also found that Daniel Walsh, who was the site supervisor and the person operating the excavator, failed to take reasonable care for other persons on site at the time.

The company was fined £1,000,000 and ordered to pay costs of £108,502.30.

Daniel Walsh of Eastcote, Orpington, Kent pleaded not guilty to breaching Section 7(a) of the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was given a 6 month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay costs of £15,000.

A company providing services in rock drilling, cliff stabilisation and rock anchors, and its director, have been sentenced after a number of workers were diagnosed with hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).

Plymouth Magistrates’ Court heard how three employees had reported symptoms of HAVS but no action was taken. The employees began to experience symptoms such as pins and needles and aching hands. An occupational nurse was employed in 2016 and the HAVS problem was identified.

A car and commercial vehicle component manufacturer has been fined after two employees suffered burns whilst cleaning a distillation tank.

Two employees of Delphi Diesel Systems Limited were seriously injured when the vapour of a flammable chemical ignited and caused an explosion. One employee could not return to work for over two months because of his injuries.

News in Brief Company fined £35,000 following multiple safety failings

Company and employee sentenced after co-worker is killed by an excavator.

Company and director sentenced after multiple workers diagnosed with HAVS

£1,000,000 fine after employees are burned

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the risk assessment did not identify the actual exposure to vibration and had used out of date vibration data. It also found there was no health surveillance in place until 2016 and employees were not made aware of HAVS and its symptoms. When symptoms were reported, the company had failed to take action.

The company has been fined £36,667 and ordered to pay costs of £3,560. Alwyn Griffith Hughes Thomas, director of the company, has been given a 12 week custodial sentence, suspended for one year, a 12 week curfew and ordered to pay costs of £3,560.

An investigation by the HSE into the incident found that no risk assessment had been undertaken for the procedure, there was no safe system of work in place and no planning had been undertaken for the use of the flammable chemical.

As well as the fine, the company was ordered to pay costs of £9,374.


Industry news

Building a safer future Proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory systemThe government has consulted on the building safety regulatory system in England. The Association for Project Safety [APS] has been at the heart of industry discussions and here is a flavour of the response that has gone in from across the sector.


framed, the proposals could have the unintended effect of preventing practitioners from getting insurance to cover their work.

APS was, overall, pleased to see industry support for safety as a central requirement for any project and not treated as an optional – and expensive – add-on.

The need for change - stronger requirements for multi-occupied high-rise residential buildings The construction industry concluded that any new regulatory system for England had to be flexible to reflect changes to buildings and building techniques as well as covering more types of building or other risks such as health, accessibility or welfare. People agreed that the initial criteria for the Hackitt review were too narrow and bringing the English system in line with the Scottish regulations – that is, dealing with residential properties greater than six storeys [or more than 18 metres] - would be a better practical fire-fighting height.

The industry also thought that it would be a good idea to broaden the scope of the Regulations to cover either homes for vulnerable people or, indeed, any building over 18 metres where people sleep. The former would mean ‘vulnerability’ would have to be defined - and that would have to include short-term vulnerability, for example for places of entertainment [such as cinemas or clubs] where large numbers of people could be unfamiliar with how to escape or could be under the influence of alcohol. If the government were to go for

Government proposals to rejig the building safety regulatory system in England could be an opportunity for APS members, as the consensus of industry opinion is that the design phase is critical to identifying and - as far as possible - eliminating risk. APS’s founding objective to ‘shape and share good practice’ fits well with the overall proposals and sets members on a firm footing for the future. APS members are also well placed to manage changes throughout the life span of any building as maintaining the ‘golden thread’ could be vital to saving lives.

Across the construction sector there was general agreement that the regulatory system in England needed to be updated and change is necessary. When the government consulted the industry, respondents said they felt that it would be necessary to go beyond the original remit of the Hackitt review to ensure residents in high-rise buildings could sleep soundly in their beds. No one demurred from the view that everyone needed to have a greater say in the build, management, use and refurbishment of the buildings in which they live. It was also agreed that best practice needed to be codified, followed and, when standards were not reached, there should be a strong and effective enforcement system to back up the rules. There was support for the need for a detailed competency framework and for appropriate, recognised training for workers at each stage of the design and building process. Concerns were raised about the government’s proposed requirements because many respondents worried that, as currently

the latter option then compliance would have to be phased in as not everything could be done at once. The industry concluded it would be best to start with new builds and work out to encompass buildings housing vulnerable people.

The industry did not have a fixed view on what a high risk building looked like – many recognised that height was not the only consideration. Further work would have to be done before the industry was in a position to agree which types of building were at higher risk of structural failure.

In its response the CIC concluded that the regulatory framework had to be very clear so fire safety risks could be managed holistically in multi-occupied residential buildings. There was no room for confusion over what was mandatory and what was simply guidance. For that, government had to ensure its Regulations were unambiguous and based on clear minimum requirements that could be checked against published criteria. The industry agreed that buildings needed to be treated as whole systems, even where there may be multiple occupiers – it was no good just looking at individual sections as everything was inter-related.

Respondents, including the APS, were keen to see more rigorous enforcement but there was a recognition that this too had to be grounded in clear Regulations so everyone knew what was expected of them.

Higher risk workplacesWhen it came to considering the risks to which workplaces were subject the CIC concluded that the assessment of risk should be based on a risk rating rather than the purpose group system adopted in the Approved Documents. The industry concluded that more work would have to be done to work this up but ratings should take into account the building’s occupancy, storage, physical characteristics and construction as well as the fire risk assessment required by the Regulatory Reform Order.

Duty holder roles & responsibilities in design and construction Generally the construction industry found that it would be sensible to link any new safety duties to existing CDM requirements. Most people felt the CDM Regulations - and their operation - were tried and tested and were generally thought to be working well. The industry acknowledged there would need to be clear lines

No one

demurred

from the view

that everyone

needed to have

a greater say

in the build,

management,

use and

refurbishment

of the buildings

in which they

live.

Industry news

16

of communication and co-operation between all parties for any safety system to be effective. The wording of the Regulations would need to iron out any discrepancies and confusion.

There was concern that the general obligation on duty holders to ‘ensure compliance with building regulations’ was too wide as no duty holder - with the possible exception of the principal contractor – could possibly have sufficient detailed knowledge or contractual control. There was a practical difficulty in that the principal designer could not ‘ensure’ designers were taking the building regulations into account although, perhaps, it was possible to take ‘all reasonable steps’ that they could.

APS members agreed that duty holders could not ‘ensure’ but could be expected to take ‘all reasonable steps to ensure’ their employees and contractors were competent and that they were being supervised by someone who was. The industry thought it should be made clear that designers were responsible for the safety case and to document the purpose and use of the building. Passing the baton from one duty holder to another would need to be carefully managed to minimise risk and all designers should inspect work on a regular basis to check, as far as possible, that things were being constructed in accordance with the design. There was some concern that identifying a named individual would place them in an exposed position and no-one would be willing to take on the job. It was noted that if no one would provide indemnity insurance the government’s proposals could not be implemented. Fire Statements & InformationThe industry agreed that a Fire Statement should be submitted as part of any planning application. The CIC said the fire statement should, right from the outset, contain all the information needed for the safety case. The fire statement should include ways to reduce fire risk – such as fire suppression -and escape routes and fire fighter access. There is a view that the Planning applicant should be given the status of a Client at Gateway One – or even at a new Gateway Zero - and should be responsible for the Fire Statement. This means no one can shirk responsibility for setting up the project in a compliant way. The CIC said that the Planning stage was the appropriate time to ensure developers consider fire and structural risks but a pre-planning stage needs to be made

What risk looks like

In construction industry thought higher risk buildings could include:• Prisons – prisons, detention

centres and other secure premises

• Hospitals – health care institutions providing patient treatment where patients are kept in overnight or for an indeterminate time

• Supported/sheltered housing – premises where vulnerable people are supported and provided with a safe and secure home

• Educational buildings – boarding schools and halls of residence

• Student housing• Hotels• Entertainment venues• Places of assembly.

Find out more

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/707792/Building_a_Safer_Future_-_foreword_and_summary.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/806892/BSP_consultation.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-building-regulations-and-fire-safety-final-report

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-building-regulations-and-fire-safety-final-report

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-regulatory-reform-fire-safety-order-2005-call-for-evidence

APS’s legal eagle Gillian Birkby will be addressing conference and information about her talk will be available on the APS website after the event

Risky Buildings

The CIC considered all sorts of buildings could be risky. Sometimes it was the building itself that posed the risks. Sometimes it was because people were more likely to find it difficult to get out if fire took hold.

Buildings could be risky when:• Layout or construction make fire prevention -or

fire-fighting - more difficult• Fire can spread more quickly or unpredictably

– this could be in modified or refurbished buildings

• Escape from fire is more difficult – for example, prisons or detention centres.

Occupants could be more at risk when:• Asleep and would have to be woken up• Unfamiliar with their surroundings - such as in a

hotel or student accommodation• Unable to follow evacuation procedures - such

as people with dementia or learning difficulties• Struggling, on occasion, to follow evacuation

procedures - such as those under the influence of alcohol

• There are logistical difficulties escaping fire - such as patients in a hospital or those in prison

• There is a risk of mass panic - such as entertainment venues or stadia.


...the use

of digital

information

could allow

a degree of

automated

data checking,

which can be

developed if

the information

is required in

a structured

format and

is based on

the existing

information

management

standards.

statutory too. Some felt the planning application stage was too late in the process. The industry’s submission went on to say that, within the Construction Control Plan produced by the principal contractor, there should be a requirement to set out the competences of anyone responsible for handling changes.

Comprehensive and clear information is fundamental. Clients should be required to coordinate information - on behalf of the principal designer and principal contractor - and submit it as a package, as this will prevent duplication, confusion and will enforce client accountability. Each duty holder would still have a responsibility to work with each other to sustain the Golden Thread. The CIC pointed out that ISO 19650 already defines best practice for information management.

The Building Safety RegulatorThere is a proposal to create a Building Safety Regulator and the industry supported the idea. The CIC said the Building Safety Regulator should have tough powers to be effective. That could include having the discretion to pull down sub-standard work or require it to be rectified. The CIC pointed out the HSE already had some of the powers proposed for the new regulator and, for example, there were already powers to halt work or prevent work on other parts of a building commencing until inspection of any previous stage has been successfully completed. The Building Safety Regulator could stipulate reserve matters, whereby compliance is not entirely agreed until certain issues are sorted out. The Building Safety Regulator should be notified of any changes and form part of the communication. Concerns were raised that there could be insufficient capacity within the system to staff and support any proposed new regulator. Additional resources could be needed. In particular it was felt that time scales could be challenging if inspectors were scarce or where people had insufficient skill or experience. New technology was thought to be vital in delivering any new system.

Refurbishing BuildingsAny proposed work that impacts on the fire strategy, or modifies the structure of a building, needs to be covered and should apply to HRRBs where there are leaseholders as well as tenants but where none of the occupiers have ultimate control over fire safety in the building. A careful balance is needed between incentivising building owners to keep

their building safe and the rights of occupiers and leaseholders.

Accountable PersonsIt is important to have an accountable person and the CIC said it thought the government’s proposals were a good start. However, it was thought the scope would need to reach overseas territories in the same way as the Bribery Act. The legislation would also have to deal with the death or incapacity of the accountable person as well as setting out what would happen in the case of insolvency.

Digital InformationCarrying the Golden Thread on throughout the life-cycle of any building was thought to be important and helpful. The Golden Thread is at the heart of the BS EN ISO 19650 standards and is all about information management and having a structured data set. This should allow a system to be developed to automate data checking.

It was felt the use of digital information could allow a degree of automated data checking, which can be developed if the information is required in a structured format and is based on the existing information management standards. The CIC felt using BIM could improve accountability, productivity and quality but there is a problem as the ‘BIM standards’ are not defined anywhere and are constantly changing. There were also concerns that the industry lacked BIM skills. There would need to be a major programme to educate practitioners. The use of digital information management would also need to be a regulatory requirement. It was felt, ideally, that it should impose a clear and simple requirement on the client

to undertake information management according to the BS EN ISO 19650 series.

Sharing & Learning It was generally recognised that it was important to learn from the industry’s mistakes but people recognised it could be difficult to speak out in a litigious culture. A reporting mechanism was a welcome suggestion but it was noted that any mechanism would need to be developed to allow both whistle-blowing and to alert the regulator anonymously. A new culture of sharing learning would need to be developed. The APS pointed out that a good model could be that adopted by the civil aviation industry. Others suggested using the CROSS system which has the advantage of being operated by the voluntary sector, avoiding possible concerns of those fearing the consequences of raising concerns directly with a formal statutory authority.

Duty holder roles and responsibility for compliance duty holders should be responsible for compliance of work controlled under the Building Regulations. This is not the same scope as CDM. A relatively quick but significant piece of work controlled under Building Regulations may not fall in scope of CDM, but should still comply with Building Regulations. The industry felt duty holder roles - and the responsibility for compliance with building regulations - must be applied to all controlled building work. It was recognised that local authorities often find it difficult to enforce because ‘person’ isn’t defined. It was felt that having defined duties would mean enforcement action could then be taken.

18Project Safety Matters

organisation who wanted to develop a structured way of improving wellbeing. We consulted with an extensive project steering group made up of over 20 professionals in the field of construction and wellbeing. This was to ensure a wide range of tried and tested information and advice that would be relevant to organisations of different sizes and types.

The guide itself firstly explores the definition of wellbeing and the key elements of a wellbeing strategy. It then focuses on four key areas of mind, culture, body and physical

We are all familiar with the business case for improving wellbeing, with benefits like better performance, fewer sick days taken and a lower staff turnover widely acknowledged. Poor mental health alone is estimated to cost the UK economy between £70 - £100 billion a year. So, companies that are working on improving wellbeing within their organisations are already potentially developing a competitive advantage. This is why wellbeing in the workplace is vitally important.

We wrote the guide in order to provide a blueprint for any company or

environment. Each of these are explained in depth in the main body of the guide to identify how to improve performance on them. The guide also includes a baseline tool that can be used to plan actions and track performance along with a series of awareness raising slides to help communicate the strategy to the target audiences. Taken together these elements will enable a company to develop a comprehensive wellbeing strategy and improve performance.

The importance of strategyBut as Dr Justin Varney from Public Health England says, “Too often employers go straight to offering ‘yoga and zumba’ skipping the importance of a well defined strategy. You can’t zumba your way out of bad line management”.

A good strategy gives us the key to managing wellbeing effectively, just like any other issue within the business. It makes the entire process of improving wellbeing much easier, like following a roadmap as opposed to guessing your route. It will also enable you to demonstrate what you have achieved. There’s no need to rewrite the book as there are plenty of very effective strategy standards out there, such as the ISO Annex SL model.

Annex SL covers the following key areas. Shown below:

Wellbeing on site -new guidance for the construction industryCIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) has recently published ‘Delivering Wellbeing at Site Level (C782D)’. New guidance to improve wellbeing on construction projects. In this article, Sam Hall, Director, SI Partnership Ltd and co-author of the guide discusses its main insights and gives advice on how to get the best out of it.

Need to know

Greg Chantis a founding director of Square Gain. He is a Chartered Environmentalist and Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, with over 20 years experience in the construction sector, working with clients and contractors, material suppliers, and financiers.

Sam Hallis a founding director of SI Partnership. He has over 20 years experience developing sustainability strategy and policy in the construction sector.

He is a Chartered Environmentalist and a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Sam also has a degree in psychology and is a qualified psychotherapist.

Wellbeingscope

Context of the organisation

Leadership

Planning

Support

Performanceevaluation

Improvement

Operation

Projector Business?

Legalrequirements

Seniormanagement commitment

Risks and opportunities

Resources

Monitoring & measurement

Correctingproblems

Mappingprocedures

and processes

Peoplecovered?

Policyrequirements

Wellbeingpolicy

Compliance obligations

Competence

Analysis &evaluation

Continuallyimprove

Emergency preparednessand response

Physicalboundary?

Clientrequirements

Company requirements

Roles and responsibility

Objectivesand targets Action plan

AwarenessCommunications,

internal & external

Documentcontrol

Legal & policy compliance

Internalaudit

Managementreview

Wellbeing Management Standard


This model leads you through the development of management controls for each of the key areas of a management system. In effect you can follow an ISO management standard like ISO14001 and simply replace the word ‘Environment’ with ‘Wellbeing’ and hey presto you have a wellbeing management system. It’s also important to remember that if you are currently running ISO14001 in your organisation then wellbeing can simply be added to that existing process. Integrating a wellbeing strategy into a pre-existing process will save time and money.

Who should be involvedThe guide also recommends who should be involved in the process, recognising that wellbeing cuts across the whole organisation so will necessarily involve different sets of professionals. We suggest you start the wellbeing journey by pulling together a range of people within the organisation to develop a basic policy and strategic approach. This could involve representatives from health and safety, human resources, finance, operations and site teams.

You can then follow the simple steps below to get started:

Once you have your basic team together it’s time to start looking at the key issues. In the guide these are dealt with under the headings of mind, body, culture and environment. These were chosen as they deal with internal aspects (mind and body) and external aspects (value system of the organisation and physical environment).

Mind Mind and mental health are central to a sense of wellbeing. ‘Mind’ encompasses concepts like thoughts and feelings, and hopes and desires. In this way it is similar to the term ‘mental health’ but broader in scope, more about the experience of the world and less about pathology. There are a range of problems associated with mental health in the workplace, such as stress, depression and anxiety. The guide does not address treatment for these conditions. Instead it looks at what can be done to reduce the pressure that work might add. This section explores how to positively influence those feelings in the workplace by looking at issues such as work life balance, relationships and support systems and job satisfaction.

Cultural environmentThis section of the guide looks at the key areas companies can focus on to improve their cultural environment, such as leadership styles, technology and the stigma of mental health issues. ‘Culture’ is used in this section to summarise the combination of history, values, beliefs, aims, systems and processes of the organisations involved in the construction process.

It’s also important to recognise that company culture is embedded within the wider industry, national and international cultures. This means that a given company’s culture is constantly evolving and changing. There have been huge developments in work practices over time: the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of women and the development of modern employment law. In taking wellbeing seriously and addressing it systematically, a company is saying something about its own culture.

BodyThis section focuses on issues such as diet and nutrition, sleep and fitness. Physical wellbeing is deeply connected to mental and emotional wellbeing. Taking care of your body is

About CIRIA CIRIA is the construction industry research and information association. It is an independent, not-for-profit, member-based research organisation that exists to champion performance improvement in construction.

Since 1960 CIRIA has delivered support and guidance to the construction, built environment and infrastructure sectors. CIRIA works with members from all parts of the supply chain to co-ordinate collaborative projects, industry networks and events. Its high quality guidance is delivered to industry through publications, training and other performance improvement activities. For more information on CIRIA’s products and services please visit www.ciria.org.

a powerful first step towards mental and emotional wellbeing. The mind and the body are inseparable. When you improve your physical health, you’ll automatically experience greater mental and emotional well-being. For example, exercise not only strengthens your heart and lungs, but also releases endorphins, powerful chemicals that energize us and lift your mood. It’s also common for emotional issues to be expressed as somatic symptoms like aches and pains in the body so stretching and exercising can have direct benefits for the mind too.

Physical environmentThis section looks closely at issues like workplace design, lighting, air quality and thermal comfort. The physical environment influences wellbeing with issues such as access to light, air, the temperature of the working environment, the type of food you eat, noise nuisance contributing to good or bad outcomes, such as sleepiness, fatigue and pain.

Baselining tool and training The guide also provides both a baselining tool to help you track progress as well as a set of training slides to help communicate key messages. These can both be downloaded and adapted to your organisation. CIRIA may also soon be launching in-house training on the guide so visit the CIRIA website to stay updated.

CIRIA website: www.ciria.org

Read the guide:www.ciria.org/c782D

Improve Use the guide to develop the

strategy and start delivering on the survey findings

CheckRun a wellbeing survey. Set up a regular meeting of a wellbeing

steering group

DoHold a workshop to identify the

strategic vision, objectives & targets and an outline action plan

PlanIdentify the key stakeholders that will be involved in setting up and delivering the wellbeing strategy

How to start

4

3

2

1

20

The use of agency staff, freelancers, self-employed contractors and personal service companies (PSCs) has become widespread since the 1990s. For employers, their use allows for greater flexibility, while for self-employed consultants, they hold the allure of generous tax breaks.

In 2000 Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) introduced the IR35 tax rule. This was intended

Legal News

Employment legislation – what next for IR35? As this edition of Project Safety Matters focusses on recruitment we asked our colleagues at Fladgate’s LLP if they would give us an update on employment law. Michael McCartney, a partner at Fladgate in their employment department, responds with an update on legislation for self-employed staff.

Author: Michael McCartney, Partner: Fladgate LLP

to equalise the position between employees and those whom HMRC viewed as being in “disguised employment”. IR35 effectively wiped out the tax benefit of this model for most consultants. Yet this employment model continues in widespread use today.

According to HMRC, the reason for this is rampant non-compliance. They estimate that only around

10 percent of contractors actually adhere to the requirements of IR35 leading to annual losses to the revenue of around £500m in tax and National Insurance (NIC) receipts. In the 2018 Autumn Budget Statement the Chancellor announced the government plans to apply to the private sector new rules which were introduced in the public sector in April 2017.

Following a consultation exercise which lasted until May 2019 the Government has just announced the final draft legislation and confirmed the shape of the rule changes which are due to come into effect.

What changes are the Government planning to introduce? With effect from 6 April 2020 large and medium sized companies who receive services from a contractor will need to review their workforce and decide whether their consultants and contractors fall within the IR35 regime. If so, then the end user (and not the consultant or contractor) will be responsible for withholding PAYE and paying employer’s NIC during the period of the engagement. They will also need to ensure that the determination (and the reasons for that determination) are cascaded to “all parties in the supply chain”.

Following the consultation, in a move that will add to the burden on businesses, there is now a requirement for end users who make a determination of IR35 status to permit an appeal of their findings by the consultant or contractor together with a right to receive a written outcome of this appeal and the reasons for it.

Who will be impacted? The new rules apply to medium and large companies in the first instance. Small companies will be excluded provided they can demonstrate two or more of the following attributes:• Annualised turnover of up to

£10.2m• Balance sheet assets of up to

£5.1m• Average number of employees of

up to 50

Next steps: What should employers be doing to prepare? It is important to understanding the risks. This means:(i) Identifying the risk: IR35 does

...from 6 April

2020 large and

medium sized

companies

who receive

services from a

contractor will

need to review

their workforce

and decide

whether their

consultants and

contractors fall

within the IR35

regime.


APS news

Stella Clutton-Saunders

APS and CIC MembershipAPS is a member. What’s in it for us?Author: Stella Clutton-Saunders, President of the Association Project Safety

At just over 4,000 members, APS is not amongst the largest professional organisations in the UK Construction Industry. APS agreed strategy 2019/20 is - amongst other items - to ‘increase advocacy and have more impact’ and ‘work in partnership with other like-minded organisations’. To this end APS joined Construction Industry Council (CIC) and at the present moment we hold seats on CIC Council, Project Panel and Business Panel and latterly our CEO has accepted a place on the Public and External Affairs Group Media Committee.

Our attendance on these groups allows us to not only make contribution to discussion on current, national matters of practice, but to hear what’s coming up. We have the opportunity to attend seminars to hear advanced reports on issues like the impact of Brexit on the business via the Economic and Policy Briefings, for example.

We are also asked to help with issues which arise like the awful disaster at Grenfell Tower. APS volunteered immediately to assist the CIC rapidly formed Industry Response Group. I personally sat on workshops between August and December 2017, firstly listening to the diverse problems coming to light but secondly found myself explaining how the CDM Regulations duties apply in practice and how the Golden Thread of Information would be very useful in making sure a future process would enable duty holders to have the essential information to maintain the fire fighting equipment in a building, for example. APS was certainly instrumental in assisting the research involved in the enquiry.

As members of the CIC, APS get to hear straightaway about the latest initiatives and assess how this could impact our members. Witness the Government Consultation on the Reform of the Building Regulatory System, as it explores the introduction of 2 new duty holders, extends duties of existing CDM duty holders and creates the Building Safety Regulator. There is a vast amount contemplated in this document and it makes it very clear that there is every intention to extend this legislation to include several if not all other building types in addition to those Housing High Rise Blocks (HHRB) in scope. Our intention at APS is to take every opportunity to represent members’ views at national level and by combining our response to this Consultation with that of CIC we have a greater chance of making our voice heard.

And what’s next on the horizon? Dame Judith Hackitt’s report also reminded Government that the quality of buildings is also in part responsible for catastrophic failures like Grenfell and so on your behalf I am also expressing APS’s interest in helping in some way with the Design Quality Initiative (DQI) that CIC are revitalising. The DQI is looking into best practice and yet doesn’t appear to have a distinct area about safety or health in the proposal.

not apply to consultants or contractors who are genuinely self-employed. Therefore, employers need to categorise their consultants and contractors accurately. As a general rule IR35 applies where the end user is responsible for the supervision, direction and/or control of the services being performed.

(ii) Rates of payment: Consider

redrafting service contracts to take account of PAYE deductions and the need to pay employer’s NIC on top of the contract rate.

(iii) Agency Staff: Agency companies are likely to be responsible for IR35 compliance and will need therefore to deduct PAYE and pay employer’s NIC. Agency staff costs are likely to increase as a result.

(iv) Employment Status: Consider whether to switch consultants or contractors onto employment contracts reflecting their genuine status to avoid the risk of claims and HMRC sanctions. HMRC operates its own online test, called Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST).

(v) Gathering evidence of self-employment: The optimal position for employers, consultants and contractors is to avoid IR35 altogether. However the risk of HMRC sanctions means that it is important to be realistic. You will need to work with your consultants and contractors to gather evidence of genuine self-employment and, if required, alter their working arrangements well ahead of 6 April 2020.

Looking aheadThe experience of the public sector is that contractor costs increased by around 20 percent as a result of this change to the law and, in particular, the legal requirement introduced to withhold PAYE and pay employer’s NIC. Private sector employers are unlikely to be in a position to absorb that level of additional costs. As a result they will need to lay the groundwork carefully for a renegotiation of their consultants’ and contractors’ terms.

As members of

the CIC, APS

get to hear

straightaway

about the latest

initiatives and

assess how this

could impact

our members.


from the number of existing CDM coordinators moving sideways in health & safety advisory roles and clients desperately trying to find health & safety professionals with a design background to fulfil the role of the principal designer. Mattinson does a lot of work for architectural practices and has assisted a number of the big names of the AJ100 list develop in-house teams but, despite this, they report most CDM recruitment still comes from consultancies acting more as a ‘principal design advisor’ or ‘CDM advisor’. The ChallengesThe industry is facing challenges - including an aging workforce, lack of graduate attraction and unqualified candidates. Dominic says that, arguably, the biggest recruitment issue facing the health, safety & CDM market is the aging workforce. He spends a lot of time speaking to potential candidates within CDM and most have had some other career prior

If you’re reading this, you are either a job seeker within the health, safety & CDM environment, or a hiring manager potentially looking to grow your team, Dominic Jacques says. Dominic has five years’ experience recruiting within the sector and he shares with us some insider information, success stories, interesting trends and some of the key challenges facing the industry today. The MarketThere is a vast skills shortage in the industry with most companies actively looking to bring in qualified Principal Designers and struggling to identify suitable candidates in the market. CDM recruitment was fairly stable back in 2014. There wasn’t a huge amount of growth in large multidisciplinary consultancy teams. However, once the regulations changed in 2015 there was a huge increase in recruitment with far more CDM projects to deliver than ever before. This may have resulted

to taking on a role in safety. In his experience that can vary widely, from the military to the police; from the fire service to construction or design. And as a result, many of the candidates are getting towards the end of their working lives and are making a beeline for retirement. This is a key challenge for potential employers, sparking the need to find graduates or junior members of staff who can be developed and trained in-house. Mattinson is seeing a fair number of graduate jobs coming through from surveying, project management, architecture and the environment - but there’s not much in the way of health & safety. This highlights a need for more investment at university level to promote health & safety as a viable and important career path for graduates aspiring to have an impact in the construction industry. What has also become clear since the regulatory changes, Dominic says, is that anyone with a design background who has moved into safety is highly sought-after in the market. Unlike other professions, such as surveying or architecture, there is no single professional body for good CDM professionals. A qualified surveyor would have an MRICS certification and a chartered architect would be Part 3 through to RIBA certified. But a CDM professional can have come from a range of backgrounds with varying qualifications. This makes it particularly difficult for a potential employer to tell from a CV whether somebody will be the right fit for the team or not. The most desirable qualifications tend to be a combination of a design degree in architecture, engineering or surveying, paired with a health & safety qualification (NEBOSH Construction or an APS principal designer course), as well as membership of a recognised professional body – such as the APS for design safety. Clients also need to see demonstrable experience in delivering the principal designer or CDM advisor role. Mattinson say it’s one thing to have the qualifications but if you can’t communicate your technical knowledge effectively on site, or in design team meetings, then you won’t be able to fulfil the role.

The challenges of Health and Safety recruitmentDominic Jacques is Head of Health and Safety Recruitment at Mattinson Partnership - specialist recruiters in health, safety fire & CDM, working across the UK and internationally.

Author: Dominic Jacques

Recruitment

...anyone

with a design

background

who has moved

into safety is

highly sought-

after in the

market.


An aging workforce, little graduate interest and under-qualified candidates simply posting a job online is not likely to attract the right candidates. A large part of the recruiters job is maintaining a network of professionals and Dominic says he has, over a number of years, sourced many good people through connections and referrals. He says that informing our clients about this and helping them understand the importance of using a specialised recruiter who knows the industry, is paramount to framing the right role and attracting quality candidates. Looking to the futureDominic is looking to the future and he is anticipating It will be interesting to see how things develop. Dominic believes CDM is likely to remain very buoyant but he is seeing an increased interest in bringing on board people with additional experience and qualifications in fire safety. As a result of recent events in construction and fire safety, changes are being made to ensure the highest possible safety standards are delivered across the UK and internationally. Like everyone else he is holding his breath to see how Brexit pans out but hopes, once the country has a final answer, the future landscape of the construction industry will become clearer. Dominic says a number of people Mattinson has placed in principal designer roles have been designers who came to the UK from Europe and trained in health & safety. In the event of a no-deal Brexit he is expecting a decrease in the flow of talent. This, combined with a number of current CDM advisors nearing retirement age, will add further to the skills shortage within CDM and the strain on the industry. Find out more about Mattinson Partnership: https://www.mattinsonpartnership.com/

Dominic Jacques said: “Mattinson Partnership provides tailored recruitment solutions based on clients’ business growth ambitions. In recent years I have worked with a number of clients who have struggled to attract qualified CDM consultants. They have begun looking at alternative hiring options such as moving towards making more junior hires which can be up-skilled and developed within their organisation. “As there is no degree specific to CDM, junior candidates can come from a number of different backgrounds. I have recently placed graduates into CDM roles and thought their stories were worth sharing with you: Tim was placed with derisk UK back in 2018 as a CDM Consultant. She had a background in Hospitality and Event Management but developed an interest in health & safety when it became a key part of her previous role. Once the interest was there, Tim took a paid internship with a consultancy specialising in health and safety for universities around London. Mattinson placed Pavlos with long-term client Stace LLP in 2018. Pavlos took a diploma in food preparation back in Cyprus which gave him a passion for health, safety and quality assurance. Pavlos decided to follow his passion and completed a degree in occupational health & safety. This led him to a placement on a huge construction site. Two months later he was accepted in to a Graduate CDM and health & safety consultant position with Stace. Chloe – a graduate architect- found a career in CDM was better suited to her lifestyle. She has a deep passion for architecture but the long hours and comparatively poor pay had not been what she was expecting. There is a growing trend for people to prioritise a good work-life balance and Chloe found her role in CDM to offer a greater opportunity for career growth and professional development.

Industry news

Stephen, a former RIBA President, is the Chairman of Hodder + Partners, the incorporated continuation of Hodder Associates which he founded. The practice offers architectural services across all sectors, including interior design, masterplanning and urban design. In 1996 the practice received the most important award in British architecture for a single building, the inaugural Stirling Prize

CIC appoints Stephen Hodder MBE as its new ChairEarlier this summer the Construction Industry Council (CIC) inaugurated Stephen Hodder MBE as its new Chair. Stephen takes over from Professor John Nolan and will be in this role for a two year term of office. John Nolan now becomes Deputy Chairman for a year, in accordance with CIC’s rules and byelaws.

Authors: The CIC

and raise the quality in procurement and delivery. I will seek to work with the CIC team and our members, in contributing to the cultural change that is needed to bring about a shared commitment to generating greater value and diversity for the benefit of long term client outcomes and society. I would like to thank John Nolan for the extraordinary commitment he has given to the CIC over the last three years and the support he has offered to me during the last year as Deputy Chair.”

Outgoing Chairman of the CIC Prof John Nolan said “I have had the privilege and pleasure of working with Stephen for the last year and have been the beneficiary of his good counsel during that time. His intellect and work ethic ideally suit him for the challenges he will face chairing CIC in these difficult times for our industry. I am sure that he will make a great success of the role.”

The next two

years could

be a tipping

point for our

industry as we

seek to redress

regulatory

failures and

raise the quality

in procurement

and delivery.

25

for Architecture for the Centenary Building, University of Salford. The practice has now won over forty major awards.

On taking up his new role, Stephen said: “I am delighted to be the new Chair of the Construction Industry Council. The next two years could be a tipping point for our industry as we seek to redress regulatory failures

APS and the CIC The CIC is a representative forum for professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations in the construction industry.

APS are a member of the CIC and play an active role in a number of the CIC’s committees and working groups.


APS News

APS regional elections 2019 We are delighted to announce that the following members have been voted in as regional committee members. There term of office is three years. The new committees are in place from the 1st of October this year.

North West EnglandJames Malone

Northern IrelandValerie Robinson

Northern EnglandJohn Johnson

South West EnglandDuncan Soper

There are four new committee members, they are:

Re-elected members are: Scotland East

Graeme SmithClive WilmottEuan McKie

Scotland West

Callum Bunce

Northern Ireland

Sean MaguireJohn MurraySyd Magill

Northern England

Russ Charnock

Yorkshire

Mike StowellRay BoneRichard Ellis

North West England

Derek Bradshaw

Midlands

Nattasha Freeman Martin Emery

East Midlands

Paul SwalesDavid Matthews Bill EvansMark Richards

London

Mark SnellingPaul BusseyJames Paul HowardPhilip BakerRebecca Weir

South East England

Roy BlameyAlan SeddonJames Addley

South Central England

Phil Christopher Robert Allfrey


Record number attend DRM eventA regional record number of APS members and non-members attended an event on design risk management (DRM), organised by the Scotland North Region and held in Inverness in early June this year.

Next Scotland North event…

Inclusive event (no extra charge for APS full members):Managing small domestic works under the CDM regulations (6 CPD points) Wednesday 9 October, Jury’s Inn, Inverness at 9am

This morning event will be followed by the National CPD event, Construction fire safety now and in the future, in the afternoon at the same hotel.

Why not attend both events?

Book your places:Managing small domestic works under CDM regulations: https://www.aps.org.uk/events/managing-small-domestic-works-under-the-cdm-regulations

Construction fire safety now and in the future: https://www.aps.org.uk/events/autumn-2019-cpd-construction-fire-safety-now-and-the-future-5

Upcoming:

Spring CPD 2020Design risk management: a multi-disciplinary approach16 INCLUSIVE* dates across the UK starting in March in Stansted.

Join expert members from RIBA, CIOB ICE as well as APS, who will explain how to apply the principles of DRM from a range of perspectives.

Dates to follow soon so watch this space and keep an eye on: www.events.org.uk for updates

*No extra charge for APS associate, CMaPS, IMaPS or fellow members

More events:

all APS upcoming events https://www.aps.org.uk/aps-events

39 delegates attended the all-day training course, delivered by Andrew Leslie, gave delegates insight into what DRM is all about, what the Regulations require of designers, how to identify, record and communicate significant risk and compile the design risk register.

Alistair Norrie, the Chair of the APS Scotland North regional committee said: The workshop format that Andrew used worked really well as it kept the delegates engaged since they weren’t just sitting, listening the whole time. The delegates worked on identifying hazards, then were invited to assess the risk associated with each hazard. They then applied ‘ERIC’, the principles of prevention, which stand for: eliminate, reduce, isolate, control.

“Delegates particularly valued the examples Andrew gave showing how to go about compiling a design risk register. These were all drawn from Andrew’s own experiences of hi-profile projects he had worked

on.” Since the Scotland North Regional Committee started up again in 2017 the Scotland North committee had been looking to arrange an event on design risk management (DRM). Committee members had a hunch there was a strong demand from our designer colleagues for guidance in this area, in particular they were telling us they’d like guidance on how to start and compile a design risk register.”

Andrew Leslie, BSc, Dip. Arch, FRIAS, RIBA, CMaPS is Senior CDM Adviser at the Centre for Maritime and Industrial Safety Technology (C-MIST). Andrew trained as an architect and developed an interest in the CDM regulations in the late 1990s. He has worked for C-MIST, heading the Construction Division, as Director of Practice at The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) as a CDM consultant and as Technical and Standards Manager at the Association for Project Safety. Andrew re-joined C-MIST in 2016.


Raising the Bar– improving competence, building a safer futureUnder the guidance of the Construction Industry Council [CIC] the entire construction industry has been looking at the competencies needed by practitioners. According to the CIC’s Graham Watts this work underpins the need for a paradigm shift in competence levels throughout the entirety of the construction industry – from design to demolition. The key aim of Raising the Bar is to ensure everyone working on high risk buildings can take the safety of those who occupy the buildings the industry creates just as seriously as the safety of those who build them.

APS News

The drive to improveThe Grenfell Tower disaster was a wake-up call for the construction sector and the industry has shown a real willingness to address its failings. Dame Judith Hackitt and her team have been looking at all aspects of building safety in high risk buildings. And, while her report, Building a Safer Future, concentrates on higher risk residential buildings (HRRBs) it is the hope of the ‘industry response group on competence for building a safer future’ that the competencies, over time, will be broadened out, to cover every kind of building.

The Construction Industry Council brought together more than 300 people from over 150 institutions and associations to consider building safety generally, and fire safety specifically. They had a year to condense their thoughts. Their work had two key objectives, to: lay firm foundations for a more coherent and consistent approach to assessing and ensuring competence; and pave the way for cultural change across the construction industry so that everyone understands and acknowledges their responsibilities for delivering safer buildings.

Where we are at todayThe construction sector, currently, has no consistent set of standards across the industry. People cannot be certain that what one association or professional group means by ‘good’ means the same thing as

continued on page 30


Competence Steering GroupThe Competence Steering Group drew its members from associations concerned with fire safety and the built environment. It was set up by the Industry Response Group, itself established after Grenfell by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Build UK, the Construction Industry Council, the Construction Products Association and the National Fire Chiefs’ Council.

The group was asked to:• Develop the role and remit for an overarching

competency body;• Ensure a coherent and consistent approach to raising

and overseeing standards across fire safety and the built environment; and

• Support & promote competent people working on high risk residential buildings.

Delivery DozenTwelve working groups were set up to develop a range of difference competency frameworks. A further group – formed to consider the Overarching Competence Body - co-ordinated the recommendations for the role and remit including the way competence will be judged, overseen and standards improved.

The working groups were:• Engineers• Installers• Fire engineers• Fire risk assessors• Fire safety enforcing officers• Building standards professionals• Building designers – including architects• Building safety managers• Site Supervisors• Projects managers• Procurement• Products

Key Recommendations – the Magnificent SevenPrinciples of Competence Principles of competence should be adopted for universal use as a baseline for common competence

Competence Frameworks Competencies for various groups should be adopted for that area. Any future changes would need to be agreed by the whole sub-sector and not individual organisations

Cultural improvement Cultural change is needed but more work needs to be done to see how ethics and behaviours can drive transformation

Support for Residents Part of the function of the overarching competence system is to support residents and to signpost them to organisations holding competence registers

Procurement It should be mandatory for any firm or individual working on an HRRB to meet competence framework standards. Government should lead from the front and refuse to use anyone without the recognised skills

Accreditation Competence of people working on HRRBs should be demonstrated by independent third-party assessment and robust periodic reassessment.

Continuing Professional There should be common principles for CPD in each sector. Levels ofDevelopment competence should be maintained and subject to continuing professional development. Associations will need to have systems in place to monitor competence and record CPD annually.

APS news


anyone else. When the groups started their work it became clear that there was no common approach to training, professional qualifications and ongoing maintenance of skills. The Competency Steering Group has developed some Principles of Competence to help people with basic understanding and to create a common foundation for all disciplines.

AimsThe underlying principle behind the industry’s work was to ensure all the people working on HRRBs – from design to demolition - understand their duty to carry out their work competently. There is a general desire to upskill the industry and to have a clearly set out range of competencies which everyone understands. There will be an obligation on professional bodies to maintain and monitor the skills of their members and on individuals to keep their knowledge up to date and up to standard.

The recommendations are designed to sit alongside any new regulatory system so that standards can be driven up and cultural failings challenged. It is hoped that a new regulatory system will have real teeth and the ability to hold individuals and businesses to account.

Overarching oversightDame Judith is convinced there needs to be a new body to oversee and continue to drive improvement in the competence of people across the construction sector. She felt some degree of independence was necessary to guard against professions ‘marking their own homework’. The proposed overarching system aims for a dual approach: skilling up from the bottom; and, from the top, focus on the three key roles of: Principal Designer; Principal Contractor; and Building Safety Manager.

A new committee – provisionally called the Building Safety Competence Committee – will consider what a new overarching competency body could look like and how it would operate.

Common GroundThe idea is that every professional, at every step of the way, will have a basic grounding in the common principles. No one – whether they think they are a professional or not – should be able to slip through the net. No aspect of

fire or building safety can be left to fall between the cracks.

Cultural ChangeThe industry recognised there needed to be a cultural change in how it thought about skills and responsibility. Maintaining professional skills, and the need to acknowledge individual responsibility, were thought to be vital in improving standards.

Two key areas where immediate change was thought necessary were: improving the way in which different professions and groups worked together; and the terms on which people are paid for their work. Many people thought that it took too long for people to get paid across the

construction industry and that this tended to lead to a race to the bottom when it came to awarding contracts.

Life long learningContinuing to learn and maintain skills was considered to be vital for improving both the pool of talent within the construction sector and also the quality of the built environment. It was understood that individual workers had personal responsibility for maintaining their levels of professional competence but membership bodies will have a part to play too. Associations are likely to be expected to take a much harder line on members who do not keep up their CPD.

It is hoped

that a new

regulatory

system will have

real teeth and

the ability to

hold individuals

and businesses

to account.

APS news


Autumn 2019 CPD:Construction fire safety now and in the futureThis is an inclusive event. Students, Associated, Certified, Incorporated or Fellow members of APS do not pay to attend.

This half-day afternoon presentation from Mark Snelling takes place across the UK. It will cover both the current and potential requirements for fire safety in construction in view of the government’s recently published proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system.

These proposals include dutyholder roles in design and construction which align with those existing dutyholders identified under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015). The Government proposes that the more stringent regime set out in this consultation would apply to all multi-occupied residential buildings of height 18 metres and over and they are considering whether they should introduce dutyholder roles which provide greater clarity over who is accountable for building safety and compliance with the building regulations.

The proposed role of the principal designer will be to plan, monitor and manage the pre-construction phase and coordinate building safety to ensure compliance with building regulations. This of course includes fire safety. There are already fire safety requirements in CDM 2015. HSG168 Fire in construction, published by the HSE, makes it clear that designers have an important role planning construction work involving significant fire risks.

This course will look at the current requirements and the Government’s proposals and consider what those

who currently work as duty holders or advise duty holders may need to do to upskill to meet current and the future requirements.

Specifically, it will cover: • Current duties under the Regulatory

Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) in England and Wales, the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 (FSA) in Scotland and CDM 2015 for the management of fire safety during the construction phase

• An overview of the requirements of HSG168 Fire Safety in Construction

• The Joint Code of Practice on the Protection from Fire on Construction Sites and Buildings Undergoing Renovation, 9th Edition

• Structural Timber Association (2011) 16 Steps to Fire Safety

• Structural Timber Association (2012) Design guide to separation distances during construction for timber frame buildings above 600m2 total floor area together with supporting documents

• An outline of the Government’s proposals for reform of the building safety regulatory system and its implications for those involved in construction

• Upskilling to meet current and the future opportunities.

PricesAPS student, CMaPS, IMaPS, AsMaPS and fellows:

No charge

APS corporate and affiliated members: £71*

Non members: £96*

Book your nearest session:https://www.aps.org.uk/autumn-2019-cpd-construction-fire-safety-now-and-the-future

All dates are in 2019

Tuesday 24 September CrawleyWednesday 25 September London SOLD OUTThursday 26 September Stansted Tuesday 1 October Milton Keynes Wednesday 2 October Derby Thursday 3 October Durham Wednesday 9 October Inverness Thursday 10 October Edinburgh Tuesday 22 October Birmingham Wednesday 23 October Liverpool SOLD OUTThursday 24 October Leeds SOLD OUTTuesday 5 November Cardiff Wednesday 6 November Southampton Thursday 7 November Exeter Wednesday 13 November GlasgowThursday 14 November Belfast

You can book for any of the above events. If the event you wish to attend is sold out, you can attend any of the others.

If you cannot attend on an alternative date, please email Rebecca Eunson at [email protected] telling her which event you’d like to attend. She will contact you by email if returns become available.

* Prices do not include VAT

Mark Snelling

Synergie Training is one of the leading Construction, Infrastructure and IT Training Companies in the UK

We are recognised throughout the Construction and Civil Engineering sectors in both the UK and internationally and are Scotland’s leading CDM 2015, NEC3, and Temporary Works Training provider.

CDM 2015 Training – We specialise in the APS Accredited Principal Designer course which we provide as both onsite closed company courses and as public courses throughout the UK. We have successfully Accredited over 800 individual Principal Designers and also provide CDM Overview, Client, Contractor, Domestic Client and Construction Safety through Design CDM related training.

Website: www.synergietraining.co.ukE-Mail: [email protected]: 01463 227580

ACCREDITEDCOURSEPROVIDER2018

We are recognised throughout the Construction and Civil Engineering sectors in both the UK and Internationally and are the

UK’s leading CDM Principal Designer training company. We are also Scotland’s leading Temporary Works and NEC course

provider.

CDM 2015 Training – Synergie Training specialises in the APS Accredited Principal Designer course which we provide as

both onsite closed company courses and as public courses throughout the UK. We have successfully accredited over 1,500

individual Principal Designers with a 95% pass rate and also provide CDM Overview, Client, Contractor, Domestic Client,

Construction Safety through Design and customised CDM training.

Upcoming Dates include:

2 Oct - 3 Oct APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Glasgow £595

9 Oct - 10 Oct APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) London £595

16 Oct - 17 Oct APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Bristol £595

5 Nov - 6 Nov APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Birmingham £595

12 Nov - 13 Nov APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) London £595

19 Nov - 20 Nov APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Manchester £595

26 Nov - 27 Nov APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Newcastle £595

2 Dec - 3 Dec APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Leeds £595

4 Dec - 5 Dec APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Nottingham £595

10 Dec - 11 Dec APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) London £595

11 Dec - 12 Dec APS Accredited – The role of the Principal Designer under CDM 2015 (2 Day) Edinburgh £595

Please quote APS-SEPTEMBER10 for a 10% discount on any of the above public courses.

Please visit: www.synergietraining.co.uk/course-schedule to view additional public course dates.

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