WOBO has been monitoring developments within the UK since the Grenfell fire and brings you the link to the final CIC report “Setting the Bar – A New Competence Regime for Building a Safer Future”. 

Professionals need to sit up, read the document and plan for their future in terms of roles and responsibilities.  The proposals will have significant impact within the UK and may be reviewed and the concepts applied within the global setting.

The Construction Industry Council has published the final report setting out roles and responsibilities of the various parties involved that should help prevent a repeat of the Grenfell Tower fire.

The report, Setting the Bar: a new competence regime for building a safer future, is described as a blueprint to improve competence for those working on tall buildings and drive culture change.

It has been produced by a cross-industry group representing more than 150 organisations in the fire and built environment industries, representing the social housing sector, commercial and residential management, facilities managers, health & safety practitioners, fire safety specialists and construction professionals.

Setting the Bar is the second and final report of the Competence Steering Group and is an update of its interim report, Raising the Bar, published in August 2019. The work was initiated by the recommendations in Dame Judith Hackitt’s 2018 review Building a Safer Future, itself commissioned in the wake of the Grenfell Fire.

Alongside Setting the Bar, the steering group has also published a separate report covering the new role of building safety manager, Safer people, safer homes: Building Safety Management. The repsonsibililtes of building designers, engineers, installers, building standards and others are all set down in different annexes to the main repport.

The Competence Steering Group (CSG) as set up under the aegis of the Construction Industry Council, which represents many of the industry’s professional bodies.

The proposed system of competence set out in the Setting the Bar report is made up of four key elements:

• a new competence committee sitting within the Building Safety Regulator
• a national suite of competence standards – including new sector-specific frameworks developed by 12 working groups
• arrangements for independent assessment and reassessment against the competence standards
• a mechanism to ensure that those assessing and certifying people against the standards have appropriate levels of oversight.

These competence frameworks set out the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required for specific roles.

Among these is the proposed new role of the building safety manager, whose job specification is set out in the report Safer people, safer homes: Building Safety Management, from CSG’s working group 8. The contents of this report will be used by the British Standards Institute to develop a new national standard that building safety managers will be expected to meet.

Under legislation being introduced by the draft Building Safety Bill, published in July, those deemed responsible in law for the safety of higher-risk building, such as the landlord, will be required to appoint a designate building safety manager.

cic.org.uk/admin/resources/setting-the-bar-9-final