Setting the bar - competency and BuildUK

ACRIB member organisations are committed to championing the safe and efficient use of refrigeration and conditioning and heat pump systems and processes, minimising risks to safety, and environmental impact. This applies to all users of refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps, as well as industry professionals. We applaud the Government's efforts to implement the findings of the Building Safety Review following on from the Grenfell Tower tragedy and we support the resultant  Building Safety Bill approach and the drive within it towards higher standards for not only safety in general but for certification and maintenance of competence by practitioners and the requirement for mandatory training.

Build UK Competence Steering Group has recently published its Setting the Bar report, which responds to comments received on proposals to raise competency requirements across the construction sector, as set out in 2019’s Raising the Bar report. The new report identifies sector‐specific frameworks that will provide the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required to safely carry out specific roles, including installers, site supervisors and project managers

The full 164-page report as well as the 28-page Executive Summary are available to download from  

http://cic.org.uk/setting-the-bar-annexes.php

This extract is from the accompanying press release:

A blueprint to improve competence for those working on higher-risk buildings and drive culture change has been set out by a cross-industry group representing more than 150 organisations in the fire and built environment industries. Setting the Bar is the second and final report of the Competence Steering Group [CSG] 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 review Building a Safer Future. The proposed overarching system of competence set out in the 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.