With the Building Safety Act creating a protected role in Registered Building Inspectors, construction professionals are asking what does competency in building safety actually mean?
In the ‘Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’ report overseen by Dame Judith Hackitt, a key recommendation was for the development of competency in building safety professionals, including all of those who work on or impact safety of people in and about Higher Risk Buildings.
In line with this, a new protected profession has been created, known as ‘Registered Building Inspectors’ or RBIs.
To be an RBI, professionals will need to be on the register that will be operated by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and will need to demonstrate their competency to enable this registration.
So, what does competency in building safety actually mean?
BSI Flex 8670 v3.0 defines competence as an ‘application of skill, knowledge, experience and behaviour consistently to achieve a specific outcome’.
This is cemented in an amendment to the Building Safety Act that defines a ‘competence requirement’ as one that relates to ‘the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours of an individual’.
The common strands that runs through these definitions are:
- Skill
- Knowledge
- Experience
- Behaviours
So when we talk about competence, we are talking about more than just qualifications (or knowledge) and must consider skills, experience and appropriate behaviours that develop knowledge into comprehensive competence.
Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Behaviours – What is SKEB?
The diagram below reflects the definition of competence – skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (collectively known as ‘SKEB’). Premier Guarantee have linked the definitions of each of these from BSI Flex 8670 v3.0 to help you understand what this means in regards to building safety:
Competence frameworks are being developed for all sectors that cover the SKEB for the professions at different levels.
For building control, the BSR have released a draft framework known as BICoF (Building Inspector Competency Framework) and are due to release the final version during April 2023.
In the meantime, you can find the most up to date Premier Guarantee technical guidance, such as the latest version of the Premier Guarantee Technical Manual, here.Â
