Skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and capable?
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM2015) come into force on Monday, 6th April 2015, within Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales). The date for these regulations coming into force in Northern Ireland has still to be determined, but is unlikely to before the end of 2015, with the 2007 regulations still in force up until then.
On 2nd April the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published the final version of the HSE guidance document, L153, Managing health and safety in construction, which can be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l153.htm.
The new regulations do not have an associated Approved Code of Practice (ACoP).
CDM2015 requires checks to be performed the skills, knowledge, experience and capability of duty holders they engage/appoint, previously known as competency. Any duty holder engaged/appointed by another is also responsible for their own skills, knowledge, experience and capability.
Therefore, any person who engages a designer or contractor, or the client for the appointment of a principal designer or principal contractor, is responsible under CDM2015 Reg. 8 must be satisfied that the persons and organisation engaged/appointed are skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and capable. It is expected that any person/organisation engaging/appointing other duty holders will need to have procedures in place which will ensure that records are maintained to show that active steps were taken to be satisfied as to the designer’s competence on health and safety matters. A person/organisation will be deemed not to have complied if they cannot demonstrate that they have taken such steps as it is reasonable for persons in their position to take in investigating the duty holders. The client will always have this duty, but it also applies to any other organisation engaging a designer or contractor, who must also be able to demonstrate that the necessary checks have been performed.
The client must, on projects with more than one contractor, verify that the principal designer is skilled, knowledgeable, experienced and capable to perform the management of health and safety during the pre-construction phase of the project and the principal contractor is capable of managing health and safety during construction, as the client is responsible for the appointment of the principal designer and principal contractor.
Designers, contractors, principal designers and principal contractors must not accept commissions for work if they feel that they are not skilled, knowledgeable, experienced or capable for the particular requirements of the project. This also applies to the client organisation if they propose to perform other duties utilising their own personnel.
- 8.(1) A designer (including a principal designer) or contractor (including a principal contractor) appointed to work on a project must have the skills, knowledge and experience and, if they are an organisation, the organisational capability, necessary to fulfil the role that they are appointed to undertake, in a manner that secures the health and safety of any person affected by the project.
- 8.(2) A designer or contractor must not accept an appointment to a project unless they fulfil the conditions in paragraph (1).
- 8.(3) A person who is responsible for appointing a designer or contractor to carry out work on a project must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the designer or contractor fulfils the conditions in paragraph (1).
Essentially designers. Contractors, principal designers and principal contractors must, when accepting a commission for work consider the following fundamental questions:
- Do we have experience of performing the proposed duties for the particular scope of work?
- Do we have the skilled, knowledgeable and experienced personnel to comply with the duties for the particular work types involved?
- Do we have the necessary management processes in place for compliance with our duties this project?
- Do we have any other required the project specific capabilities?
- Do we have sufficient resources to undertake the commission?
In carrying out checks of their own or other organisations account should be taken of the allocated personnel’s skills, knowledge and experience of the work involved, and the organisations’ management systems for the prevention of risk and compliance with relevant health and safety standards. In addition, the organisation must have the capacity to apply this knowledge and experience to the work required, particularly in relation to the project for which they have been engaged.
Training
It is therefore essential that persons performing any of the CDM2015 duties have received some training in the specific requirements under the regulations.
This training could be provided internally, if the organisation has skilled, knowledgeable and experienced trainers employed and they fully understand the requirements. If this resource is not available internally, the organisation should seek externally provided training.
If it is decided to commission external trainers to provide this training, the organisation should verify the skills, knowledge, experience and capability of the trainer/training organisation and the appropriateness of the training programme and content.
Effective training should enable all of the duty holders to achieve compliance with the regulations in an efficient and cost-effective way, achieving the objectives of not hurting people without reducing, and sometimes enhancing, the efficiencies on the project and for future maintenance, cleaning, etc. Callsafe Courses
The courses available from Callsafe Services
Limited for CDM2015 are listed below:
• CDM2015 Briefing (4.5 hours)
• CDM2015 Overview (1 day)
• CDM2015 Client (1 day)
• CDM2015 Reducing Risk by Design (1 day)
• CDM2015 Principal Contractor and Contractors (1 day)
• CDM2015 APS Certificate in the Management of Pre-construction Health and Safety (3 days) (In development)
• APS CDM2015 Principal Designer Awareness (1 day) (In development)
• APS CDM2015 Certificate in Principal Designer Service (2 day) (In development)
• APS Design Risk Management & CDM2015 for Designers (Accredited)
• APS CDM2015 Awareness (1 day) (Accredited)
In-House Courses
All of the courses are offered as ‘in-house’ courses, where the trainer presents the course at a venue provided by the delegates’ employer.
Details of these, and other, courses can be found at: www.callsafe-services.co.uk , or by contacting Gemma Esprey at: gemma.esprey@callsafe-services.co.uk or by phone on: 01889 577701.
Gemma Esprey
Callsafe Services Limited
Tel: +44 (0)1889 577701
gemma.esprey@callsafe-services.co.uk
