Demonstrating Competence

Under the Building Safety Act, anyone appointing an individual or organisation to undertake design and construction work has a duty to ensure that they are competent. For individuals this means having the appropriate skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours, whilst organisations must demonstrate ‘organisational capability’.

For organisations, the Common Assessment Standard is an established third‐party certification scheme, recognised by Government in PPN 03/24 and supported by the CLC, which requires the appropriate management policies, procedures and systems to be in place. The latest version of the Common Assessment Standard, which will be launched at the end of this quarter, includes a new Building Safety section, meaning Build UK members can demonstrate compliance with their dutyholder responsibilities by ensuring that those in their supply chain are certified to the Common Assessment Standard by one of the Recognised Assessment Bodies.

For individuals, cards carrying the CSCS logo provide evidence of their qualifications and training for the job that they do on site, as part of determining competence. Working Group 2, supported by the CLC, is continuing the drive to set out the competence framework (or ‘path to competence’) for each specialist installer occupation. It is intended that those elements which can be assessed will be reflected on the relevant CSCS card and that continued development to maintain the required level of competence will also be included once this work has been completed.

More skills and training news can be found in the Build UK Recruit, Train and Retain update.

 

Support from the B&CE Charitable Trust

The B&CE Charitable Trust donates funds each year to various initiatives that support people working in construction. One of its main priorities is providing career opportunities within the industry, and in 2023 it helped almost 500 individuals secure roles in construction or undertake related further education. Grants are available to organisations for education and training leading to accredited qualifications, as well as for health and safety initiatives and research that will benefit the industry, and members can find out more by emailing charitabletrust@bandce.co.uk.

People’s Partnership is a Build UK Partner and was known as B&CE until 2022, with the B&CE name being retained for construction‐specific products, such as the Charitable Trust. Further information about People’s Partnership and how its products could support your employees can be found on the People’s Partnership website

JCT Minor Works 2024

JCT has published the 2024 edition of its Minor Works Building Contract, which is designed for smaller projects where the work is of a simple nature. It is the second contract in the JCT 2024 edition to be released after the Design and Build Contract last month, and both contracts are available to purchase via the JCT Construct subscription service, in On Demand digital form, and in hardcopy.

Pay Rates 2024

The CIJC has agreed new pay rates from Monday 24 June, which include a 4.5% increase in the basic wage rates. From 1 January 2025, the annual holiday entitlement will increase from 22 to 23 days, plus eight bank holidays. The new rates should be read in conjunction with the Working Rule Agreement and Holiday Entitlement 2024.