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Under CDM 2007, duty-holders were obliged to make appointments to key roles on construction projects according to certain competence criteria. Following adverse comments during the consultation on CDM 2015, these criteria were dropped in the new Regulations in favour of a requirement for sufficient ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ on the part of those carrying out the role of principal designers and contractors.
The client must define within their procurement process, and prior to making any appointment, that the principal designer – be it an individual or an organisation – has the required skills, knowledge and experience necessary to undertake the role. And the individual or organisation in question must also be able to demonstrate same.
However, there is no specific guidance to help the duty-holder in determining whether or not their potential appointees fulfil these requirements, and one question in particular that is being asked is: what is the difference between ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ and ‘competence’?
The guidance to CDM 2015 (L153) refers to the following:
Self-assessment – PAS91 currently offers a framework of questions to determine the relevant skills, knowledge and experience. Although this has yet to be updated to reflect CDM 2015 requirements, it is a good basis on which to provide evidence of compliance with the main duties of the principal designer, which are to:
Assist the client in identifying, obtaining and collating the pre-construction information;
Provide pre-construction information to designers, the principal contractor, and contractors;
Ensure coordination and cooperation during the pre-construction phase;
Ensure all designers comply with their duties;
Liaise during the construction phase; and
Prepare the health and safety file.
Independent (third-party) assessors – some members of Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) have updated their assessments to reflect the new role of principal designer. PDs are now assessed on their main duties at both an organisational and individual level, and their qualifications and experience are checked in much the same way as they were under the previous system of competence assessment.
Core competencies for the role should be considered both in the client assessment and by the PD themselves, to demonstrate they have the relevant skills, knowledge and experience. To prove it is capable of carrying out the PD role, an organisation must be able to demonstrate:
Ability to develop a PD team and understand and address gaps in competence;
Effective and proactive stakeholder engagement, team-building and team-working skills;
Proactive knowledge-sharing and continuous improvement;
Access to suitable organisational expertise in health and safety and engineering;
Commitment to training and lifelong learning;
Management team has had health and safety training to understand CDM 2015; and
Processes for ensuring health and safety is planned and managed throughout the project.
An individual must have technical knowledge of the construction industry relevant to the project in the following domains:
Engineering and design:
Technical and relevant sector knowledge;
Ability to undertake multidisciplinary design reviews, including large, complex projects, where applicable;
Chartered membership of a relevant institution;
Health & Safety:
An understanding of how H&S is managed through the design process, as well as whole-life health and safety through design and construction;
Demonstrate knowledge and experience of construction health and safety risks;
Membership of a relevant institution.
CDM:
Good working knowledge and experience of CDM Regulations;
Demonstrate management and coordination skills required of a principal designer;
Confidence to challenge designs.
Given the wide application of the CDM Regulations 2015, many more projects now require a principal designer, and the role is being undertaken by new parties, including clients, architects, engineers, project managers and principal contractors.
Turner and Townsend are working with training provider ACT Associates to assist the construction industry in providing training to bridge the current ‘skills gap’.
Tim Sims is associate director at Turner and Townsend
The ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ required by a Principal DesignerBy Tim Sims, Turner & Townsend Under CDM 2007, duty-holders were obliged to make appointments to key roles on construction
Roz Sanderson
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The industry has been debating on the differences between ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ and ‘competence’ since the consultation process on CDM 2015 began, and I’ve heard strong arguments both in favour of and against the new approach. Although my initial view was the Regulations were being watered down, in practice I don’t believe that this will be the case.
Moving away from prescriptive ‘competency’ as defined by CDM 2007 over to ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ under CDM 2015 seems to recognise the diversity of our industry and the wide range of CDM projects covered by the Regulations.
CDM 2015 is geared towards what is reasonable, and whilst this is certainly open to interpretation and may make life more difficult for the Client, this common-sense approach will hopefully have the effect of engaging all stakeholders from the early stages of the project.
Our discussion with the HSE on this lead us to believe that the minimum training that is required for the health and safety aspect of the role is Managing Safely.
We are currently working with architects companies to train their staff to this level in order to comply with the Regulations.
The remuneration being offered for the vast majority of CDM Principal Designer (PD) roles is disgusting, laughable and often frankly offensive. The lead role with the real legal statutory responsibility at pay rates often less then half that of ‘designers’ is really going to attract the very best people – The person in the ‘dock’ at court being paid 50% less than those without the duty – don’t think so! For any reasonable size or complexity of construction project, the absolute minimum H&S qualification for a PD to supplement design related degrees, practical knowledge, skills and relevant successful recent experiences is the NEBOSH National Construction Certificate. The construction design companies and the agencies supplying them are looking for cheap ‘fall guys’. Before anyone takes on the new CDM PD role, be absolutely sure you can do it – AND – the rewards are commensurate with the legal responsibility and heightened risk to loosing your freedom, maybe many years after a project has finished E.G. when a janitor falls when changing a light bulb. Someone will come after the CDM PD to blame for allowing the placing of a light fitting in an innapropriate place that maybe contributed to the janitor accident.
There are many courses out there especially including those you can find on our website under courses and courses offered by the Institution of Civil Engineers. Make sure that 1) The Tutor has design experience and 2) thee course is about empowering you and not designed to frighten you into the belief you need expensive H&S consultancy support.
H&S is much simpler than design – look at the length of study time and the added value in a global market. H&S says “Don’t hurt people or make them sick by the effects of what you do or decide others should do” (Paraphrased). Designers need to have wide sector knowledge of the relative benefits of different technical solutions given the wide number of constraints at each decision node. Much of this is automatically about safety – can it take the applied loads? What happens in extremes? Will it be possible to build it? How can the client use it easily? Good designers have always thought these matters through.
Think of the Principal Designer as like the Principal Contractor. We are all used to having a company be king on projects at the site stage. Why do we feel anxiety about design being managed in the same manner? Somebody needs to coordinate the various aspects of
The industry has been debating on the differences between ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ and ‘competence’ since the consultation process on CDM 2015 began, and I’ve heard strong arguments both in favour of and against the new approach. Although my initial view was the Regulations were being watered down, in practice I don’t believe that this will be the case.
Moving away from prescriptive ‘competency’ as defined by CDM 2007 over to ‘skills, knowledge and experience’ under CDM 2015 seems to recognise the diversity of our industry and the wide range of CDM projects covered by the Regulations.
CDM 2015 is geared towards what is reasonable, and whilst this is certainly open to interpretation and may make life more difficult for the Client, this common-sense approach will hopefully have the effect of engaging all stakeholders from the early stages of the project.
Our discussion with the HSE on this lead us to believe that the minimum training that is required for the health and safety aspect of the role is Managing Safely.
We are currently working with architects companies to train their staff to this level in order to comply with the Regulations.
The remuneration being offered for the vast majority of CDM Principal Designer (PD) roles is disgusting, laughable and often frankly offensive. The lead role with the real legal statutory responsibility at pay rates often less then half that of ‘designers’ is really going to attract the very best people – The person in the ‘dock’ at court being paid 50% less than those without the duty – don’t think so! For any reasonable size or complexity of construction project, the absolute minimum H&S qualification for a PD to supplement design related degrees, practical knowledge, skills and relevant successful recent experiences is the NEBOSH National Construction Certificate. The construction design companies and the agencies supplying them are looking for cheap ‘fall guys’. Before anyone takes on the new CDM PD role, be absolutely sure you can do it – AND – the rewards are commensurate with the legal responsibility and heightened risk to loosing your freedom, maybe many years after a project has finished E.G. when a janitor falls when changing a light bulb. Someone will come after the CDM PD to blame for allowing the placing of a light fitting in an innapropriate place that maybe contributed to the janitor accident.
There are many courses out there especially including those you can find on our website under courses and courses offered by the Institution of Civil Engineers. Make sure that 1) The Tutor has design experience and 2) thee course is about empowering you and not designed to frighten you into the belief you need expensive H&S consultancy support.
H&S is much simpler than design – look at the length of study time and the added value in a global market. H&S says “Don’t hurt people or make them sick by the effects of what you do or decide others should do” (Paraphrased). Designers need to have wide sector knowledge of the relative benefits of different technical solutions given the wide number of constraints at each decision node. Much of this is automatically about safety – can it take the applied loads? What happens in extremes? Will it be possible to build it? How can the client use it easily? Good designers have always thought these matters through.
Think of the Principal Designer as like the Principal Contractor. We are all used to having a company be king on projects at the site stage. Why do we feel anxiety about design being managed in the same manner? Somebody needs to coordinate the various aspects of