Waiting for a fresh start I
By James Ritchie, Head of External Affairs and Deputy Chief Executive at the Association for Project Safety.
t is now six months since the HSE consulted the construction industry on their proposals for revising the CDM Regulations. As we all await their
final set of regulations and wonder exactly what changes they may have made in light of the consultation responses, perhaps it is an opportune time for our industry to think about what is really needed by way of construction health and safety risk management advice under a new set of CDM Regulations.
“If construction projects
are to really benefit from health and safety, then clients need to embrace it from the start…”
For the past seven years good CDM
Coordinators have provided construction Clients with advice and guidance regard- ing their projects and the health and safety implications that need to be considered. We need to recognise that, in an unregu- lated world, some people offering a CDM Coordinator service have been doing no more than their interpretation of the bare minimum required by the regulations.
If
that is all that is required of the project client then so be it but the real benefits and added value to clients come where CDMCs have been asked to provide more than the minimum. If construction projects are to really benefit from health and safety, then clients need to embrace it from the start, set realistic health and safety goals and be prepared to appoint a person or company with proven ability to work with the project design team – a CDMC that allows designers to get on with designing and coordinating the design effectively, provides appropriate advice to both cli- ents and designers where required, plays an active part in project team meetings and does not dictate, if necessary, offers solutions through persuasive discussion
8
and generally becomes a key player in an integrated project team. CDM2015 provides an opportunity for
the industry to reject the minimalist pa- per-pushing, form filling CDMCs who rely solely on their
‘statutory appointment’
status to get work. Surely CDMCs with as much experience and knowledge that many have, should be used for that skill, knowledge and ability to the benefit of the project team not just to fill in and submit the F10 Notification to the HSE and prepare pre-construction information obtained from other team members. Appendix 4 of the current CDM
Approved Code of Practice has been crit- icised for creating a fair degree of bureau- cracy surrounding prequalification and
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competence assessments for different duty holder roles. Appendix 5, the lesser known ACoP competence criteria, how- ever has not suffered the same damnation and has always provided a measure of good guidance when appointing a CDM Coordinator for larger, more complex or riskier projects. For all but the simplest of projects the Appendix 5 criteria may well be probably closer to where the in- dustry now needs to look for in terms of construction health and safety risk man- agement consultants i.e. someone who is professionally qualified to Chartered level in a relevant construction institution, has validated CPD in this field, and a typ- ical additional qualification for example the NEBOSH Construction Certificate,
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