“IT’S JUST ANOTHER TAX!”

That is a statement I hear regularly, usually made about the need for operatives to carry a CSCS card.

I sympathise with the array of standards and accreditations the average contractor needs to meet, but there are more complexities involved. What’s more, it pays to know a little bit about the semi-hidden drivers that affect our contractors’ work.

So here is a quick summary of one new key mover-and-shaker that may be impacting on your pre-qualification requirements – BUILD UK.

Build UK replaced the UK Contractor Group and merged with the National Specialist Contractors Council back in 2015. Build UK describes itself as ‘the go to representative organisation for industry stakeholders’.

And it is not wrong. Its membership includes two government offices, the CBI, the CITB, the Construction Leadership Council, the Health & Safety Executive, CSCS, JCT and the Strategic Forum for Construction.

Perhaps even more impressive is its list of contracting members – Balfour Beatty, BAM, Bouygues, Carillion, Clugston, GallifordTry, InterServe, ISG, Keepmoat, Keltbray, Kier, Lendlease, M&W, Mace… in fact, just about every principle contractor our sector wants to work for.

So in what way is Build UK driving our sector?

Well, on all its member construction sites it insists on its Training Standard (download the Build UK brochure from bit.ly/buildPDF).

The standard focuses on two key issues.

1. The Requirements of the Construction Design & Management Regulations 2015, which (in part) reads: “[The] HSE guidance on implementing CDM 2015 states… ‘Nationally recognised qualifications (such as National Vocational Qualifications [NVQs] and Scottish Vocational Qualifications [SVQs]) can provide contractors with assurance that the holder has the skills, knowledge, training and experience to carry out the task(s) for which they are appointed’.”

This, no doubt, explains why increasingly contractors are expected to hold NVQs for the roles they perform. And why CSCS is evangelical about the holders need to be carrying the right card for the job they are doing and, of late, a card based on an NVQ achievement.

2. Page 8 & 9 of the document details the Build UK Health & Safety training requirements for participating on its members’ sites.

Therefore, contractors will be asked whether their site personnel have:

Job Role – Accepted Health & Safety Training

Contracts Director – DRHS (the CITB’s Director’s Role for Health & Safety) certificate or an approved equivalent

Contracts and Site Manager – SMSTS (the CITB’s Site Management Safety Training Scheme) certificate or an approved equivalent

Site & Trade Supervisor –SSSTS (the CITBs Site Supervisors Safety Training Scheme) certificate or an approved equivalent

Skilled Operative – HSA (the CITBs Health & Safety Awareness certificate or an approved equivalent

It is worth noting that the respective health and safety course for directors, managers, supervisors or operatives doesn’t make that person a qualified director, manager, supervisor or operative. It is simply the requirement for Build UK for a person’s minimum health and safety certification. That is why Build UK mentions the CDM Regulations and the HSE Guidance, which enshrines what ‘skills’ means (and is partly defined in the quotation above).

Yes, a body like Build UK does cause more hoops for the contractor to jump through. But, it is a client-led organisation, whether that be public sector client or private sector. So if we want the business, we have to operate in a way that reassures them.

Forewarned is forearmed. If you know a little bit about why a question is being asked in a tender or PQQ there is more chance you will be prepared with an answer that keeps the door of opportunity open to your business.

Mark Priestman is a Partner at Priestman Associates LLP, a leading façade preservation project consultancy. From stonemasonry and heritage skills through to Site Supervision and Conservation Management, the partnership is trusted by the leading brands of the sector as an NVQ provider for experienced, upskiller and apprentice workers. Mobile: 07876 687212
mark@priestmanweb.com