Central register launched for Building Safety Managers
A new central register and certification scheme – the Building Safety Alliance – has been launched for Building Safety Managers following the final report and proposals for Working Group 8 – part of the industry response group tasked with developing a new framework of competence for the new Building Safety Manager role.
The concept of the Building Safety Manager (BSM) first featured in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report, Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety. She wanted to make sure there was a clearly identifiable person who was responsible for the day-to-day management of a building and who acts as the point of contact for residents.
Crucially, Dame Hackitt stipulated that this BSM would need to have the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (SKEB) to take on the role, which would need to contribute to holistic, whole building safety for higher risk buildings.
Since May 2018, there have been several consultations and a draft Building Safety Bill, which have refined the BSM role.
The Building Safety Bill, published on 5 July, outlined the Building Safety Manager as a person appointed by the principal Accountable Person for a higher-risk building (HRB) to carry out such duties relating to the planning, managing and monitoring of Part 4 functions as may be specified in the appointment (the “BSM duties”). This means that their principal role is to support the Accountable Person in complying with their obligations under Part 4 of the Bill, in so far as the contract between the principal Accountable Person and the Building Safety Manager outlines the specific duties.
The Building Safety Alliance is comprised of organisations representative of, and from across the industry sector managing the occupation phase. The ‘Council’ of the Building Safety Alliance includes members and experts coming from the social housing sector, commercial and residential management, facilities managers and fire safety experts. Most importantly, it includes the resident voice.
Members want to drive culture change and competence in buildings to give residents safe homes. Many of its members first worked together as Working Group (WG8) to develop the competence framework for BSMs under the auspices of the Competence Steering Group. WG8’s report Safer people, safer homes: Building Safety Management was published on 5 October 2020. The report looked at wider recommendations, to make sure that wider culture change and upskilling in the occupation phase could be facilitated; its recommendations included the development of a central register.
In the Government response to pre-legislative scrutiny by the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee, published on 5 July, Government said that “Industry should look to this now for guidance on how to prepare for the new role and engage with the BSI process as the PAS is developed.”
The Building Safety Regulator is not planning to have an open register of competent BSMs. The Building Safety Alliance wants to make sure residents can check if their BSM is competent to do the job and that Accountable Persons can find the right, competent people who have validated that they can deliver building safety to the nationally agreed standard, with the right behaviours.
The Building Safety Alliance will deliver initially two functions:
- The certification of individuals wishing to deliver the role of BSM as an individual and those individuals wishing to act as a nominated individual for organisations delivering the BSM function; and
- A publicly accessible register of those certified by the scheme.
It is also, later, expecting to work with others to evaluate how organisations holding themselves as having the capability to deliver the function of the BSM can be quality assured to deliver this role, and potentially looking to assist contractors and suppliers to HRBs to meet the requirements of BSI Flex 8670.
Greater assurance for BSR, Accountable Person and residents
If potential BSMs were not to be on the Building Safety Alliance’s register, additional checks would need to be done by the AP (or BSM organisation for the Nominated Individual) to ensure competence criteria are met. These additional checks would need to be demonstrated to the BSR who would require more time to review the application submitted. Residents can also assure themselves of the competence of the BSM responsible for their building.
Simplify the process, reduce bureaucracy and be more cost effective
The register can be anticipated to reduce the AP’s burden of proof to demonstrate the BSM’s competence, cutting back application time. It will also enable the AP to seek competitive quotations for the role, without needing to compromise on competence and organisational capability. When also expanding its scope to include wider contractors and suppliers working in, on and around HRBs, The Building Safety Alliance’s register will significantly reduce the burden on the BSM to assure themselves that all work and maintenance undertaken on HRBs is done so by competent people.
For more information on the Alliance, go to: www.buildingsafetyalliance.org.uk.
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