ADVICE & OPINION
COMPLIANCE
THE BUILDING SAFETY MANAGER:
ACHIEVING COMPETENCE
Following the Grenfell tragedy, there is an identifi ed need to improve building safety
performance by focusing upon improving the competence, and the behaviour, of the
workforce at all levels. International Workplace’s Kelly Mansfi eld addresses what
competence means and how it is attained www.internationalworkplace.com
The Building Safety Bill was published on 5 July,
introducing the role of the Building Safety
Manager (BSM). The role has been designed to
look a er the day-to-day management of fire
and structural safety in higher-risk buildings and
establish a clear point of contact for residents for
fire and safety-related issues.
Earlier this year, the government decided to remove
originally planned statutory duties from the BSM,
while still introducing the BSM as a statutory role, to
carry out such duties relating to planning, managing,
and monitoring functions as may be specified in
the appointment. What remains is that the Building
Safety Manager, appointed by the Accountable
Person, must be competent.
A COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK
To encourage industry to prepare now for the new
BSM role, the government has endorsed the BSM
competence framework developed by Working Group
8 (WG8), published in its final report Safer people,
safer homes: Building Safety Management.
WG8, set up as one of the working groups within
the CIC’s Competence Steering Group, are working
with BSI to deliver the PAS 8673, a standard for the
competence of individual BSMs and Nominated
Individuals (NIs) appointed by the organisation, which
is due to be published in early 2022.
Speaking to International Workplace, Anthony
Taylor, Chairman of WG8, said: “Dame Judith leader
of the Grenfell Inquiry recognised the lack of
competence across the whole industry. Competence
is redefined as SKEB – skills, knowledge, experience
and behaviour – the last being the truly new issue.
A• er all, you can have all the technical knowledge
in the world, but if applied in a slapdash manner, it
accounts for nothing.”
Dame Judith Hackitt said: “If you move to a future
world where the regulator is going to say, ‘prove to me
that this is going to be a safe building’ - the question
they will ask is ‘how will you ensure that this is the
case?’ The Duty Holder, whether that’s the client, the
major contractor, whoever it is, will need to be in a
position to say ‘because I am employing competent
people to do this job, and here is the evidence that I
am employing competent people to do this job’. There
is no doubt at all that competence and accreditation
is going to be a major feature of the future.”
14 NOVEMBER 2021
CERTIFICATION AND REGISTRATION OF BSMS
As well as developing a standard, WG8 has also gone
on to form the Building Safety Alliance – some 40+
members from across this sector, including insurers,
social and private housing, and some commercial
organisations working in fire risk management. It
will sit within the Construction Industry Council (CIC)
‘umbrella’ of similar organisations, with the initial
intent of undertaking independent assessments and
certification of prospective BSMs and nominated
individuals.
It is envisioned that those who are successfully
certificated ‘against’ PAS 8673 will then be placed on
a national Register, operated and governed by the
Building Safety Alliance. This is intended to be the
pre-eminent source of assurance to residents, APs,
BSM organisations, the Regulator and others, that
those on the Register are competent to operate as
BSM/NIs.
WHAT MAKES A BSM COMPETENT?
Competence requirements of individuals in these
roles are necessarily wide and they will be defined by
the PAS 8763.
“The appropriate SKEB – skills, knowledge,
experience and behaviour - are what make someone
competent,” says Taylor. “The new bit there is
behaviour. Because, quite frankly, if you’ve got all the
skills in the world and you don’t have the integrity to
do the job properly, that’s not worth a lot! The whole
cultural change that’s being pushed through the
built environment is centred on improving people’s
behaviour and integrity, albeit we also need to drive
up the general skillsets too.”
Taylor continues: “Basically, the Building Safety Bill
requires that you need knowledge about spread of
fire, and knowledge about structures of the building.
The PAS will extend this narrow legal focus to include
In association with
knowledge about all existing health and safety law,
public health, knowledge of how to understand PPM
(planned preventative maintenance schedule) and
generally operate a building safely.
“Because BSMs can’t be full-blown experts in
everything set out in the PAS, they will need to have
adequate overall competence.
“It is envisaged that the Building Safety Alliance
will take PAS 8673 and set a process in place that will,
initially, encourage potential BSM/NIs to self-assess
their competences against the PAS, go away to fill
any gaps, perhaps with existing training providers,
return to the Alliance to be formally assessed, and, if
certificated, placed on the National Register (held by
the Alliance).
“We are working on a ‘driving licence’ style
graduation of competence to provide a starting point
and career path, with the graduations relating to the
complexity of the buildings for which the individuals
will be competent to manage.”
COMPETENCY AND TYPES OF BUILDING
The competence level required of a BSM depends on
the complexity of the building. Taylor explains: “The
di£ erences are, for example, a standard block, let’s
say 10 flats of a non-complex building, compared to
the Shard! That’s got to be di£ erent. And it depends
on the demography of the residents – are they
students, or more elderly, or perhaps infirm people?
Is English not their first language? How you manage
communication is a key competence skill.”
MAINTAINING COMPETENCE
Assessment of competence is ongoing. How and
when is currently undecided but it will potentially
be re-evaluated every three years and those on the
Register will be required to undertake (and evidence)
appropriate CPD.
When asked where roles such as facilities
managers fit in with the developments, Taylor
said they could upskill to become BSMs: “We are
anticipating people putting themselves forward from
many existing disciplines, engineers for example,
property management or perhaps from a ‘fire safety’
background or from construction.
“Technical knowledge will provide part of the route,
but there will be no magical ‘course’ as such, as we
will still have to judge on experience and behaviour.”
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