Building a safer future: competency champions

Louise Wren, BSF Lead, gives an update on the partnership with CABE and evidencing competence collaboration.

The release of the secondary legislation to the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) in October 2023 has prompted the question of how to assess, manage and record both individual and organisational competence in the built environment. So CABE and Building a Safer Future (BSF) joined forces in December 2023 to better support the industry with building safety competency requirements.

The BSF Champions scheme is a robust self-assessment, benchmarking and independent verification scheme, with leadership and cultural improvement at its heart. It is embedded in a number of major procurement frameworks and is endorsed by the Building Safety Regulator, Health and Safety Executive, Construction Leadership Council, Homes England and Crown Commercial Services.

The Champions assessment is open to organisations of any size on a voluntary basis. It provides external observation and support in identifying strengths and opportunities for improvement in relation to building safety. The assessment is not an audit or a test to be passed or failed; it’s a valuable tool from an independent party to guide companies on their continuous improvement journey.

The Champions assessment is divided into two modules – Leadership and Culture, and Corroborating Elements. Once both modules have been completed, providing the organisation meets a minimum required standard, it is awarded BSF Champions status.

It is the framework of the Corroborating Elements module that has, to date, been the key focus of the BSF and CABE collaboration, due to it being an assessment against a set of building safety expectations. It covers several building safety themes, with a clear line of sight to the requirements of the BSA, the Fire Safety Act and the recommendations from the Hackitt Review.

CABE and BSF have engaged in an extensive piece of work to embed recognition of an individual’s CABE Chartered membership into the Corroborating Elements framework. For organisations undergoing the Champions process, there is clear alignment between BSF’s framework and CABE’s own. It accepts having at least 50% of an organisation’s board (or senior leadership team in the absence of a board) who have held CABE membership at MCABE grade or above since 2015 as evidence of organisational competence.

This 50% threshold is only applicable to the competency-related expectations of the module that have been mapped against CABE’s, but in essence this recognition streamlines an organisation’s route to proving competence. It takes into account the individual assessments already conducted by CABE, removing the need for duplication.

If less than 50% of an organisation’s board or senior leadership team are at MCABE, MCABE C.Build E or FCABE C.Build E grade, to satisfy the module’s competency expectations that sit outside of the alignment with CABE, the BSF would require further evidence of how the organisation meets building safety expectations.

BSF and CABE’s partnership means that the BSF Champions assessment is more accessible to organisations with many Chartered CABE members in leadership. In due course, CABE will provide updates on organisations that have achieved BSF Champion status by meeting the new criteria, affirming CABE’s meticulous procedures and trusted criteria for achieving a Chartered grade.

Apply to participate in the BSF Champions programme at buildingasaferfuture.org.uk or e-mail [email protected]
Discover case studies of BSF Champions at b.link/BSF_CC
Read the original partnership announcement from 2023 at b.link/BE_SB

Image credit | Getty