Building Safety Alliance issues competence standard and guidance for residential occupied sector

The BSAS 01:2024 Organisational Capability Management System Standard and its accompanying Guidelines Outlining Competence Expectations for Stakeholders Involved in Specifying, Procuring and Managing Services for Occupied High-Rise and Higher-Risk Residential Buildings in England serve as “essential resources” for those organisations actively seeking to enhance competence within their building safety functions.

These initiatives align with the imperative of meeting the requirements set by the new building safety regime at the Health and Safety Executive and, specifically, those elements of the Building Safety Act 2022 pertaining directly to competence.

In an evolving landscape where evidence of competence management – and particularly so ‘organisational capability’ (more of which anon) – is increasingly scrutinised, stakeholders across the sector must demonstrate their commitment to upholding rigorous standards.

Clients will now be demanding tangible proof of competence management, compelling organisations of all sizes and complexities within the supply chain to ensure the proficiency of their workforce (including contracted and sub-contracted personnel).

Within the Building Safety Act 2022 there are specific requirements in relation to individual competence and ‘organisational capability’. In terms of the latter, this is effectively the management of competence within an organisation. The requirements affect both the design and construction phases (Part 3 of the Act of Parliament) and the management of residential buildings (Part 4 of the Act).

BSAS 01:2024 has been developed and published to assist clients who have to undertake appropriate due diligence on those whom they employ and organisations seeking to be employed such that they’re readily able to evidence they have the appropriate ‘capability’ in place.

Guidance document

The guidance document focuses on competence expectations for those specifying, procuring and managing services for occupied high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings.

The Building Safety Alliance has worked with several organisations to deliver this guidance document in order to assist clients, Principal ‘Accountable Persons’, facilities and property managers alike in determining the competence-related expectations they may choose to place on those individuals who deliver services on their behalf within occupied high-rise residential buildings.

It will also actively assist all of these parties in highlighting to the residents (for whose safety they’re responsible) that those working in, on or around their homes are appropriately competent to do so.

The guidance is intended to assist:

*those specifying works/contracts to set an easily recognisable standard of the competence they require of individuals actually delivering the work

*those procuring the work against a specification to set the standard of competence they require of individuals actually delivering the work (this could then be used by organisations tendering for the work to assure their client that they can – and will – deliver the appropriate staff to deliver the work)

*those who are responsible for managing works within the building (eg property/building/facility managers) can easily check that the person presenting themselves to undertake the work is truly competent to do so, again by virtue of using an easily recognisable and standardised set of criteria

Dedication and expertise

The development of these documents is testament to the dedication and expertise of industry professionals who’ve contributed to their creation.

Anthony Taylor, interim chair of the Building Safety Alliance, observed: “The Building Safety Alliance wishes to thank all those who have given their valuable time and knowledge towards developing common approaches to the requirements of the new regulatory regime. We also extend our thanks to those representatives of the Building Safety Regulator and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities who acted as observers to the groups who’ve been developing these documents over many months now.”

The Building Safety Alliance is comprised of organisations representative of – and from right across – the industry sector managing the occupation phase. Council includes supporters and experts from the social housing sector and commercial and residential management in addition to facilities managers and fire safety experts. Most importantly, it includes resident representation.

Representatives want to drive culture change and competence elevation in buildings to give residents safe homes. Many of them first worked together on Working Group 8 to fashion the competence framework for Building Safety Managers under the auspices of the Competence Steering Group.

Working Group 8’s final report entitled Safer People, Safer Homes: Building Safety Management was published on 5 October 2020.

*BSAS 01:2024 and the accompanying guidelines are available through the Building Safety Alliance’s website at https://buildingsafetyalliance.org.uk/ Both documents are free of charge

**Going forward, BSAS 01:2024 will become part of the British Standards Institution’s standards development process and move towards becoming a Publicly Available Specification or a fully-fledged British Standard

***For more information on the work of the Building Safety Alliance access www.buildingsafetyalliance.org.uk