Construction Products Association to chair Industry Competence Steering Group

This new Steering Group will continue the work of the Competence Steering Group which has published its third and final report – A Higher Bar: Achieving a Competence-Led Built Environment – setting out the significant steps being made across the built environment and fire sectors in terms of improving skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours in order to drive culture change and enhance the safety of buildings.

With the publication of this report, the Competence Steering Group – originally set up by the Industry Response Group following the Grenfell Tower tragedy – will transition to the new Industry Competence Steering Group, allowing it to continue its work on a more formal footing in developing new standards, competence frameworks, accreditation procedures and learning materials.

One of these includes the Built Environment: Proposed Construction Product Competence Standard – White Paper on which Hanna Clarke led the production process and which is currently being taken forward by the British Standards Institution to become a fully-fledged British Standard.

The new Steering Group will sit under the ICC, itself the statutory committee with a ky role to play in advising both the built environment industry and the Building Safety Regulator within the HSE on matters of competence.

Unprecedented collaboration

Hanna Clarke (pictured, right) commented: “The Competence Steering Group broke ground in bringing so many siloed sectors together in unprecedented collaboration. Industry Competence Steering Group’s task will be to build on this, bringing in more disciplines and stakeholders and increasing engagement and visibility.”

Clarke added: “The new relationship with the ICC and the Building Safety Regulator will provide an excellent opportunity for the Steering Group to test its work against critical friends. Ultimately, the aim is to establish a new culture so that every member of the supply chain – from manufacturers to maintenance contractors – demonstrates competence in working safely.”

Clarke’s appointment as chair will allow her to continue her important work in driving forward a competence-led built environment, and particularly so one which appreciates and demonstrates competence in the application and use of construction products.  

*Further information on the final report from the Competence Steering Group is available online