Raising the bar interim report

Following the tragic events at Grenfell Tower, Dame Judith Hackitt’s interim report made significant criticisms of the government and property professions. The issues she raised included: unclear regulation; poor enforcement systems; the sector’s failure to accept responsibility for ensuring compliance; poor testing and product marketing regimes; and the lack of scope for stakeholders, especially tenants, to have their say.

But a particularly strong message was the lack of clarity over the competence of those involved in the design, construction and management of a building. In the interim report, Hackitt wrote: "Despite many who demonstrate good practice, the means of assessing and ensuring the competency of key people throughout the system is inadequate. There is often no differentiation in competency requirements for those working on high-rise and complex buildings". There is thus a need to raise levels of competence and establish formal accreditation for those engaged in fire prevention when designing, constructing, inspecting or maintaining complex or high-rise residential buildings (HRRBs).

She signalled that, in the established built environment professions, there was evidence that competence was more assured; but even here it was often difficult to demonstrate that specific competence. Hackitt does not necessarily question the competence of professionals per se, but she is concerned by the fact that specific and relevant competence to deal with the particular issues presented by projects such as HRRBs cannot be evidenced.

This system is unlikely to involve a detailed approval of building designs, because this is currently leading to an abdication of responsibility by designers and contractors, who tend to regard the regulator’s sign-off as sufficient. It will instead entail that designers and contractors gain permission to pass through gateways between different phases of a project – say, from design to construction and from construction to occupation. Permission would be granted on the basis that processes give confidence that professionals are capable of managing compliance both at design and through to completion. Demonstrating adequate and applicable competence will be a key part of this.

A steering group was then formed, on which RICS was represented by global building standards director Gary Strong, as well as working groups involving a number of RICS members and staff that would look at competency matrices for various built environment roles. A further working group was later formed, to consider the potential for a body that would manage any competence system. Together, these groups represented a huge amount of work by 300-plus volunteers from 150 organisations.

The resultant IRG report, Raising the bar, was put out to consultation from August to October. If you are involved in the design, construction or management of complex buildings, especially HRRBs, I advise you to familiarise yourself with the recommendations of the working group relevant to your role.

The working groups looked at a range of current mechanisms, finding in the established built environment professions quite advanced competency management systems that require only relatively small adjustments. These would include particular focuses on, for example, HRRB-specific issues, and a level of disclosure to third parties such as UKAS by professions that have traditionally self-regulated. RICS – along with the other similar institutions – is happy to make such adjustments.

RICS members are required not to work outside their competencies, and those with the relevant competencies are required to keep up to date with emerging information and changes in regulations. RICS offers constant updates to help with this, and of course there are regular CPD opportunities including the RICS Fire Safety Conference 2020 in London on 11 February, which will be repeated in Manchester on 17 March.

But it is recognised that the IRG’s work is only the start when it comes to meeting the Hackitt challenge, and it may be some time before anything formal is set up. Her main message – that built environment professionals should not wait for the formalities to be concluded before they act – remains particularly relevant here, as it does for improvement in all other areas.

Hackitt’s high-level messages, to which Raising the Bar responds, are quite clear: anyone involved in procuring HRRBs and anyone subsequently appointed to design, build or manage these assets should select only people whose competence can be demonstrated. It would not be unreasonable to apply this approach to buildings other than HRRBs as well.

Related competencies include: Ethics, Rules of Conduct and professionalism, Fire safety