Building Safety Differently
An Introduction...​​
​
In April 2023 the Building Safety Act came into force, reflecting the need for a culture change within the UK Construction Industry. Following the Hackitt Review (2018) into the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017, the main focus of the Act was to ensure that higher-risk buildings (HRBs) are designed constructed and operated in such a way that a repeat of Grenfell could never happen.
However, the Act and the revised Building Regulations apply to all building work, so clients and their design teams will need to adopt new or modified practices to ensure that their buildings are compliant and they can provide evidence (the Golden Thread) to demonstrate as much.
This new legislation must be considered alongside the existing CDM 2015 Regulations, with (different) principal designer (PD) duties written into the CDM and Building Regulations.
The existing DRM toolkit (Designing Differently page) has been developed to enable a competent PD to plan, manage and monitor the design work, holistically, in accordance with the two sets of duties.​​
​
​
Documents
The Client's (Risk Strategy) Brief
The client sets the culture and strategic direction of the project and can significantly influence the
behaviours of the project team-members. Developing the Client’s (Risk Management) Brief in
conjunction with other key stakeholders will enable everyone to understand their roles in satisfying
the requirements of the Building Regulations as well as CDM 2015.
​
Here you can download the Client Brief for you to complete in partnership with the Client.
The Principal Designer's (PD) Toolkit
The principal designer role is considerably more onerous for HRB projects, but all building projects
will require a more rigorous approach for demonstrating compliance with the Building Regulations,
particularly with respect to structural stability, fire and public safety.
The following templates can provide the competent practitioner with the tools to plan, manage and
monitor the design work throughout the period of their appointment.
Why is the Toolkit Required & NOT Just a Risk Register?
CDM has been in existence since 1994. Over 30 years and its integration into Design & Construction has been variable and sometimes just a tick box example of malicious compliance. Together with Fire legislation the theme has previously been “What is the least we can get away with!” creating a “drive to the bottom” in the industry based mainly on cost.
Who is it for?
The latest CDM Regulations were updated in 2015 at which point the Principal Designer (PD) role was added and the CDM- Coordinator role discardedas not working This was not just a name change but requires different Skills, Knowledge, Attitude, Training & Experience (SKATE) and “control” of the design phases of any project. These PD attributes and control can only realistically be in the hands of the Lead Designer organisation and their Project lead individual designer, architect or architectural designers, albeit some technical support may be required.
As a result of the Grenfell Tower Fire disaster the Building Safety Act 2022 has introduced a whole new approach to all “Building safety” and an enhanced PD role for the integration of Building Regs. issues, especially for structural, fire and public health and other multi factorial issues. This PD Toolkit assists the PD to deliver these two PD roles, both as an organisation and an individual in a coordinated manner.
How does it work?
This “PD Toolkit” document is a comprehensive method for PD’s & Designers (D) to meet the requirements of both pieces of legislation within a collaborative team approach, with the client and all other duty-holders and stakeholders actively participating. The HSE agree (ref. RR1198 Report) that the preparation of a CDM Risk Register alone is not a fully acceptable method but creates an “illusion of safety” which is largely incomprehensible to most participants.
The Building Safety Act extended the principal designer role to includes the integration and demonstration of Building Regulations and other regulatory compliance at the design stage, also requiring the “Skills, Knowledge, Experience & Behaviours” (SKEB) of the PD to be demonstrated.
Why do we need it?
This Toolkit captures all the above PD requirements in a single document which includes the competent project team, programme, identification and analysis of “significant risks & critical elements” and after mitigation eventually edits down to include any “residual risks and elements” needed for the PC during the Construction Phase. Finally the document evolves into the Health & Safety File and Golden Thread for the Client to operate, maintain, use and modify their building in the future, and to form the basis of a Safety Case for HRB’s..
The Toolkit is a combination of individual “Tools” that can be used collaboratively by the PD Organization and PD individual, such as a Lead Architect, Project Architect, Architectural Designer or Designer (D) This document is a working Toolkit to produce a compliant design but also serves as a reporting tool to the client or external bodies such as funders, insurers, competence assessors and the HSE & the HSE/BSR or Judiciary should the need ever arise. Each page is suitably entitled and version controlled with reference to contributing team members for quick, easy and future reference, to enable reviews to be fast and timesaving.
This document serves as a single point of reference on all projects for Significant & Critical compliance with CDM risks & BSA/B Regs elements at any stage of a project.