Why Site Supervision matters - The Edinburgh Schools Disaster

After a wall collapsed at Oxgangs Primary School in Edinburgh in January 2016, Professor John Cole CBE, led a review which identified poor on-site inspection as a major contributing factor to what could have been, but thankfully, wasn’t a catastrophic accident. Professor Cole said:

“The primary cause of the wall collapse was poor quality construction by a bricklayer and failure by that bricklayer’s boss to see what he was doing, and failure by the contractor employing that subcontractor to see what they were doing. So unless they are properly supervised, and remembering that these bricklayers would go on to a different job in a few days’ time there is not the same loyalty to a particular building.”

After this shocking event, the CIOB set up the Past Presidents Quality Commission to look at the drivers and barriers that were impacting quality in construction. Site management and site supervision were an integral part of that and we began work on the Guide to Construction Quality (Site Production and Assembly) Guide to Construction Quality (Site Production and Assembly) I CIOB Academy

The Grenfell Fire and CIC Industry Response Group

On 14 June 2017, the Grenfell fire killed 72 people including 18 children, the youngest being an unborn child. This terrible catastrophe made the CIOB’s work to prioritise quality and whole life safety even more urgent. Following Grenfell, the Construction Industry Council (CIC) set up an Industry Response group to aid Dame Judith Hackitt in her work.

A subgroup, the Competence Steering Group, was formed to examine the important issue of competence, raised by Dame Judith Hackitt’s report, which was responsible for developing competence frameworks for key professionals. Site supervision was identified as an important work stream and the CIOB took the lead on this work.

Working Group 9 Site Supervision

This group was Chaired by our former trustee Peter Dawber FCIOB and included a pan industry group of experts from those working in fire safety to structural engineering, building control, site management and site supervision.  The remit of the group was to develop a set of competencies for site supervisors/managers or those who manage the construction process to include all buildings and higher risk buildings. The framework therefore sets out baseline requirements for non-Higher Risk Residential Buildings and further competencies for Higher Risk Residential Buildings in recognition that the Building Safety Act covers all buildings that are subject to Building Regulations.

It allows all stakeholders in the construction process to assure the quality and safety of the works by ensuring the competence of supervisory and management professionals.

The CIOB has also played a key role in developing the BSI 8672 standard for Principal Contractor, which was also chaired by Peter Dawber, FCIOB and this framework aligns with those standards.

How does this competence framework help in the new legislative framework?

The Building Safety act provides for duty holder roles, Principal Designer and Principal Contractor who are accountable for the safety of the delivered building. Given these two roles are not always fully site-based and are required by law to assure the competence of those working on the building, this framework will help in identifying and validating the competence of site-based supervisors or managers.

Peter Dawber FCIOB says:

“Individuals who work on-site and provide support to the Principal Contractor, either as employees of the Principal Contractor's organization or as the leading individuals of contracting organizations, are referred to as "Site Supervisors." In order to establish core competencies for Site Supervisors, who act as the eyes and ears of the principal contractor, it was deemed essential to develop and publish a competency framework. This standard was developed by Working Group 9 of the Competency Steering Group (CSG) in April 2023.”

Who is it for?

This framework is openly and publicly available for anyone with an interest in building safety. However, it may be of particular use to those organisations that provide services in terms of duty holder roles, principal designer, principal contractor or professionals accountable for building safety.

You can find the detail for the competence framework for Site Supervisors in England by clicking this link.