Building Safety Alliance releases guidance to elevate competence standards in residential occupied sector

The Building Safety Alliance has announced the publication of two documents aimed at bolstering competence standards and fostering the recruitment of qualified professionals within the residential occupied sector.

BSAS 01:2024 Organisational Capability Management System Standard 

The new regulatory Regime under the Building Safety Act 2022 includes specific requirements in regard to individual competence and ‘Organisational Capability’ – effectively the management of competence within an organisation.

The requirements affect both the design and construction phases (Part 3 of the Act) and the management of residential buildings (Part 4 of the Act).

Organisations will, increasingly, be expected to provide evidence as to how they manage competence, their ‘Organisational Capability’. This will affect all areas of the supply chain as Clients will require this evidence, and organisations of all shapes, sizes and complexities will be expected to show how they manage the competence of their direct workforce and ensure that those contracted and sub-contracted to them are also properly managing competence.

This Standard has been developed and published by the Building Safety Alliance to assist both Clients who have to undertake appropriate due diligence on those they employ and organisations that seek to be employed to be able to evidence they have appropriate ‘capability’ in place.

Guidelines regarding competence expectations for those specifying, procuring and managing services to occupied high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings

The Building Safety Alliance has worked with a number of organisations to deliver this guidance document to assist Clients, (Principal) Accountable Persons, Facilities and Property Managers in determining the competence-related expectations they may choose to place on those individuals who deliver services on their behalf to occupied high-rise residential buildings.

It will also assist all these parties to show the residents for whose safety they are responsible that those working in, on or around their homes are appropriately competent to do so.

It is intended to aid:

• those specifying works/contracts to set an easily recognisable standard of 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 (e.g.: property/building/facility managers) can easily check that the person presenting themselves to undertake the work is truly competent to do so, again using an easily recognisable standardised set of criteria.

Both documents can be accessed by filling out a form on the Building Safety Alliance website, which you can access here.