ICSG announces restructure to enhance competence within built environment

The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) has announced a restructure to enhance competence and safety standards across the built environment.

Established in response to the Grenfell Tower Fire and subsequent Hackitt Review, ICSG has now transitioned to become a formal working group of the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) under the Building Safety Regulator (BSR).

ICSG, formerly known as the Competence Steering Group, is Co-Chaired by Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager at the Construction Products Association and Gill Hancock, Head of Technical Content at the Association for Project Management.

Hanna Clarke said:

The new relationship between the ICC and the ICSG is key to transforming the competence of the industry. ICC aims to set expectations for industry and challenge it. The ICSG is where industry can collaborate to meet those challenges. The ICSG also provides the ICC with a clear picture of what industry is doing, feeds back on what challenges industry is facing, and which levers can be pulled to improve competence. We are able to work together on developing solutions and aim to provide clear messages and guidance for the industry and the public about competence

The new structure includes sector-led groups, key topic groups, and working groups. They currently bring together contributions from over 60 professional and trade bodies and 1500 individuals in the built environment, with membership of the sector led groups still growing.

These groups will produce competence frameworks mapped to the BS 8670 series. They will also create guidance and implementation programs to enable culture change in relation to competence across the built environment. Another key role of these groups is to provide forums for industry feedback relating to the understanding of legislation and barriers to its implementation.

ICSG is working with BSI to create a communications hub. It will be a central repository of all ICSG's work for the industry to access. More information on this and the competence frameworks will come in spring 2025.