Competence Report Identifies Appetite for RoofCERT Problem

A REPORT setting out the current state of competence arrangements for those installing products and systems in buildings has been welcomed by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) today.

The Competence Framework – Installer Pilots report has been prepared by members of Working Group 2, set up as part of the post-Grenfell Competence Steering Group. Volunteers from Working Group 2 have worked with six pilot installer sectors – Domestic Plumbing and Heating, Dry Lining, Fire Detection and Alarms, Fire Stopping Specialist, Rainscreen Cladding, and Roofing – to benchmark existing competence arrangements.

Competence Report

This Phase One of the pilot sets a baseline to identify shortfalls and considers the changes needed to create competence frameworks that comply with the recommendations of Setting the Bar.

In 2020, Setting the Bar outlined how industry must improve the competence of those procuring, designing, constructing, inspecting, assessing, managing, installing and maintaining higher risk residential buildings.

Today’s Installer Pilot report recognises that good practice exists in each of the six sectors that allows them to demonstrate elements of competence. Yet there are elements of each sectors’ arrangements that the working group has red rated, showing that significant work is required to meet the requirements of Setting the Bar.

Appetite for RoofCERT

The Competence report identifies the roofing sector’s trade associations as a strength, saying collaboration between them is good. It also says one of the sectors main strengths is the presence of the RoofCERT scheme, and its revalidation of roofing skills.

However, the report says the biggest challenge to proving competence is the lack of appetite across the industry to voluntarily take part in RoofCERT, as well as a lack of infrastructure to deliver training and assessment and the skills shortage.

Each sector will now move to develop sector-specific competence frameworks that play to existing strengths and close off any red flag issues raised in the report. This process – which will also develop a timeline and implementation plan for each sector – is expected to take six to nine months.

The report also calls on other installer sectors to begin their own competence journey now, offering guidance to help them do so which Working Group 2 has developed during the pilots.

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