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Change Ahoy! All New Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
Posted by David Cant on January 26, 2015
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Change Ahoy! All New Construction (Design and Management) Regulations

construction site and a CraneDo you work in the construction industry?

Then you’d better pay attention – because there’s the smell of change in the air – and it’s not from my new high-fibre diet.

The all new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations are set to come into force on 6 April 2015.  And they apply to everyone in the industry.

So no matter what kind of project you’re working on, its size or duration – these are going to affect you.

Which means you need to know exactly what’s going to be different.

So what are the big changes?

–       CDM Co-ordinators changing to Principal Designer

Self-explanatory, really. But the main upshot of this change is that the primary responsibility of managing a construction project now rests on the sturdy shoulders of an existing member in the design team.

–       Role of the client

The new regulations put more importance on the client’s input and influence. They’ll now be recognised as the best party to set the standards through a project – which means you really need to pay attention to what they have to say!

–       Splitting up ‘competence’ 

Dividing up competency into different parts – skills, knowledge, experience and training – means that there’s no muddying the water between them. End result? A much clearer picture of whether or not your team can tick off all the boxes, before starting any project.

What’s staying the same?

The main thing that is staying the same will be the technical standards. These are pretty much as they are in their present form. HSE’s targeting and enforcement policy will also be unchanged.

Simple, right?

What does it mean for you?

So those are the main changes. What it means for you is that first of all, you’ll need to provide more information, as well as more training and instruction before taking on a job.

The important part of clarifying competency is that existing skills and knowledge will be measured up rigorously, to spot any gaps – and provide the relevant training needed.

The principal designer will also have a new addition to the workload – written construction plans are now going to be essential on all construction projects, even the domestic ones.

And if there is more than one contractor involved, then a principal contractor will need to be agreed, too.

Find out more

Want to pore over the regulations in detail? You can find drafts for them all and peruse them at your leisure.

More importantly, there are handy industry guidance documents for each role involved in a project – from clients to contractors and workers, and everyone in between – which sets out everything you need to do for your role.

So there’s no excuse for not knowing what’s expected of you!

Your takeaway points 

New CDM Regs will mean:

–       You now need a Principal Designer

–       And they need to write up a construction plan for any project

–       You need to pay more attention to what the client says

–       Different competencies will be looked at individually

–       More than one contractor? You’ll need a principal contractor

So there’s the new CDM Regs in a nutshell. Got any questions or thoughts? Drop us a line!

About 

David Cant is a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner extraordinaire. He has a wealth of Industry experience and is the MD of Veritas Consulting. David also Blogs about Health and Safety here Health and Safety Consultants

His aim is to flavour Health and Safety with integrity, served with a side of humour You can find David on - Twitter and Google also Linkedin

This post has been filed in: CDM Regulations, CDM Services, CDM Support, Construction Health and Safety, Health and Safety Services

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