Competence: What does this mean? How can this be assessed

Competences for Core Criteria for demonstration of Competence: Companies, Contractors, Co-ordinators and Designers

The tables below should help to understand and assess the standards you are required to meet the standards set out in the core criteria table below.

·        Column 1 of the table lists the elements which should be assessed when establishing whether or not a company is competent for the work which they will be expected to do.

·        Column 2 lists the standards against which the assessment should be made.

·        Column 3 gives some examples of how a company might demonstrate that it meets these standards.

Companies do not have to produce all of the evidence listed in column 3 to satisfy the standard – but they need to produce enough evidence to show that they meet the standard in column 2, taking account of the nature of the project and the risks which the work entails. This requires you to make a judgement as to whether the evidence provided meets the standard to be achieved.

If your judgement is reasonable, and clearly based on the evidence you have asked for and been provided with, you will not be criticised if the company you appoint subsequently proves not to be competent when carrying out the work.

The assessments should focus on the needs of the particular job and should be proportionate to the risks arising from the work. Unnecessary bureaucracy associated with competency assessment obscures the real issues and diverts effort away from them.

If you’re an employer with less than 5 persons working for you, you do not have to write down your policy, organisation or arrangements under criteria 1 and 2. However, you do need to demonstrate that your policy and arrangements are adequate in relation to the type of work you do. Assessments of competence will be made easier if your procedures are clear and accessible.

‘Contractor’, ‘Designer’ and ‘Co-ordinator’ relate to your function, not to the type of organisation.

	Criteria	Standard to be achieved	Examples of the evidence that you could use to demonstrate you meet the required standard
	Stage 1 assessment
1	Health and safety policy and organisation for health and safety	You are expected to have and implement an appropriate policy, regularly reviewed, and signed off by the managing director or equivalent. The policy must be relevant to the nature and scale of your work and set out the responsibilities for health and safety management at all levels within the organisation.	A signed, current copy of the company policy (indicating when it was last reviewed and by whose authority it is published). Guidance on writing company policies for health and safety can be found in HSE free leaflet INDG 259.
2	Arrangements	These should set out the arrangements for health and safety management within the organisation and should be relevant to the nature and scale of your work. They should set out how the company will discharge their duties under CDM (2007). There should be a clear indication of how these arrangements are communicated to the workforce.	A clear explanation of the arrangements which the company has made for putting its policy into effect and for discharging its duties under CDM (2007). Guidance on making arrangements for the management of health and safety can be found in HSE free leaflet INDG 259.
3	Competent advice – corporate and construction related	Your organisation, and your employees, must have ready access to competent health and safety advice, preferably from within your own organisation. The advisor must be able to provide general health and safety advice, and also (from the same source or elsewhere) advice relating to construction health and safety issues.	Name and competency details of the source of advice, e.g. a safety group, trade federation, or consultant who provides health and safety information and advice. An example from the last 12 months of advice given and action taken.

	Criteria	Standard to be achieved	Examples of the evidence that you could use to demonstrate you meet the required standard
4	Training and information	You should have in place, and implement, training arrangements to ensure your employees have the skills and understanding necessary to discharge their duties as contractors, designers or CDM co-ordinators. You should have in place a programme for refresher training, e.g. a Continuing Professional Development programme or lifelong learning which will keep your employees updated on new developments and changes to legislation or good health and safety practice. This applies throughout the organisation – from Board or equivalent, to trainees.	Headline training records. Evidence of a health and safety training culture including records, certificates of attendance and adequate health and safety induction training for site based workforce. Evidence of an active CPD programme. Sample ‘tool box talks’.
5	Individual qualifications and experience	Employees are expected to have the appropriate qualifications and experience for the assigned tasks, unless they are under controlled and competent supervision.	Details of qualifications and/or experience of specific corporate post holders, e.g. Board members, Health and Safety Adviser etc. Other key roles should be named or identified and details of relevant qualifications and experience provided. FOR CONTRACTORS: details of number/percentage of people engaged in the project that have passed a construction health and safety assessment, e.g. the Construction Skills’ health and safety test or affiliated schemes, or the CCNSG equivalent. For site managers, details of any specific training, such as Construction Skills’ Site Managers Safety Training Scheme certificate (SMSTS) or equivalent. For professionals, details of qualifications and/or professional institution membership. For site workers, details of any relevant qualifications or training such as S/NVQ certificates. Evidence of a company-based training programme suitable for the work to be carried out.

	Criteria	Standard to be achieved	Examples of the evidence that you could use to demonstrate you meet the required standard
7	Workforce involvement	You should have, and implement, an established means of consulting with your workforce on health and safety matters.	Evidence showing how consultation is carried out. Names of appointed safety representatives. For those employing more than five people, be able to describe how you consult with your employees to achieve the consultation required.
8	Accident reporting and enforcement action; follow up investigation	You should have records of all RIDDOR reportable events for at least the last three years. You should also have in place a system for reviewing all incidents, and recording the action taken as a result. You should record any enforcement action taken against your company over the last five years, and the action which you have taken to remedy matters subject to enforcement action.	Evidence showing the way in which you record and investigate accidents and incidents. Records of the last two accidents/incidents and the actions taken to prevent recurrence. Records of any enforcement action taken over the last five years, and what action was taken to put matters right. (Information on enforcement taken by HSE over the last five years is available on the HSE website.) For larger companies, simple statistics showing incidence rates of major injuries, over three-day injuries, reportable cases of ill-health and dangerous occurrences for the last three years. Records should include any incidents that occurred whilst the company traded under a different name, and any incidents that occur to direct employees or labour-only subcontractors.

	Criteria	Standard to be achieved	Examples of the evidence that you could use to demonstrate you meet the required standard
9	Subcontracting/ consulting procedures (if applicable)	You should have arrangements in place for appointing competent subcontractors/ consultants. You should be able to demonstrate how you ensure that subcontractors will also have arrangements for appointing competent subcontractors or consultants. You should have arrangements for monitoring subcontractor performance.	Evidence showing how you ensure subcontractors are competent. Examples of subcontractor assessments you have carried out. Evidence showing how you require similar standards of competence assessment from subcontractors. Evidence showing how you monitor subcontractor performance.
10	Hazard elimination and risk control (Designers only)	You should have, and implement, arrangements for meeting your duties under Regulation 11 of CDM (2007)	Evidence showing how you: •      ensure co-operation and co-ordination of design work within the design team and with other designers/contractors •      ensure that hazards are eliminated and any remaining risks controlled •      ensure that any structure which will be used as a workplace will meet relevant requirements of The Workplace (Health Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Examples showing how risk was reduced through design. A short summary of how changes to designs will be managed. (Note: the emphasis here should be on practical measures which reduce particular risks arising from the design, not on lengthy procedural documentation highlighting generic risks.)

	Criteria	Standard to be achieved	Examples of the evidence that you could use to demonstrate you meet the required standard
11	Risk assessment leading to a safe method of work (Contractors only)	You should have procedures in place for carrying out risk assessments and for developing and implementing safe systems of work/method statements.	Evidence showing how the company will identify significant health and safety risks and how they will be controlled. Sample risk assessments or safe systems of work or method statements. If you employ less than five persons and do not have written arrangements, you should be able to describe how you achieve the above.
		The identification of health issues is expected to feature prominently in this system.	This will depend upon the nature of the work, but must reflect the importance of this risk area.
12	Co-operating with others and co-ordinating your work with that of other contractors (Contractors)	You should be able to illustrate how co-operation and co-ordination of your work is achieved in practice, and how you involve the workforce in drawing up method statements/safe systems of work.	Evidence could include sample risk assessments, procedural arrangements, and project team meeting notes. Evidence of how the company co-ordinates its work with other trades.
13	Welfare provision (Contractors)	You should be able to demonstrate how you will ensure that appropriate welfare facilities will be in place before people start work on site.	Evidence could include for example health and safety policy commitment; contracts with welfare facility providers; details of type of welfare facilities provided on previous projects.
14	CDM co-ordinator’s duties (CDM co-ordinators)	You should be able to demonstrate how you go about encouraging co-operation, co-ordination and communication between designers.	The evidence should be in the form of actual examples rather than by generic procedures.

	Criteria	Standard to be achieved	Examples of the evidence that you could use to demonstrate you meet the required standard
	Stage 2 assessment
1	Work experience	You should give details of relevant experience in the field of work for which you are applying.	A simple record of recent projects or contracts should be kept, with the phone numbers and addresses of contacts who can verify that work was carried out with due regard to health and safety. This should be sufficient to demonstrate your ability to deal with the key health and safety issues arising from the work you are applying for. Where there are significant shortfalls in your previous experience, or there are risks associated with the project which you have not managed before, an explanation of how these shortcomings will be overcome.

Guidance for assessing competence of a co-ordinator for a larger or more complex project, or one with high or unusual risks.

Organisations do not have to produce all of the evidence listed in column 3 to satisfy the standard – they simply need to produce enough evidence to show that they meet the standard in column 2, taking account of the nature of the project and the risks which the work entails. This requires you to make a judgement as to whether the evidence provided meets the standard to be achieved.


If your judgement is reasonable, and clearly based on the evidence provided, you will not be criticised if the companyyou appoint subsequently proves not to be competent to carry out the work.

Remember that assessments should focus on the needs of the particular job and should be proportionate to the risks arising from the work.

Unnecessary bureaucracy associated with competency assessment obscures the real issues and diverts effort away from them.

Element	Sub-element	Examples of attainment
Stage 1
Task knowledge appropriate for the tasks to be undertaken. May be technical or managerial.	The design process	Professionally Qualified to Chartered level (Note 1) Membership of a relevant construction institution, for example CIBSE; ICE; IET; IMechE; IstructE; RIBA; CIAT.
Health and safety knowledge sufficient to perform the task safely, by identifying hazard and evaluating the risk in order to protect self and others, and to appreciate general background.	Health and safety in construction	Validated CPD in this field (Note 2), and typical additional qualification e.g. NEBOSH Construction Certificate Member of the Health and Safety Register administered by the ICE (Note 3) Member of the Co-ordinators’ Register administered by the Association for Project Safety Fellowship of Association for Project Safety Membership of Institution of Planning Supervisors.
Stage 2
Experience and ability sufficient to perform the task, including, where appropriate, an appreciation of constructability, to recognise personal limitations, task-related faults and errors and to identify appropriate actions.		Evidence of work on similar projects with comparable hazards, complexity and procurement route.

Note 1      Chartered membership of a recognised construction-related institution.

Note 2      For current professionals this needs to include at least 3 days of appropriate training within the last 2 years, including a general ‘health and safety’ course with a construction bias and/or a specialist ‘co-ordinator’ course.

Note 3      Open to any member of a construction-related institution.