CPA to chair new Industry Competence Steering Group

The CPA’s Digital and Policy Manager, Hanna Clarke, has been named as the chair of the Industry Competence Steering Group – a new formal working group under the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) within the Building Safety Regulator.

This new Group will continue the work of the Competence Steering Group (CSG) which has published its third and final report - A Higher Bar - Achieving a Competence-led Built Environment – setting out the significant steps being made across the built environment and fire sectors in improving skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to drive culture change and improve the safety of buildings.

With the publication of this report, the CSG - originally set up by the Industry Response Group following the Grenfell Tragedy – will transition to the new Industry Competence Steering Group, allowing it to continue its work on a more formal footing in developing new standards, competence frameworks, accreditation procedures and learning materials. One of these includes the Built Environment - Proposed construction product competence standard - white paper which Hanna Clarke led the production of and which is currently being taken forward by BSI to become a British Standard.

The new group will sit under the ICC - the statutory committee with a role in advising both the built environment industry and the Building Safety Regulator within the HSE on matters of competence.

Hanna Clarke commented: “The CSG broke ground in bringing so many siloed sectors together in unprecedented collaboration. ICSG's task will be to build on this, bringing in more disciplines and stakeholders and increasing our engagement and visibility. The new relationship with the Industry Competence Committee and the Building Safety Regulator will provide an excellent opportunity for the Group to test its work against critical friends. Ultimately the aim is to establish a new culture so that every member of the supply chain - from manufacturers to maintenance contractors - demonstrates competence in working safely.”

Hanna’s appointment as chair will allow her to continue her important work in driving forward a competence-led built environment – particularly one which appreciates and demonstrates competence in the application and use of construction products.

Find out more on the final report from the CSG – A Higher Bar – Achieving a Competence-led Built Environment - here.