CARD CHANGEOVER PROVES TO BE AN UPHILL BATTLE

From IT glitches to data and technical issues, and now a once-in-a-generation virus pandemic to add to CISRS and NOCN woes, Richard Trenchard probes CISRS manager, Dave Mosley, on the delays

When the announcement hit late 2019 that CISRS was bringing cards for construction workers ‘into the 21st Century’ via a new deal with NOCN Job Cards, many professionals welcomed the news. With so much of the world being digitised, and data far easier to collect as a result, switching to a dual plastic and virtual format seemed logical. Modernisation wasn’t the only catalyst; CITB withdrawing provision of its card scheme administration services meant a gap urgently needed filling.

But as the new deal came into practice, migration from the old system proved difficult, leading to 1000s of scaffolders being forced to wait months for replacement cards, in turn having a huge impact on their ability to work, and timeframes for project completion.

“As part of CITB’s 2020 Vision Review, they decided they would make several changes to services offered to industry. This included withdrawal from training delivery and also the administration of the CISRS and other card schemes,” says Dave Mosley, managing Director of CISRS, who is tasked with overall responsibility for the CISRS Scheme.

“We were informed by CITB that industry supported these changes, however this was definitely not the case for the scaffolding sector. CISRS, ASITO and NASC all made it very clear they wanted CITB to continue to provide Scaffolding Training and Scheme administrative support.

“CISRS didn’t feel that bringing the card scheme administration in-house was a viable option, due to IT costs, additional staff requirements, and opening new premises. As such we had no choice but to look for alternative provision,” Mosley says of the forced decision to find a new method of provision.

When asked about factors that have led to delays, Mosley is candid in detailing a number of issues. Despite comprehensive testing, problems became apparent after system go-live; a common situation with any new software and procedure. As glitches were dealt with, others materialised.

“One of the major problems was obtaining data for the Health & Safety test. As a third party, NOCN is not allowed direct access to the H&S test data. There were also delays in actual smart card production,” he continues.

“The knock-on effects of these issues have greatly reduced the progress with the new systems. Experienced card scheme staff were taken away from application processing in order to try and rectify issues, meaning processing reduced, less people were getting a card, and there were more calls and emails asking where cards were, again leading to less processing taking place.”

Mosley is also quick to point out steps taken to mitigate the hold up. Additional staff have been recruited, and non-smart cards have been issued as an interim measure - replacements will be delivered to scaffolders and construction workers free of charge once the system is fully operational. At the time of writing, more than 5,000 cards have been issued under the new process.

“It is very disappointing for CISRS that the changeover of card administration and the introduction of the smart card has been hampered by issues that are largely out of our control. However, ultimately the card scheme is our responsibility and so we would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding.”

With this interview conducted before the UK government took major and economically-devastating steps to combat the spread of the COVID-19 disease, it’s important to understand delays are now likely to be severely compounded.

Outside this context, though, Mosley is confident the backlog will not exacerbate what some see as the biggest problem facing UK scaffolding - a lack of training capacity. In fact, he doesn’t actually agree this is an issue. “There can of course be specific and regional availability issues at times, but I do not believe these are generally due to lack of capacity.

“Since CITB announced it was withdrawing from training delivery, some people assumed that centres were closing and capacity would be lost, however this was never going to happen,” he continues, reassuringly.

IT IS VERY DISAPPOINTING THAT THE INTRODUCTION OF THE SMART CARD HAS BEEN HAMPERED BY ISSUES THAT ARE LARGELY OUT OF OUR CONTROL

“CITB has always stated they would continue to deliver until alternative provision was established and this has been the case. Dudley College/Simian has taken over NCC Waltham Forest; Walsall college will take over NCC Midlands in the next few weeks, while NCC Scotland, NCC South and NCC East are all in discussions with prospective new providers and are still fully operational in the interim.”

With some 2000 CISRS scaffolders qualifying annually, and around 600 involved in the apprenticeship scheme, this confidence seems understandable. The sheer scale of development in cities such as London and Manchester would also support a theory that the sector can meet demand with workforce supply.

What happens as this drops off amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is anyone’s guess of course, making the road to business as usual look significantly longer.