How to draft a BSI framework for competence
On 27 July 2022, the PAS 8671:2022 Built environment – Framework for competence of individual Principal Designers – Specification1 was published by BSI. Here, we interview Matt Thompson, the technical writer responsible for this document.
The PAS 8671:2022 development story
Last year, a team of experts sat down to write the new PAS 8671 standard. The team consisted of multiple experts from across relevant fields.
What is PAS 8671?
PAS 8671 is one of three PASs (Publicly Available Specifications) published by BSI. It and PAS 8672 focus on competency frameworks for Principal Designer and Principal Contractor duty holders, as introduced under the Building Safety Act (BSA).2 The PAS series is sponsored by the UK Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The final framework has been influenced by secondary legislation further to the Building Safety Act arising from Dame Judith Hackitt’s review following the Grenfell fire.
As outlined on the BSI website, PAS 8671 “...specifies competence thresholds that individuals are expected to meet when delivering or managing the duty holder functions of the Principal Designer, and additional competencies for working on higher-risk buildings (HRBs).”1
“A key legal requirement is that the Principal Designer (PD) must plan, manage and monitor design work, and co-operate, co-ordinate and communicate to ensure the design work, if built, complies with building regulations,” said Andrew Moore, Senior Technical Consultant and qualified architect from the HSE. “To do this, it is important that the PD is part of the design team and not a third party without any influence over design decisions.”
“The PD should be able to co-ordinate the design team. It may help the PD to keep a record of designers and their responsibilities across a project,” Moore continued. “A PD is not expected to be an expert in every design specialism, but they are expected to know enough about the Building Regulations to assess whether a building design will comply with all relevant regulations.”
How is the framework intended to work?
According to Thompson, how the PD framework works was a significant topic of debate during the process of writing. Even the experts had differing perceptions of its intentions. There was a lot to resolve and explain. One particular contention was the idea that ‘if you follow this you could get certification’ – but that’s overly simplistic and not how the specification is intended to function.
Moore said, “PAS recognises that competence can be achieved and acquired in lots of different ways. The document does not seek to set out these multiple potential pathways, but instead highlights the key competence criteria. It is anticipated that professional bodies, trade associations and training providers will use the PAS standard to develop syllabuses, and certification bodies can develop assessment criteria.”
Thompson reported that draft secondary legislation (on which the PAS is based) has been removed from the DLUHC website pending further consultation. Current schedules predict secondary legislation to come into force in 2023. When published, PAS 8671 was aligned with draft legislation but, if wording in secondary legislation subsequently changes, tweaks may be needed later. BSI maintenance timescales currently schedule updates two years following initial publication, although that too could change.
How did the draft evolve and what were the development challenges?
A large collaborative body of work on competence has emerged from the Hackitt report, which informs the PAS series, and the published version of PAS 8671 evolved through two consultation versions.
The team’s starting point was not ‘what are the techniques that are known to improve compliance on a building project?’ but rather ‘what must PDs do to meet legislation governing their duty holder role?’. The first version was reviewed by the PAS 8671 Steering Group. It was a very detailed, aspirational first pass that was written without proper sight of draft secondary legislation. >>
The second public consultation version simplified the first but was still overreaching. It received hundreds of comments in the feedback process that were each considered and discussed at length. It was clear that it didn’t clearly enough distinguish the PD role in the draft regulations from the duty holder role with the same name under the CDM Regulations. Also, it became apparent that the activities logically inferred from the draft regulations went too far and could create unwarranted liabilities for persons in the PD role.
The third, and currently final, version distilled the document down to just the minimum thresholds inferred from the draft legislation, and clarified the distinction between the two different PD duty holder roles.
The minimum thresholds are defined using Bloom’s Taxonomy. This is a hierarchical classification of different levels of thinking commonly applied in describing educational attainment levels.
How does PAS 8671 specify the PD role?
The official status of this standard is that it sets minimum thresholds of competence needed for individuals in the PD role. It references the ‘BSI Flex 8670’ part of the overall BSI Flex framework, which supports wider industry reform and should be adopted by anyone with a direct influence on safety in and around buildings. Flex is a normative reference in PAS 8671, so it assumes its content. A normative reference is a document that is indispensable for the application of the standard, so anyone reading PAS 8671 will also need to understand this foundational reference.
PAS 8671 is a framework for frameworks. It sits above established competence frameworks or those in the process of being developed around the roles of designer and
architect, for example. This is because a ‘designer’ can be almost anyone – the designation has a very fluid definition, including not just architects but almost anyone else in a position to influence the design, including the contractor and, indeed, the client.
PAS 8671 identifies two levels of competence for the PD role under the draft regulations introduced by the BSA which are unlikely to change much, despite the fact that the secondary legislation has not yet been finalised. These are:
• General competence to work as PD on all projects other than higher-risk buildings.
• Additional competence to work as PD on higher-risk buildings.
The PD role under the Building Safety Act is about achieving ‘design work compliance’ (a term defined in the PAS). Some might be surprised to discover that the main focus is therefore not health and safety per se but compliance with ‘relevant requirements’, which includes Building Regulations. In contrast, the PD role under CDM regulations is about managing risks to health and safety during a project. While it seems likely that most clients will want to appoint the same organisation to carry out both duty holder roles, the two are different and could in theory be carried out by two separate organisations.
“The development of a PAS is a robust process,” said Moore. “At HSE we are used to ‘holding the pen’ when developing information for industry, however rightly. HSE’s views carried no more weight than any other stakeholder on the steering group. This challenge is, however, exactly what HSE is looking for, with industry representatives (through the BSI) taking the lead in establishing standards, rather than waiting for things to be mandated by the regulator.” >>
“The Principal Designer should be able to co-ordinate the design team. It may help the PD to keep a record of designers and their responsibilities across a project.”
– Andrew Moore, HSE
Clients will have to satisfy themselves that people are competent and can satisfy the regulations. The BS Flex 8670 and the three associated PASs help in determining what the competence should be.
How will PAS 8671 affect construction projects and designers?
Clients will need to appoint a BSA PD on almost all construction projects, even very small ones. So, PAS 8671 competences are intended to be inclusive. Their aim is not to contribute to a reduction in competence, but neither will they increase liabilities. This is a difficult line to tread.
The PAS 8671 specifies the thresholds of competence the PD needs to have reached to fulfil the duty holder role and manage its functions. It does not set any prerequisite conditions for serving as a PD, or tell you the learning pathways to get there, or specify what you need to do to ‘prove’ it or to stay competent.
On 17 July 2022, in their ‘Building Safety Act – Structural Safety’ blog, the unnamed authors of ‘Safebuild UK’ noted: “Structural integrity is a huge and complex subject and there are no details about what is considered a hazard resulting in a risk of structural failure in the act […] The Principal Designer, along with any other designer, could be held criminally liable for any structural failure, that results or could have resulted in a ‘major incident’ which is an incident resulting in significant number of deaths, or serious injury to a significant number of people. This raises a number of issues for Principal Designers who tend not to be structural engineers. Relying on your structural engineer does not relieve you of your duties, so where do you start?”
There are also ‘behavioural competencies’ to consider. So, while PDs don’t have to be technically competent in all aspects of a build, they DO need to be competent to a) know when they’re not technically competent enough and b) make good the deficit by bringing on board appropriate consultants.
“I think the new PAS standard will reinforce the importance of the PD role and provide industry with a clear competence framework that individuals can measure themselves against before they seek further training, upskilling if they identify gaps in their skills, knowledge or experience,” said Moore.
Just as designers should only take on the PD role if they are competent, so clients have a duty to satisfy themselves of their PD’s competence. The question is, how might clients do this? On the designer’s say-so, or on the basis of some certification that establishes it? The hope is that PAS 8671 will help certification bodies to set assessment criteria and thus help them to develop robust, preferably third-party accredited, certification schemes that both designers and clients can trust. n
References
1. PAS 8671:2022 Built environment – Framework for competence of individual Principal Designers – Specification, BSI, bsigroup.com, published 27 July 2022, accessed 24 November 2022
2. Building Safety Act 2022, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ ukpga/2022/30/contents/enacted, published 28 April 2022, accessed 24 November 2022