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How to get involved with the Building a Safer Future Charter

The ‘Building a Safer Future Charter’ is an independent, not-for-profit organisation whose stated purpose is to challenge the status quo, raise standards and improve building safety culture and leadership by adhering to five key Charter Commitments. The Building a Safer Future (BSF) frameworks is supported by CLC and other key stakeholders across construction. Sign-up to the Charter is recommended by the UK Government.   

THE FIVE COMMITMENTS of BSF

  1. Collaborate to spearhead culture change and be the voice of building safety across our sector.
  2. Be transparent in the interests of safety, sharing key information with residents, clients, contractors and statutory bodies in a useful and accessible manner in the design, construction and occupation phases of the process.
  3. Make safety a key factor of choice in who we work with, ensuring that building safety is placed at the centre of selection decisions without compromising quality or value for money.
  4. Ensure that the voices and safety of residents, visitors and employees are central in our decision-making process.
  5. Set out and communicate clear responsibilities within our organisation and with our partners, ensuring everyone with a stake in the building during design, construction and occupation understands their role and has the time and resources they need to achieve and maintain building safety.

Getting involved and costs

There are two levels of engagement as either a ‘signatory’ (the entry level) or as a ‘BSF Champion’ which involves self-assessment against the BSF framework and an independent assessment and evaluation.

The cost of becoming a Building a Safer Future signatory is based on T/O from £0-£5 million – (£120 annual fee) to over £100 million (£900 annual fee, 2022).

The cost of becoming a BSF Champion is based on T/O and is in two parts: application and assessment. The annual fee range for BSF Champion is from £700–£1,350 pa based on a T/O of £0–£5m up to  £2,250–£4,500 pa for a turnover of over £100m. The assessment cost, a one-off fee that covers two years, ranges from £2,500–£4,000 for T/) 0-£5m to £12,500–£20,000 for a company with a T/O £50–£100m (2022).

Benchmarking Framework

The Building a Safer Future (BSF) Benchmarking Framework has been designed to enable ECA members to understand their safety culture and leadership effectiveness in relation to building safety.

ECA members that successfully achieve the minimum expected level as a result of participation in the benchmarking framework and verification process can achieve ‘BSF Champion’ status.

The starting point is via the BSF Portal where your organisation may register and sign up. A series of options are offered to enable you to select your organisations primary activities. This selection process then determines which pathway your organisation is requested to complete. There are three pathways which focus on:

  • A Those who fulfil a Client, Accountable Person or Building Safety Manager Duty Holder role
  • B Those who fulfil a Principal Contractor or Principal Designer Duty Holder role
  • C Those who support Duty Holders (ECA members will mostly fall into this section).

Once your organisation has registered to participate in the benchmarking and verification framework, you can begin the self-assessment process to gain ‘BSF Champion’ company status.

Self-assessment

BSF advise that the self-assessment process typically takes 2–4 weeks to complete. A statistically significant sample of respondents from across your organisation will be required to undertake an online survey which explores their perceptions of leadership commitment and culture in relation to building safety. The size of the sample will be determined by the size of your organisation, and the sample will cover different levels of seniority, across all departments so that BSF, and you, can get and holistic overview. The leadership and culture surveys will take each individual responding about 30 minutes to complete. It is understood that for a company with over 250 employees they will need a min of 60 respondents.

The surveys for the six corroborating elements (tabulated below) are then answered by technical or functional specialists within the organisation that are best equipped to respond to these elements. They can anticipate spending around 30–45 minutes completing their responses. Additional time required to upload evidence will, of course, depend on how readily available that evidence is to the individual.

Verification

Independent assessors from BSF review responses, conduct interviews, collate data, visit projects (online and in person) and where necessary put together reports. The entire process can take anywhere between 4–8 weeks to complete. From their analysis, they will select a number of respondents to validate the leadership and culture elements. The BSF validation takes the form of short, structured interviews that usually last 45–60minutes. The six corroborating elements from stage 2 are verified using an evidence-based approach and any concerns will be explored further with the relevant respondent.

Following the independent assessor’s review, your organisation will be provided with actionable data and a summary narrative report identifying possible areas where the organisation can make critical building safety improvements, be they to leadership, culture or processes. You will be able to benchmark your organisation and its performance against the rest of the sector, and the Charter has committed to publish industry-wide data on progress on leadership and culture change in relation to building safety. All the data produced is anonymised and aggregated.

The BSF team have also made clear that all information and data collected as part of the ‘BSF Champion’ process remains confidential to the organisation participating and will be Subject to GDPR regulations. Data will be encrypted for additional security

BSF FRAMEWORK

LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE – COMPLETED BY ALL

Organisational Culture - The significant ways of thinking and doing, which underpin a positive building safety culture suited to the organisation, are identified and applied.

Leadership Commitment - Leaders set and communicate a clear direction that reinforces a consistent approach to building safety and act to reinforce the values, ethics and culture needed to meet the organisation’s building safety objectives.

CORROBORATING ELEMENTS* – RESPONSES DEPEND ON PATHWAY

Supply Chain Engagement - Organisations effectively lead and manage their contractors and suppliers and those affected by their activities across the entire value chain, to mitigate building safety risks.

Construction Product Management - Assurance that the safety and quality of products used across the construction lifecycle are fit for purpose and supporting information is publicly available.

Management of Changes and Refurbishment Works - The total amount and pace of change or refurbishment is proactively led and managed to ensure the individual and cumulative impact does not adversely affect building safety performance.

Stakeholder Engagement - Leaders assure themselves that the organisation actively engages with residents, employees and other stakeholders about managing building safety risks and control measures, and its improvements plans, and ensures key decisions are visible.

Assuring Competence - Assurance that competent persons, including employees and contractors, deliver safety critical work during planning, design, construction and occupation stages.

Audit and Review - Management at all levels in the organisation ensure that building safety risks are identified, controls are in place, the controls work correctly, and that audit and review are used to support continuous improvement.

Sub-Categories

Supply Chain Engagement

REF

Description of Sub-Category

SC1

Contractor and supplier selection is based on clearly defined competency requirements and evidence gathering

SC2

Active monitoring and auditing of supply chain for uptake and upkeep of established safe practices

SC3

Any identified non-compliance and non-conformance are reported in a timely manner through a defined process with necessary approvals

SC4

Responsibilities and accountability are clearly defined across the

supply chain

SC5

Supply chain processes are streamlined and there is read across

of any lessons learnt

 

Construction Product Management

REF

Description of Sub-Category

CMP1

Appropriate tests and certifications must be carried out through a clear testing regime to ensure product performance and limit the use of assessments in lieu of tests

.

CPM2

Effective specification system is in place to ensure the delivery

of safe building outcomes

CPM3

Robust labelling, tracking and traceability system in place to enable correct application of products and allow for non-conformance reporting and product recall

CPM4

Product record and change control systems in place covering the

whole building lifecycle

CPM5

Confirmation that construction products impacting upon fire safety have been installed correctly and according to the appropriate standard or certification

 

Management of Changes and Refurbishment Works

REF

Description of Sub-Category

MC1

A proactive approach to identifying material changes to people,

processes and projects exists.

MC2

Risks arising from individual changes are assessed and suitable

controls are identified and implemented

MC3

The amount and pace of change is reviewed to ensure the

organisation can manage the cumulate risk

MC4

Management periodically confirms that the actions to manage

risks from changes have been implemented

 

Stakeholder Engagement

REF

Description of Sub-Category

SE1

Arrangements are in place to identify and seek the views of key

stakeholders with particular focus on residents

SE2

Decision making is risk based, transparent and explains how

residents’ voice was considered

SE3

Outcome of safety critical decisions is communicated in a suitable

and effective way to residents

SE4

Key decisions regarding building safety risks are shared by suitable means to ensure visibility within the Golden Thread

 

Assuring Competence

REF

Description of Sub-Category

AC1

The organisation has arrangements in place to measure and assess competence requirements

AC2

There is a structured training needs analysis (TNA) process to

develop suitable knowledge, skills and behaviours

Ac3

Duty Holders and/or the Accountable Person reviews the

effectiveness of competency development

AC4

Duty Holders and/or the Accountable Person ensure that residents understand and are able to meet their obligations

 

Audit and Review

REF

Description of Sub-Category

AR1

Independent, systematic audits check that risk-control systems and management arrangements within the safety management system are effective

AR2

Proportionate, targeted monitoring provides feedback on the

implementation and effectiveness of safety management systems

AR3

Proportionate investigation of accidents, incidents and near misses is conducted to learn from adverse events

AR4

Management reviews check that policies and plans remain appropriate and effective in light of monitoring, investigations

and audit findings

 

Last updated 07 March 22