Job to do, but no title with it

BUILDING SAFETY

A job to do – but no title to go with it

What does the government’s recent announcement – that it has scrapped its own proposed requirement for building owners to appoint a building safety manager (BSM) – mean?

The government’s shift in position, announced as an amendment to what is now the Building Safety Act, came as a surprising setback, given the considerable work already conducted to get to this stage, and to which IWFM has contributed over these past five years.

The aim of the building safety manager role was to look after the management of fire and structural safety in higherrisk buildings on a day-to-day basis, establishing a single point of contact for fire and safety issues for the building’s occupants. With the concept progressing from a single identifiable contact to organisational delivery driven by competent people, a Publicly Available Specification will now detail what the needed competence framework will be.

The government said scrapping the requirement would help leaseholders “avoid unnecessary costs”, allowing “a more proportionate and flexible approach that enables ‘accountable persons’ (typically building owners) to meet their obligations in a way that is most effective for their buildings and residents”.

As it is remains the responsibility of ‘accountable persons’ to ensure they have the necessary arrangements in place, the Act has still created the need for someone competent to look after those ‘accountable persons’ duties. And while the BSM role is gone, the Fire Safety Act 2021 will also become applicable, and with it the scope extension of the Fire Safety Order, which will explicitly include flat front doors and cladding in fire-risk assessments.

Furthermore, as the confusion around personal emergency evacuation plans is not quite lifting, we will engage with yet another consultation on the subject that will now make reference to emergency evacuation information-sharing or EEIS.

What, then, will the golden thread – the information allowing a user to understand a building and the steps needed to keep it and its occupants safe – look like? In occupation, how easy will it be to deliver?

We see maintaining the golden thread as critical; it’s about bringing relevant information all the way through from the construction phase into the operational use of the building. There remains a gap between information required during the construction phase and that which ultimately becomes routinely available for use in occupation. The focus needs to be on what should be included and whether it will give members the tools to do a better job of building management as systems and approaches become embedded.

In this wider building information arena, there is still much work to be done. We will continue to collaborate with partner organisations and our life safety working group will continue its input into the testing of new models and guidance.

We at IWFM will now focus our building safety work around these three themes: 1 Building safety competence – both of the organisation and the individual PAS8673; 2 Fire Risk Assessment and the newly strengthened Fire Safety Order; and 3 Building information – how should members adapt their safety management systems – what is proportionate?

KEY CONTACTS Sofie Hooper Head of Policy BUILDING SAFETY BILL ● The bill received Royal Assent as we went to press.

SOCIAL VALUE CLIMATE EMERGENCY GROUP ● IWFM is contributing to a working group of the National Social Value Taskforce that is reviewing how to strengthen the Social Value TOMS framework on effective climate measures. EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION FOCUS GROUP ● This group is moving from developing the IWFM action plan to supporting its implementation, shaping the 2022 Impact Awards and beyond.

SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS GUIDANCE PROJECT ● Various Special Interest Groups are feeding into an SFMI project driving a standardised approach to align measuring scope 3 emissions with decarbonising FM services.

NEC CONTRACTS ● Practice Notes supporting the new NEC Facilities Management Contract continue to be published – members are advised to look out for our request to join the IWFMNEC FM Forum. WORKPLACE CONVERSATIONS ● IWFM continues to explore the future of work debate through a variety of tools.

GET INVOLVED ● Our policy work is informed by our members’ priorities. You are invited to share your views on policy ma ers with us at policy@iwfm.org.uk