The CIOB’s Construction Quality Commission was set up in 2017 partly in response to defects which emerged at Edinburgh schools including Oxgangs Primary School (MJ Richardson)
New code will provide the basis for a new quality certification.
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) will launch a 10-week consultation on its planned code of quality practice this month.
The launch of the code, which was announced at an event held at the Palace of Westminster last month, is one of the recommendations of the CIOB’s Construction Quality Commission, which was established to investigate the issue of quality in construction and how it could be improved.
The commission’s work has been informed by a wide-ranging industry consultation, including a call for evidence, which identified that three-quarters of respondents believe the current system of quality management is flawed.
“We now have two broad strategies,” said Paul Nash, chair of the commission and CIOB past president. “One is a code of quality practice to provide guidance on best practice and set the standards that we need to achieve as an industry. ”
“The other is education. We want to raise awareness of quality management and give people the knowledge and practical tools to deliver it.”
The code, to be published later this year, will also provide the basis for a quality certification that will be developed alongside it.
“We plan to launch a pilot of the certification scheme at the same time as the code is published. The pilot will run for six months before going live next year,” said Nash.
The certification will build on the CIOB Academy’s quality course, which was launched last year and has been oversubscribed.
The commission also intends to hold dialogue with the insurance sector. “We think insurers would consider reducing premiums on projects managed by professionals holding the quality certification,” explained Nash.
“Our sector has approached risk by insuring it rather than managing it,” he added. “But that doesn’t deal with the risk; it’s a sticking plaster approach. We should aim to build things right in the first place.”
Projects sign up for Quality Tracker
The first pilot projects have registered for the Quality Tracker, launched last October, which aims to provide a straightforward system for documenting and tracking risks to quality through the life of a construction project.
Created by the Building In Quality working group, jointly set up by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the free-to-use digital tool creates a chain of custody for tracking quality.
The tracker is currently being piloted on real-life projects to allow structured feedback on the system.
Utility firm Engie is one of the firms which has signed up to use the tool. Chris Langdon, development and investment director, said: “The tracker will help set the project objectives and define, communicate and deliver quality. The tracker can map to and sit alongside existing risk management processes and will be used to test the impact of quality risks and decisions on value and programme outcomes.”
Paul Nash, chair of the CIOB quality commission, said: “The RIBA Plan of Work is an industry standard. The tracker is very clever as it spells out, at each RIBA stage, what project teams need to think about in terms of quality.
“The tool resonates strongly with what Dame Judith Hackitt described in her Independent Review of Building of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: the ‘golden thread’ of information from concept to finished building and beyond.”
