Competency Checks

What is competency checking? If you carry out Competency checks, you are just making sure that the person working in your home is competent to carry out the work they have said they’re going to do. But the most important thing you need to do is hire a builder who is fully aware of their responsibility's to the build safety act and CDM regulations. It will then become their responsibility to check their operatives are competent.

These new regulations are being enforced under the Build Safety Act LINK INCOMING.

I believe operatives being truly competent has drive up the labour cost. This is most definitely true on big construction sites, but how competent are the domestic clients we employ?

A really simple way to check if someone is competent is to ask if they have a CSCS card? Most operatives carry CSCS cards. But are they relevant to the trade they are saying they are coming on your house to do.

The thing about CSCS cards is not everyone has one, especially at domestic subcontractor level. The recognised qualifications linked to CSCS can be costly. Dave has many training courses and qualifications, but the majority are not recognised by CSCS. I know as a site manager if Dave showed up to my site with his 10 qualifications, I would’ve been happy to let him on. But the rules would’ve stated if you didn’t have a CSCS card couldn’t come on. Competency check could be experience checking.

Let’s start with the most basic example of a competency check. You have a boiler that needs to be serviced. Boiler is gas. That means you need a gas safe engineer to work on the boiler. To find out if a operative or subcontractor is Gas safe, they will have a gas safe card. You should not let anyone work on any kind of gas in your home if they are not gas safe. If there is a gas leak by someone not being competent to carry out the work this could potentially be fatal. Please ensure the person working on your home has adequate insurance too.

I have recently been looking into insurance for my business and there is wording in the policy documents that state that it is my responsibility to ensure that all of my subcontractors are competent. As I have discussed CSCS is the easiest way to do that and by having training matrixes of people that you trust. If people have been in it a long time they don’t have CSCS cards the experience should combine as a competency checks.

I am not saying I’m going to employ everyone with a CSCS card. I am going to ensure everyone is competent. I would never send someone to do a job unless I truly knew they could do it. Because I believe it would invalidate my insurance. Everyone should competency check more often. Subcontractors should prove that they have competency checks of their operatives.

Some more examples of competency checks are below. Machine operators, dumper drivers, excavators - CPCS or NPORS cards

Electricians - ECS cards

Ask to see peoples cards, if they do not have them then it could be a red flag.

Can the builders you have working on your job jobs, prove that their operators are competent? Can they prove they’re not putting a 17-year-old, inexperienced person in the digger and that person is not not going to go into the ground and strike the mains cable to your home. Would the insurance company pay out of someone was this incompetent and the builder let it happen? Would the builder be able to pay to fix your electric main without insurance cover? Your guess is as good as mine, not really worth the risk. If you trust the builder, you could be making a mistake, there is nothing wrong with asking questions and seeing if you get the right answers. If someone says they have been doing it for so long they know what they're doing, that could also be a red flag as well. LINK INCOMING ON GRANDFATHER RIGHTS