You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) came into force on 6th April 2015,. The key aim of CDM is to integrate health and safety into the management of the project and to encourage everyone involved to work together to:
improve the planning and management of projects from the very start;
identify risks early on so that they can be eliminated or reduced at the design or planning stage and the remaining risks can be properly managed;
target effort where it can do the best in terms of health and safety; and
discourage unnecessary bureaucracy.
These regulations are intended to focus attention on planning and management throughout construction projects, from design concept onwards. The aim is for health and safety considerations to be treated as an essential, but normal part of a projects development – not an afterthought or bolt on extra.
The qualification for notification with the regulations are any project that is likely to last for more than 30 days AND have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project; or 500 person days (50 people working over 10 days) and will establish the following requirements:
The organisation, and many individuals, must carry out specified duties under the Regulations, in order to demonstrate that health and safety has been considered and co-ordinated at every stage of the design and management of a project, in order to reduce health and safety risks during construction, maintenance and, where applicable, demolition.
A ‘Project Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan’ must be created for each site (Domestic or non-Domestic) using the information obtained from the pre-construction information. This acts as a repository for site-specific health and safety information before and during construction and will show how health and safety is to be managed during construction. The construction H&S plan will be drafted by the Principal Contractor, unless there is only 1 contractor working on the project.
A ‘Health and Safety File’ must be created for each development. This acts as a ‘maintenance manual’ for any future owner/operator of the site, with an emphasis on possible Health and Safety risks to be considered during future maintenance, alteration/extension, cleaning and demolition.
The keys to an effective execution of a project or development under the CDM regulations are the competence of the duty holders, and the right information passed on to the relevant parties at the appropriate time.
Within the definitions given by the Regulations, we will, in most cases, be a Contractor. However, in certain circumstances, we may be appointed as the Principal Contractor and fulfil our duties that are expected under CDM.
Clients must make sure that:
Select the project team and formally appoint duty holders. Designers, contractors and other team members that you propose to engage are competent (or work under the supervision of a competent person), are adequately resourced and appointed early enough for the work they have to do
They allow sufficient time and resources for each stage of the project, from concept onwards;
They cooperate with others concerned in the project as is necessary to allow other duty holders to comply with their duties under the regulations;
They coordinate their own work with others involved with the project in order to ensure the safety of those carrying out the construction work, and others who may be affected by it;
There are reasonable management arrangements in place throughout the project to ensure that the construction work can be carried out, so far as is reasonably practicable, safely and without risk to health. (This does not mean managing the work themselves, as few clients have the expertise and resources needed and it can cause confusion.);
Contractors have made arrangements for suitable welfare facilities to be provided from the start and throughout the construction phase;
Relevant information likely to be needed by designers (Principal designer), contractors or others to plan and manage their work is passed to them in order to comply with regulation 10.
Where there is more than one contractor, appoint a Principal Designer to advise and assist with their duties and to control and co-ordinate the arrangements for health and safety during pre-construction.
Appoint a contractor as Principal Contractor. If the client fails to appoint a Principal designer or Principal contractor, the client must fulfil the duties of these roles.
Ensure the Principal Designer (only require for projects involving more than one contractor) prepares a Health and Safety file for their project.
Ensure projects is notified if the project is: to last for more than 30 days AND have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project; or 500 person days (50 people working over 10 days).
Appoint a Principal Contractor to plan and manage the construction work – preferably early enough for them to work with the designer on issues relating to buildability, usability and maintainability;
Ensure that the construction phase does not start until the Principal Contractor has prepared a suitable health and safety plan and made arrangements for suitable welfare facilities to be present from the start of the work;
Plan, manage and monitor the pre-construction phase and coordinate matters relating to H&S.
To ensure the pre-construction information pack is provided to every designer and contractor, including the Principal Contractor and contains all the relevant information;
To co-ordinate the design risk assessment process
To advise the Client on the allocation of the resources for Health and Safety
To ensure Health and Safety Files are prepared for future owners of each structure
Designers are those who have a trade or a business which involves them in:
Preparing designs for construction work, including variations. This includes preparing drawings, design details, specifications, bills of quantities and the specification (or prohibition) of articles and substances, as well as all the related analysis, calculations, and preparatory work; or
Arranging for their employees or other people under their control to prepare designs relating to a structure or part of a structure.
Designers can include such personnel as:
architects
surveyors
engineers
buyers, or
anyone who specifies or alters a design, or who specifies the use of a particular method of work or material
Designers are in a unique position to reduce the risks that arise during construction work, and have a key role to play in CDM. Designs develop from initial concepts through to a detailed specification, often involving different teams and people at various stages. At each stage, designers from all disciplines can make a significant contribution by identifying and eliminating hazards, and reducing likely risks from hazards where elimination is not possible.
Designers’ earliest decisions fundamentally affect the health and safety of construction work. These decisions influence later design choices, and considerable work may be required if it is necessary to unravel earlier decisions. It is therefore vital to address health and safety from the very start.
Initial Planning:
Preliminary Design:
Detailed Design:
Design Reviews and Approvals:
Issue to Principal contractor for review and approval.
Final Design Approval:
Request Construction status drawings.
Handover and Documentation:
By incorporating these detailed steps, the design process is more structured and ensures compliance with the necessary regulations.
This area of responsibilities is probably the most applicable to Coinford when we are carrying out our normal activities, therefore particular attention must be paid to this section and all of its requirements.
To consider the pre-construction information and develop a Construction Phase H&S plan.
To co-ordinate the management of risk while working methods are being planned.
To appoint competent contractors.
To co-ordinate the management of risk during construction. To allow only authorised persons onto site;
To obtain from other Contractors engaged to work on the project details of their Risk Assessments and how they intend to manage their works (e.g. Method Statements);
To give the Principal Designer any information that they have, or can readily obtain, which is needed for inclusion in the Health and Safety File;
To monitor the Health and Safety performance of persons or companies working on the project;
To give to every Contractor information on the risks to the Health and Safety of employees that the project, or construction work contained in the project, will bring about;
To ensure, as far as it is reasonably practicable to do so, that all employees have received proper information and training, together with information about risks to their Health and Safety on the project;
To ensure that everyone working on the site has the opportunity to discuss and make known to the Principal Contractor their views on any Health and Safety matters that might affect them.
Planning: Significant risks must be considered at the earliest opportunity in respect of Health and Safety issues that may arise during construction or maintenance or demolition. Significant residual design risks must be incorporated into the Health and Safety Plan and brought to the attention of the Contractor and subcontractors at tender stage so that they can to make provisions for them before the works start.
Pre-construction: Health and safety issues raised by the Contractor or any subcontractor that might affect another subcontractor must be brought to their attention to be addressed. Decisions must be made regarding the management of Health and Safety on site and must be reflected in the Plan.
Construction: Anyone who needs to can refer to the Plan for guidance regarding the management of Health and Safety. The contents of the Plan should, at appropriate times, draw on other documents such as: -
The pre-acquisition technical appraisal of the site
The Designers Risk Assessment
The Health and Safety Policy
The Project Health and Safety Plan should identify potential risks other than those that a competent Contractor could be expected to anticipate and deal with safely in the carrying out of his normal trade. In all cases the Plan should contain the Contractor’s Risk Assessments and, if applicable, Method Statements, and, subcontractor’s Risk Assessments and, where applicable, Method Statements. It is a working document that should relate to site-specific matters only. The Plan should contain appropriate documents that refer to site-specific risks/conditions and control measures etc. It is vital that the Plan is restricted to necessary documentation and does not include superfluous paperwork.
Post Construction: The Health and Safety File for a site is maintenance manual, with an emphasis on minimising risks to people working on a structure after its completion. Customers must receive a Health and Safety File tailored to their needs. For the Company, this means a Health and Safety File will be produced for the client and tailored to their specific needs in an agreed format.
Suggested contents for ‘Health and Safety File’ are:
Introduction: General, Purpose of the Health and Safety File, Statutory implications of the Health and Safety File.
Scope of works covered: Description, construction methods, materials, test certificates and manuals, operation / maintenance / cleaning, repair / refurbishment, alteration / dismantling / demolition.
Building services, plant, equipment and systems: Description, materials, data, test certificates and manuals, operating / maintaining / cleaning.
The build team together with the planners must ensure that an adequate preliminaries budget has been prepared to include all necessary and statutory safety items that are foreseeable and will be required on the project.
The following list is not exhaustive but typical examples of those items to be included in cost plan are: -
Supervision of the site by a competent person at all times
Site visits by the Safety Manager or Assistant
Adequate short term and long term welfare facilities sufficient to accommodate the levels of personal expected to work on the project
Safety literature, signs, posters and safety boards
Safety training and equipment (where applicable)
Safety cover and supervision for 24 hour or weekend working, e.g. Railtrack possession work
First-Aid facilities and medical supplies
Personal protective equipment for all site personnel/visiting staff/visitors
Fire precautions including fire fighting equipment training in its use and fire/smoke alarms.
Edge protection not provided by the main contractor for the duration of the hazard and work restraint equipment when edge protection is not achievable, e.g. decking works
Housekeeping arrangements/waste removal and disposal (where applicable)
Task lighting
Temporary works design and checking
Site security fencing and other protection measures for the public (where applicable), e.g. debris netting, fans
Radio communications where there are safety implications such as multiple crane use
See AP 05 – Selection and Management of Subcontractors
This procedure is intended to provide guidance on the completion of the Construction Health and Safety Plan (CHSP). The CHSP is the document that is required to be completed, signed off and in place prior to any construction work commencing on any of our projects when we are acting as the Principal Contractor. The CHSP is not intended to be a shelf document that is completed issued and forgotten! The document will develop and expand as the project develops and should be updated as significant changes occur. The concept of the CHSP is to detail how health and safety will be managed for the duration of the development. It should not be filled with irrelevant information and should be proportionate in size to the level of risk involved. Each revision should be issued and signed off accordingly.
The responsibility for the first draft CHSP rests with the H&S Manager. The Operations Director has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the plan is in place and signed off before allowing construction work to commence. Any updates need to be completed by the site management team, with 3 monthly reviews by the H&S Manager/advisor.
A Construction H&S Plan template HSF 902 has been created following the guidance of CDM 2015 and is available on Teams. Each section must be completed with the relevant information. All headings are referenced in the index and can be added manually into the document and be retyped prior to issue. Some of the information required will be available from the Pre-Construction Information Pack available from the Principal designer
The remainder of the information can be entered once it has been agreed how the project will be built, managed and completed. As the plan develops, it will expand with information, method statements, records and the like. As such, a set of additional files have been created to allow for this expansion. See AP 10 for the layout of the additional files. All files must be cross referenced into the plan and be updated accordingly.
A set of file labels and indexes will be available from the office.
Once the CHSP has been completed and signed off, it must be issue to all relevant parties. The following list of persons should be included in the issue:
The Site Team
The Client/Principal Designer
Operations Director (office copy)
The Commercial Department for issue to all subcontractors to allow them to tender for the work being fully aware of the site constraints and health and safety considerations required.
