Building Safety Lessons from Early Adopters - Q&A Briefing
Brent O’Halloran (Clarion) and Neil Yeomans (Orbit), shared the lessons they have learnt as part of the Government’s Early Adopters scheme on Building Safety at an NHMF webinar.
Q. What have the Early Adopters learnt on Building Safety?
A. Social landlords need to start by assessing the safety of all higher risk buildings (HRBs) to build a safety case for each HRB. This will involve taking a holistic view, identifying all the activities in their organisation and assessing how they affect building safety because these will need to be included in the building safety case.
Building Safety Managers (BSM) need to be recruited at the start of this process because the questions they raise will help shape their role and help them develop competence for all aspects of the BSM.
Systemic (culture) change is needed within the sector (Hackitt Review) with regard to building management to improve building safety. The sector needs to work together to share and learn from each other as it addresses the emerging Building Safety legislation (an aim of NHMF Best Practice and webinars). Start with policy then management plans then detailed procedure. Use ISO 19650 & BS 8644 for building safety case files.
Risk management (more than current compliance) essential to ensure building safety and will require landlords to know their HRBs and residents.
Q. What would Early Adopters do differently?
A. Recruit at least one BSM from the outset to begin the process of developing building safety expertise in the organisation.
Q. What recommendations would Early Adopters make on Building Safety?
A. Start now (if not already started) and recruit BSM(s). Change organisation’s culture.
Q. What should landlords be doing now?
A. Landlords should ensure that:
- they keep abreast of developing legislationthey get regular e-bulletin updates from the BSR (see below)
- they recruit BSM(s)
- identify the Accountable (sometimes called Responsible) Person
- the Accountable Person and Building Safety Manager understand the latest guidance from the BSR and update their procedures, risk assessments and building safety cases.
Q. What should landlords be doing with residents?
A. Landlords should develop resident engagement strategies for building safety (likely to be different to traditional resident engagement).
Q. Where can landlords find out more?
A. Visit GOV.UK for information supporting the Building Safety Bill:
- Read about the Building Safety Bill
- Building safety programme
- Building Safety Bill Important documents
- Draft regulations
- Transition plan
Additional information can be found in the updated NHMF fire safety guidance, T&H briefing, Federation Building Safety webinar, NHMF Case Studies.
Q. How can landlords keep up to date?
A. By subscribing to the free BSR eBulletin to get the latest news and alerts on the building safety reforms and attending NHMF webinars.
