Managing Competence In Organisations
Industry guidance on managing competence in organisations across the built environment
The Industry Task and Finish Group (ITFG) guidance on Managing Competence in the Built Environment: An industry guide on how to meet the ICC principles, supports organisations across the built environment to understand what effective competence management looks like in practice.
Who are the ITFG?
The ITFG is a 50 strong cross-sector collaboration of professional bodies, regulators and sector organisations. They joined efforts in response to the requirements of the new building safety regime to demonstrate the management of competence and set out to meet the need for clear, scalable, practical and proportionate approaches to organisational competence, which were consistent across the built environment.
Who the guidance is for?
The Guidance is specifically designed to assist SMEs and micro businesses as well as large organisations, to effectively manage competence in their organisations in a manner that is proportionate, pragmatic, risk-based and flexible in their context.
The ITFG guidance applies to organisations responsible for managing people carrying out work across the built environment. This includes organisations that commission, design, deliver or support work, as well as those managing contractors, professional service providers or supply chains.
While there are specific requirements for the management of competence in building regulations in England and soon in Wales, the guidance can be used as best practice across the built environment all over the United Kingdom.
Alignment with the ICC’s advice for industry
Aligned with the Industry Competence Committee’s Setting Expectations on Competence Management - ICC Advice for Industry, the ITFG guidance explains how organisations can put the ICC’s high‑level expectations of what good looks like into practice.
The alignment is the result of a collaboration between both groups, with an ICC observer participating in the ITFG, and the ITFG chair having been co-opted into the ICC Group. Used together, the ICC advice and ITFG guidance provide a consistent framework that organisations can adapt to their own context.
What the guidance does
The ITFG guidance sets out the key elements organisations should think about when putting effective competence management in place, defining what competence is needed for different roles and activities, assessing and verifying competence, and making sure competence is monitored and maintained over time.
It also provides guidance on how to work this approach alongside existing management system arrangements that organisations already have in place, rather than replacing them, or as a foundation where no formal approach is yet in place.
Aiming to drive up competence and improve building safety outcomes across the built environment, the guidance is freely available from supporting organisations’ websites and from the BSI Competence hub.
What role did APS play?
APS played a central role in bringing the industry together by chairing both the full ITFG and its Steering Group. Our DCEO guided the supporting organisations through the process towards the publication of this industry wide consensus guidance document, while APS President, Mark Snelling, played an important role in shaping the content of the guidance through his contributions in the Steering Group.
In addition, as independent Chair, APS’s DCEO facilitated the alignment with the ICC, having been co-opted onto the ICC’s Task and Finish Group, while the Chair of the ICC’s Task and Finish Group joined the ITFG Steering Group as an observer.
Where next?
The guidance is also an important foundation for the future development of a British Standard on managing competence in organisations. Organisations and people interested in contributing to the forthcoming British Standards are encouraged to provide feedback based on their experience of using the guidance via the BSI Competence Hub.
The ITFG will also be seeking to develop case studies, anyone interested in contributing towards those can get in touch with the Chair of the ITFG Sofie.Hooper@aps.org.uk