APS has increased its sector-wide engagement to better support members in developing and maintaining professional competence. Each week, we’ll share an update from APS HQ so you can see the breadth of work being carried out for your benefit.

What happened last week?

Many of us will have been focused on the fiscal event of the year - Wednesday’s Budget -which this time around coincided with our Board meeting. With all the advance leaking and testing that took place in advance of the Chancellor’s statement, construction‑related announcements were a bit of a “damp squib” to quote Graham Watts, CEO of the Construction Industry Council (CIC). While investment in major infrastructure projects was confirmed, and more money went to the recruitment of planners, many of the measures taken fell on the employment side of things (minimum wage rises including those supporting construction apprentices) and skills development. As usual, it will take a while to fully understand the impact beyond the headlines, so we will continue to monitor for anything of note.

Aside from the Budget, there was much going on in the world of APS engagement. On Tuesday, Sofie participated in the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) Occupation Phase Portfolio Group. This is a new activity within the CLC’s Building Safety workstream, and APS is part of it to provide holistic perspectives on building work in existing buildings.

Later on Tuesday, Sofie also met with Katherine Metcalfe at Pinsent Masons to talk about the Principal Designer (PD) role under CDM as opposed to the PD Building Regulations (England) and the need for guidance and standards for the management of competence in organisations.

Wednesday was a big day at APS HQ, with the Board convening at the Edinburgh office for a meeting focused on budgets and strategy. With our Directors being part of several CIC and CONIAC committees, it was also an opportunity to exchange updates across our agenda. The long‑anticipated CDM Post‑Implementation Review is now expected for mid‑January. We will continue to monitor developments in this area, including what will change for our members moving forward.

On Wednesday evening Andrew attended a reception at the Scottish Parliament. Hosted by Martin Whitfield MSP, the event was held in partnership with the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), the British Standards Institution (BSI), and the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland (SCOTSS) to discuss the societal benefits of accreditation and standards. This provided a useful opportunity to build good relationships with key APS stakeholders based in Scotland.

On Thursday Sofie met Dan Barrowcliffe (Building Safety Regulator) to discuss alignment between the ICC and Industry Task and Finish Group’s guidance pieces on the management of competence in organisations.

Later that day, Andrew participated in the ICC client group working towards providing client guidance.

On Friday Sofie had a meeting with Simon Foxwell from the Edge, a multi-disciplinary built-environment think tank to discuss current thinking on professionalism, now under the post-Grenfell report spotlight.

Sofie also had a short discussion with Brendan Twomey from the Berkeley Group around ‘as‑built drawings’ guidance recently published. Brendan is part of the CLC team looking at the next tranche of guidance documents in collaboration with the Regulator.

Recent output our members should know about

We want to point our members to the latest edition of Project Safety Journal, which hit desks last week. The digital edition can be accessed here.

Last week, APS supported an open letter to Pat McFadden MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, calling on the government to raise the age of eligibility for Level 7 apprenticeship funding to 25 years old for built environment professionals. More information about the letter and why APS joined the call can be found here.

The CIC response to the Budget mentioned above might be of interest to our members as it provides a summary overview of the Budget in relation to the built environment.

What’s happening in the week ahead? (1-5 December)

Monday

• Andrew is attending a meeting of the Compliance Plan Manager Accreditation scheme working group.

• Sofie is attending Sector‑Led Group 11 on management in occupation to discuss progress and next steps. This competence‑focused group is part of the Industry Competence Steering Committee.

Wednesday

• Andrew and Sofie attend a meeting with the Trustees of the Building Safety Alliance, to discuss the business plan and activity in the foreseeable future. APS is a founding member of the Alliance.

• Sofie chairs the second post‑survey Steering Group meeting of the Industry Task and Finish Group to discuss how the feedback from the consultation will be included in the next draft of the guidance that outlines the ‘how‑to’ in meeting the expectations set by the ICC on how to manage competence in organisations.

Thursday

• Nicola Lally, our Head of Operations, will lead the HQ team through the stage 2 audit towards ISO 14001 certification. APS, too, wants to demonstrate how we as an organisation meet expected standards in key critical areas through external verification.

• Andrew will attend the SBCC December 2025 Committee and Board Meeting

• Sofie will meet with Tom Stacks from the BSI to discuss the publication of the ITFG guidance and its next steps towards a standard.

Friday

• The APS Temporary Works peer‑review group will meet on Friday – this is a group of APS Fellows who responded to our call for temporary works experts. The group was brought together to peer‑review both the new Academy course and will next review the APS temporary works draft guidance in production.