#052 Health and Safety - Level 2 ⚠️

Hi 👋

This week we are covering Level 2 of the Health and Safety Competency.

I would highly advise you to go through the candidate guide and the QS pathway guide to understand the basic requirements.

DISCLAIMER: The following is not an exhaustive set of notes, but it's an attempt to help those who, like me at the beginning, did not know where to start! Please feel free to let me know if I have said anything incorrect or out of date!

So what is Level 2 Health and Safety all about?

The RICS note that to demonstrate competence at Level 2, you need to demonstrate your ability to:

Obtaining formal health and safety qualifications including first aid, industry-specific or nationally recognised qualifications

• You should be able to demonstrate how you have taken active steps to obtain some form of health and safety qualification. In the UK it’s common for consultant QS’s to undertake the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) qualification. It’s a pretty forward exam which covers basic health and safety procedures on site! I would highly recommend this for new entrants to the industry as it will brief them on potential hazards they might face on site!

Being involved with specific roles and responsibilities within the various regulations

• This is a pretty vague bullet point, but the first thing that comes to mind is how the role of a QS fits in with the statutory obligations as a Designer through the CDM Regs. Here is a link with further info! https://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/designers.htm

Being involved in specific health and safety audits/reviews

• If you manage a framework for your client or manage a number of contracts, you might be asked to undertake an audit of your suppliers to ensure they have up to health and safety certifications.

• For example, for my client, I have undertaken checks to ensure contract suppliers (and their supply chain) had some level of FORS (Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme) accreditation.

Reviewing health and safety proposals as part of a contractor’s tender.

• During tender evaluation periods, you may be asked to undertake a health and safety review. In my experience this is uncommon as this part of the tender review is often done by a dedicated health and safety manager or a construction manager.

• If you are asked to undertake this type of review, you should be checking whether the contractor has:

  • Appropriate health and safety certifications

  • Licensed first aiders on site

  • Site-specific health and safety personnel e.g. on railway projects you may require a SPIC (Site Person In Charge) or QAF (Quality Access Form holder)

  • Appropriate method statements with respect to health and safety incidents etc.

That’s all for this post folks, as always if you have any queries drop me a message.