The UK government has set out its ambition for a longterm strategy covering competence, behaviours and accountability of professionals working across the built environment – and it has direct consequences for CIBSE and its members.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) recently published a call for evidence on a strategy for the built environment professions, trades and occupations.
It asks how government, regulators, employers and professional bodies can work together to ensure those who design, build and operate buildings are skilled, behave professionally and are appropriately held to account – ultimately delivering safer, high-performing, sustainable buildings.
CIBSE has submitted a response, drawing on evidence from across our membership. Our central argument is that the UK has strong professional infrastructure – registration, CPD, certification, technical standards – and the focus should be on strengthening what already exists.
Handover risk
Our evidence suggests that the greatest professional risks sit not within any single discipline, but at the handover points between them, where information, accountability and continuity can be lost.
We argue that professional registration and robust competency standards remain the foundation of a trusted profession, and their value should be evidenced continually, rather than asserted at a single point in time.
This, in our view, should be measured alongside how buildings actually perform in practice through verified, in-use performance metrics, ensuring that competence translates into real-world results for buildings and occupants.
What could this mean for CIBSE members? Expect: closer scrutiny of how competence is demonstrated throughout a career; mandatory, rather than voluntary, schemes for safety-critical roles; and a sharper focus on measured, in-use performance as a mark of professional success.
This is only the start. CIBSE is working closely with the MHCLG as the strategy develops and, in October, we will co-host a strategy workshop with the department at CIBSE HQ – a direct chance for members to feed back to the policy-makers shaping this work.
In the meantime, we’d welcome your views. This strategy will shape our profession for years to come and we want your evidence behind it.
Contact technical@cibse.org