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There is a crucial need in the construction industry for a culture and leadership shift that places building safety as a priority. The Building a Safer Future Champions assessment has been created to support the construction industry through this period of change.
Through robust self-assessment, benchmarking and independent verification, the Building a Safer Future Champion assessment helps organisations identify potential issues and, in turn, develop plans to improve and advance their approach to leadership and culture in relation to building safety.
The Champion Assessment also provides a wealth of actionable data to help organisations identify ‘blind spots’, focus efforts where they are most needed, and to create a culture of continuous improvement, leading to reduced risk profile.
All companies participating in the Building a Safer Future Champion assessment will be supported with practical tools that improve their approach to leadership and culture in relation to building safety.
The Building a Safer Future Champion assessment is tailored specifically towards the needs of each company so that we can support you on your building safety journey.
The Building a Safer Future Champion assessment supports companies to:
The Building a Safer Future Champion process is supported by, and embedded in, a growing number of major procurement frameworks.
Crown Commercial Service, SCAPE, and the South-East Consortium have included both ‘Building a Safer Future Champion’ Assessment and ‘Registered Signatory’ status as requirements at different levels within their procurement frameworks.
The South-East Consortium are also making Building a Safer Future Champion assessment mandatory for fire safety critical frameworks, whilst their other frameworks will have different BSF related requirements.
Homes England and the ‘Help to Buy’ scheme also require engagement with, and support of Building a Safer Future (Registered Signatory status) to become a member of their 10-year dynamic purchasing system (DPS) and for access to funding, respectively.
Increasingly, regional construction procurement frameworks are also engaging and supporting Building a Safer Future.
These organisations are working in strategic partnership with Building a Safer Future, and are collaborating to encourage industry-wide adoption of this important building safety culture change initiative.
Any company in the value chain or life cycle of a building is eligible to apply to participate in the Building a Safer Future Champion assessment, this includes:
The Building a Safer Future Champion assessment is not limited to companies working with High-Rise Residential Buildings, higher-risk, and in-scope buildings. We believe that our approach and focus on building safety is applicable to all buildings. We recommend all companies operating in the built environment to become Building a Safer Future Champions and commit themselves to put building safety first.
The Building a Safer Future Champion process is currently not suitable for manufacturers.
The Building a Safer Future Benchmarking Framework has been designed to enable companies involved in any part of the construction value chain to understand and improve their safety culture and leadership effectiveness.
The benchmarking and verification framework measures the maturity of your leadership and culture and tests that each aligns with activities critical to building safety. The framework is based on approaches in other major hazard sectors, such as Chemicals (Responsible Care); Oil and Gas (Hearts and Minds); and Rail (RM3) and is a process of benchmarking and verification, underpinned by independent assessment and verification.
There are currently seven pathways in the Building a Safer Future Champion assessment. These ensure that the framework of the assessment is tailored specifically to the requirements of your organisation. The seven pathways focus on
There are two distinct stages to the Building a Safer Future Champion assessment.
Assessing Leadership and Culture
Corroborating Leadership and
Culture through organisational practice
The first module of the BSF Champions analytical journey involves the distribution and return of an in-depth survey, probing your company’s existing leadership and culture around building safety. This is investigated further in confidential validation discussions held between your dedicated independent Assessor and a sample of individual members of staff.
BSF analyses and explores the current position from all levels of your company’s structure, identifying weak spots and opportunities for further development, as well as examples of good practice and innovation.
You will receive a comprehensive data-rich report, containing invaluable information that will assist you in creating prioritised, evidenced-based, continuous improvement plans to ensure your company always puts safety first. This allows you to benchmark where you are now, how you are performing in relation to the wider sector, and demonstrate and prove progress and improvements over time.
If you achieve the minimum expected level, you will be conferred with the ‘Certificate of Commitment and Progress – Building Safety Stage One: Leadership and Culture’ , which can be used in all your company media and communications and is valid for a period of two years.
Your BSF Champion analytical journey then continues with a second stage of the assessment and external validation, which consists of corroborating the findings from the Leadership and Culture survey through a robust self-assertion against the BSF Champions Corroborating Elements Framework.
Your company will be asked to demonstrate (with evidentiary proof) your adherence to a set of comprehensive Corroborating Elements expectations critical to building safety.
Your Assessor will review your assertions and evidence and clarify details in a validation discussion with your nominated Company Lead and any accompanying technical or functional experts.
Again, you will receive a thorough, beneficial report to assist you in planning your continuous improvement journey and, providing you meet the minimum standard, your company will achieve full BSF Champion status which is valid for two years.
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