The Association has toughened up the Competence Assessment Standard (CAS) it uses to assess the technical and business quality of firms applying for or renewing membership in line with growing demand for higher professional standards. Companies who do not reach the required standard are not accepted into membership.
BESA’s independent certification arm BESCA wants to add up to 10 new expert auditors to its existing team who inspect every existing and prospective member. They also support its UKAS-accredited competent person scheme (CPS), which allows registrants to notify controlled works to the relevant authorities.
The auditing process underpins BESA’s strategy for ensuring firms can comply with existing legislation but will also be able to step up to meet more stringent future requirements, such as those contained in the forthcoming Building Safety Bill and revised building regulations.
The BESCA assessment process provides reassurance to the industry supply chain that BESA members are deemed competent in both their management systems and technical ability to design, install, service and maintain plant and equipment. It also ensures members can provide evidence of their competence to clients.
Opportunity
BESCA is offering market-leading pay rates on a sub-contract basis to candidates with the required specialist experience; and a flexible employment model for individuals based around the country. This is an ideal opportunity for anyone with a solid technical background in the sector who has recently retired, been forced to reduce hours due to the pandemic or is simply looking for a new challenge.
The audits are carried out in a ‘blended’ way with assessments partly online and partly on site, so the auditor can build up a thorough all-round impression of a company’s practical and project management expertise.
“The audits are a critical part of how BESA members can demonstrate the highest standards of competence and provide proof that they achieve regulatory compliance in all aspects of their work,” said BESA’s head of certification Duncan Sibbald.
“Demand for our sector’s specialist services has never been higher as the country emerges from the worst of the pandemic, but equally we have never been more heavily scrutinised. Strengthening our assessment regime is, therefore, more important than ever as we seek to deliver the ‘culture change’ required of us by government through forthcoming building safety legislation.
“Enlarging our certification team will also enable us to meet the wider challenge of delivering Dame Judith Hackitt’s vision of a more competent industry that takes pride in its work and accepts its responsibility for helping keep building occupants safe and healthy,” added Sibbald.