Industry competence steering group announces restructure and renewed focus

[edit] The industry competence steering group (ICSG) restructures with renewed built environment focus on competence

The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) announced on 9 December 2024 a comprehensive restructure to enhance competence and safety standards across the built environment. Established in response to the Grenfell Tower Fire and subsequent Hackitt Review, ICSG has transitioned to become a formal working group of the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) under the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), signalling a strategic shift towards more rigorous industry-wide competence frameworks.

“The new relationship between the ICC and the ICSG is key to transforming the competence of the industry. ICC aims to set expectations for industry and challenge it. The ICSG is where industry can collaborate to meet those challenges. The ICSG also provides the ICC with a clear picture of what industry is doing, feeds back on what challenges industry is facing, and which levers can be pulled to improve competence. We are able to work together on developing solutions and aim to provide clear messages and guidance for the industry and the public about competence,” commented Hanna Clarke, Co-Chair of the ICSG and Digital and Policy Manager at the Construction Products Association.

[edit] ICSG purpose

ICSG was set up to enable culture change in relation to competence across the built environment. It does this by providing the UK built environment industry access to appropriate competences, so they may safely contribute to the creation and use of built environments and can demonstrate their competence to others.

[edit] ICSG structure

The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG), formerly known as the Competence Steering Group, is Co-Chaired by Hanna Clarke, Digital and Policy Manager at the Construction Products Association and Gill Hancock, Head of Technical Content at the Association for Project Management.

Under its new chairs, the ICSG has restructured. This will better cover the built environment's disciplines and support existing work across the industry.

The new structure includes sector-led groups, key topic groups, and working groups. They currently bring together contributions from over 60 professional and trade bodies and 1500 individuals in the built environment, with membership of the sector led groups still growing.

These groups will produce competence frameworks mapped to the BS 8670 series. They will also create guidance and implementation programs to enable culture change in relation to competence across the built environment. Another key role of these groups is to provide forums for industry feedback relating to the understanding of legislation and barriers to its implementation.

ICSG is working with the BSI to create a communications hub. It will be a central repository of all ICSG's work for the industry to access. More information on this and the competence frameworks will come in Spring 2025.

ICSG's focus is to keep people safe through competent practices and ethical behaviours throughout the built environment. Central to this is enabling collaboration and ongoing sharing of best practice, learning and resources to support continuous improvement in industry competence. ICSG closely collaborates with the BSI and its committee CPB/1 – Competence in the Built Environment, contributing to many of the standards that are in development. It also has a strong relationship with the Construction Leadership Council, both with their contributing to the work on competence and in the aim to join up the competence work with the other industry initiatives that the CLC is leading on.

“The ICSG has end to end coverage from construction products to demolition and disposal, including in occupation. By collaborating with both industry and the Building Safety Regulator we believe we can enable real culture change, in relation to competence, across the built environment,” said Gill Hancock, Co-Chair of the ICSG.

For further informatin on helping shape competence frameworks and guidance within sectors or to find out more about the ICSG, please contact the relevant sector group lead (see here in appendix 1).

[edit] About the Industry Competence Committee (ICC)

The Industry Competence Committee (ICC) is a statutory committee set up by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) within the Health and Safety Executive. Set up as a statutory committee created under the Building Safety Act (2022), ICC will be concerned with the competence of those working in the built environment industries in England.

ICC will provide strategic leadership, alignment, momentum, assistance and encouragement, in support of its aim, to facilitate the improvement of competence in the built environment industry.

[edit] About the Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG)

The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) is a standing working group of the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) and cross industry forum. Set up in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, the ICSG’s purpose is enable everyone in the UK in the built environment industry to access appropriate competences so they may safely contribute to the creation and use of built environments and can demonstrate their competence to others. It is not limited to responding to legislation: it is about keeping people safe.

The ICSG works through its sector led groups, which cover construction products, through to demolition and disposal, including in occupation, enabling culture change in relation to competence as well as collaboration and implementation across industry.

If you are interested in helping shape competence frameworks and guidance within your sector or want to find out more about the ICSG, please contact the relevant sector group lead (see appendix 1 here).

This article was issued via Press Release as 'The Industry Competence Steering Group (ICSG) announces restructure and renewed focus on competence within the built environment' dated 9 December, 2024.

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