Architects are reporting widely varying levels of understanding among clients about the new building safety regime some 18 months after regulations came into force.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that practices are spending large amounts of time educating clients about their own statutory duties and the need for them to satisfy themselves of the competence of all of their appointees. The problems do not just lie with smaller, one-off clients either – some experienced clients are equally struggling to adjust to the new duties and regulations and critically, are therefore not appreciating the impact on project processes, procedural arrangements and programmes.
Under the regulations, a designer must not start design work unless satisfied that the client is aware of the duties. This professional feature speaks to two practices of different sizes and in different parts of the country to discuss the challenges they’re working through with their clients, and what they’re doing to help.
What levels of knowledge about the Building Safety Act and its new duties from clients exist?
“The range of knowledge across clients is massively varied,” says Paul Owen, Architect Director and Technical Delivery Lead at Sheffield-based BDP. “Large clients with estates teams often only procure projects at irregular intervals so may not be familiar with the regulations. We’ve had to take the view that part of our role is to upskill people.”
Common misconceptions among clients include confusion between the CDM Principal Designer role and the BRPD (and why they now need both), and the enduring misconception that BRPDs are only needed on higher-risk buildings (HRBs).
“We’ve also seen clients seeking to appoint a BRPD at the end of RIBA Stage 4, as the regulations state the BRPD needs to be appointed ‘before construction starts’, and we have to explain that the BRPD role applies to all design work from the concept inception onwards and the BRPD needs to be appointed as early as possible as advised by RIBA” adds Justin Robinson, Associate at BDP.
This situation has been compounded by another misconception from clients that the BRPD has effectively taken on a wider Building Control role to provide advice to the design team on interpretation of the regulations and guidance, particularly now that the Registered Building Control Approver (RBCA) is prevented from providing opinions that may be interpreted as ‘design advice’ by their new Code of Conduct.
Jordan Armstrong, Associate at Norwich and London-based LSI Architects, also highlights the challenges that exist both for architects and clients.
“Within the industry there continues to be a lack of confidence around the new roles, duties, and the definition of HRBs,” he says. “As a result, a number of clients have paused building work while they wait for more clarification from the industry, government, or elsewhere.”
Why and how architects can help clients understand the Building Safety Act in more detail
Jordan thinks architects and architectural technologists are well placed to help clients understand the complexities of the regulatory regime, and to explain – where needed - the new dutyholder roles and their duties.
Back at BDP, Paul says that in terms of how it approaches projects and how it talks to clients. His practice has put a lot of new management systems in place over the last two years to support the new building safety regime. These include setting up a formal quality assurance (QA) point for Building Regulations compliance; developing compliance trackers around each part of Approved Documents, including a fire safety compliance tracker developed from RIBA's tracker; and setting up templates for competency and capability statements for BRPDs, as well as for designers so they can demonstrate competence when asked by clients.
“We’ve also made infographics that we can show clients to make it easier to explain what’s going on,” he explains. “We show them how we have set up our own compliance systems and how we are going to track compliance with the regulations.”
Jordan, too, takes an almost CPD-like approach to helping clients.
“We have been providing a lot of training in the form of CPD sessions, which have been well received by both our teams and our clients,” he says. “Every client has expressed how these sessions have provided them with greater clarity around the routes they need to follow to progress their projects.”
He continues: “We have supported clients with complex estates, particularly in the healthcare sector, by helping them understand how and where their estate meets the definition of a HRB. This is again giving clients and their project managers greater clarity around how they can progress with their projects, removing uncertainty and unlocking pipelines.”
“These sessions have been equally beneficial to other colleagues in the industry, and we have been trying to share our knowledge to assist our colleagues and partners within the industry to navigate the regulations.”
View the whole suite of professional features that discuss elements of the Building Safety Act.
How can an architect help to clarify Building Regulations Principal Designer duties?
There is also the question of the lead designer/BRPD advising clients on other people’s competence, which falls outside the BRPD’s duties. Paul says it is quite likely that a client will look to the architect for help just as they might with a tender.
“It’s understandable, I think, for a client without detailed technical knowledge to ask their consultant team to help them understand how the regulations apply to the dutyholders and where they currently sit with regard to regulations. On certain projects we would need to decide whether it is appropriate to help clients assess the competence of their design team and suppliers. It depends on the size of the project and the type of project, and whether we feel we can provide that support and advice within our skills, knowledge and experience.”
He continues: “Equally there will be complex projects or complex elements of design work where designers will reasonably feel they cannot provide advice on the competence of the designer, contractor or supplier and the the client might have to appoint a project manager or specialist to assist them. Fundamentally it is important to go through the process to help the client identify where they need to take advice from others, and not just the lead designer.”
Thanks to Paul Owen, Architect Director and Technical Delivery Lead, and Justin Robinson, Associate, BDP; Jordan Armstrong, LSI.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a professional feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Legal, regulatory and statutory compliance.
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