The role of the Designer as defined in the Construction Design and management Regulations (CDM) 2015.
In this blog we are going to look at the duties and responsibilities of the Designers under the Construction Design and Management regulations (CDM) 2015.
The duties and responsibilities of Designers are extensive, but they need not be complex.
Introduction
Duties of Designers under the CDM Regulations
Additional Responsibilities
Summary Designers duties
Introduction
A designer is an organisation or individual that prepares or modifies a design for any part of a construction project, including the design of temporary works, or who arranges or instructs someone else to do it.
Designers include architects, consulting engineers, interior designers, temporary work engineers, chartered surveyors, technicians, specifiers, principal contractors, specialist contractors and some tradespeople.
Manufacturers supplying standardised products for use in any construction project are not designers.
However, the person who selects the product is a designer and must take account of health and safety issues arising from the installation and use of those products.
What is a design:
A design could include drawings, sketches, design details, specifications and product selection, bills of quantity or calculations, prepared for the purpose of constructing, modifying or using a building or structure, a product, or system.
For example: Drainage systems, mechanical or electrical systems and sprinkler systems.
Designers must be competent in their field of expertise and competency must be established prior to being appointed. This is achieved by undertaking competency assessments.
Please see the following blog:
Establishing Competency under CDM:
For further guidance on the three-stage competency assessment process.
The role of the designer
The main role of a designer is to:
Consider design decisions and the potential affect the health and safety of workers and others who will construct, maintain, repair, clean, refurbish and eventually demolish or remove the building or structure, as well as those who will use it as a completed workplace
Design forms an important part of delivering a project safely and without risks to health.
Duties Designers under the CDM Regulations
Designers must:
Understand and be aware of significant risks that workers and users can be exposed to, and how these can arise from their design decisions.
Have the right skills, knowledge, and experience, and be adequately resourced.
Address the health and safety issues likely to be involved in the design.
Check that clients are aware of their duties.
Co-operate with others who have responsibilities, particularly the principal designer.
Consider the general principles of prevention when carrying out their design work.
Provide information about the risks arising from their design.
Co-ordinate their work with that of others to improve the way in which risks are managed and controlled.
For further information regarding the principles of prevention, please see our earlier blog:
The Principles of Prevention:
The principles of prevention can be summarised as:
The elimination, reduction and control risks through good design.
Additional Responsibilities
Information for the client
Provide the client with health and safety information that might affect them or future users, during or after construction, for example, details of how to clean, access or maintain parts of your design.
Information for the principal designer
Provide certain information to the principal designer including:
Information relating to your designs, including any unusual remaining risks and the key assumptions and decisions you have made.
This is a critical part of the pre-construction information and will be provided to the principal contractor.
Details of significant risks that are a part of your design.
This could include sequencing of erection, any phased handovers or temporary support that is required.
Information for inclusion in the health and safety file.
This might include information which you have gathered during the preparation or in the course of your design that could be of future use to the client or end user.
Information for other designers
You must provide the following information to other designers.
Design loads, where you are responsible for the selection of plant, equipment, materials or civil and structural design.
Design parameters, where they could affect how others design their elements of the work, for example the need for maintenance access, ventilation, power and waste, sequences and stability.
Key principles used in your design, such as loads, and stability, principles used for avoiding disproportionate collapse, principles and precautions relating to fire, and assumptions of the ground conditions.
Design drawings relevant to their designs, with significant risks, such as existing services, clearly identified.
Specifications, but only to the extent that these will inform their designs.
Information you have obtained to aid your design that could be useful to others, for example information from:
Structural surveys
Asbestos surveys
Highways authorities
Utility owners
Site security
History the land and former use
Contaminated land information
Some of this information may have originally come through the principal designer.
Information for principal contractors and contractors
You must provide the following information to the principal contractor and contractors:
Any relevant assumptions your design makes, such as temporary works or sequencing required where these are not obvious to a contractor with suitable skills, knowledge and experience.
For example, you should identify whether a wall will become unstable if it is unsupported while carrying out work nearby, or the way in which you have assumed temporary props or platforms will be installed or used.
Any survey or report obtained as part of your appointment that could be useful to others in the management of health and safety.
Summary
1. Provide a schedule on appointment.
As soon as you have been appointed, you should provide the client with a detailed schedule of services and resources to help plan what you need to do to ensure the client is clear about what to expect and to reassure them that you are fulfilling your role.
2. Develop a good relationship with the client.
This will assist you in managing health and safety risk and resolving any issues. It will take time but should be worthwhile. Talk to the client so that you understand their needs; this is easier at face-to-face meetings than by phone or email.
3. Ensure you understand the brief.
Talk to the client about their brief, to receive a further insight into their requirements. This will also give you an opportunity to ask questions and offer suggestions.
4. Clarify roles to avoid confusion.
Distinguish between the purpose of the principal designer and the designer roles by separating the scope of service and resources required for each.
5. Hold regular meetings.
Leadership from the client is important and they should be encouraged to hold regular progress meetings to bring all parties together.
Involving the client and principal contractor in meetings will improve co-ordination and understanding and decisions made.
6. Undertake an early site visit.
This will assist you with the review of the existing environment as well as helping to understand the site arrangements and conditions.
A site visit will help you determine how your work interacts with others.
The role of the designer is extensive, but it need not be complex.
Yorkshire Health and Safety can assist you in the successful delivery of all your projects from concept to completion.
At Yorkshire Health and Safety, we build strong relationships with clients based on communication, collaboration, commitment, trust and aligning with your key safety performance goals.
With over 30 years’ experience delivering successful projects for clients and working with clients’ principal contractors, we know the challenges that come with delivering successful projects, be it commercial, industrial, construction manufacturing, housebuilding, refurbishment, shopfitting and office interiors.
If you require further assistance with any of the topics raised in this post or assistance with CDM on your current or future projects, please get in touch.
Yorkshire Health and Safety