CIC Cascade

The Construction Industry Council website has been redesigned and restructured to give better navigation and communicate the work of the CIC more clearly.

The site includes details of :

organisational structure, secretariat and members;
current activities within the CIC , including work in the areas of lifelong learning, innovation and research and sustainable development;
the various services that the CIC provides, including adjudication, appeals tribunals and approved inspectors; and
publications, news and events.

The site also includes details of projects that CIC is engaged in as a partner in ConstructionSkills.

Graham Watts , Chief Executive of CIC said

“Redeveloping our website fulfils one of the key objectives in the CIC ’s Corporate Plan. The site will continue to develop and grow and will not only improve communications with and between members but will also be a major portal for access to information on developing initiatives in the built environment.”

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2. Students win £50,000 for school improvements in national construction design competition

Leading UK designer Wayne Hemingway recently announced Monkseaton High School as the winner of 'Creative Spaces', a nationwide design competition encouraging school children to pursue a career in construction by re-designing their school's built environment for the 21st century.

The competition, run by ConstructionSkills, the sector skills council for the construction industry, invited 11 - 14 year old pupils to submit proposals for improvements to their school's built environment. The winning students from Monkseaton in the North East will see their design become reality with £50,000 worth of building work set to commence this summer.

Monkseaton's design involves redesigning the school toilets, which are in poor condition and regarded by the students as the worst area of their school. The students worked with Warring & Netts, a local architectural practice that offered them professional advice when it was needed.
Commenting on the importance of skills, Wayne said, "I believe we are becoming a nation obsessed by celebrity and so-called glamorous professions and we are in danger of losing skills that are vital to the nation."

Employing 1 in every 14 people, the construction industry is Britain 's biggest employer; it is also our biggest exporter, generating over £1 billion a year. To sustain these levels and meet future demand, it needs 83,000* new recruits each year. In a bid to safeguard the UK 's industry skills, Creative Spaces set out to introduce construction into the national curriculum via a teacher resource pack and a competition. By participating, pupils from over 400 schools across the country have had an introduction to the design and build process.

Peter Lobban chief executive of ConstructionSkills, is proud of its work to attract more young people into the industry, "The continued success of the construction industry depends on its ability to attract and retain talented people of all ages and particularly young people. Construction has to compete hard to attract young people and so Creative Spaces is a great example of helping youngsters consider a career in a world-class industry."

The final judging was hosted at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and the judging panel was made up of industry professionals, including designer Wayne Hemingway. Wayne said, "The UK has a reputation for world-class design, architecture and building innovation. Creative Spaces has introduced the creative world of construction to pupils across the nation. Thousands of students have taken part in the activities and the 12 finalists must all be congratulated for their efforts in creating some amazing building designs."

"Speaking as a designer, I am concerned that too many young people are being diverted by media coverage in their choice of career into professions that are often ultimately "dead end" nor make the best use of the their personal talents," he continued. "Creative Spaces has been a superb way of showing students how creative they can be in a huge variety of construction professions from design & planning through to carpentry, bricklaying and site management."
Paul Bower , Senior Project Manager at CITB-ConstructionSkills said, "Creative Spaces has been a real success and has introduced thousands of young people to construction. They are now more able to appreciate the built environment and might consider building on their success here to pursue a career in construction."

The Creative Spaces competition was created with a full set of curriculum support materials focussed on the Key Stage 3 Design & Technology curriculum. Written by a Design and Technology teacher and supported by the DfES, the resource was available on-line and in a CD-Rom format. Work is already underway with the Commission of Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Construction Industry Council (CIC) to develop the on-line resource so it can be used by other subject teachers (history, PSE, geography teachers) and with KS4 students. CABE is sponsoring these developments with grant aid of £30,000. The resource will be promoted to schools from September 2004.

The resource has also attracted the interest of the School Design and Build Unit of the DfES. It has plans to use curriculum-based resources with schools undergoing redevelopment or refurbishment work (as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme) and has expressed an interest using elements of the Creative Spaces resource.

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3. ACBEE to build on university / industry dialogue success

ACBEE, the Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education programme founded last year, has launched its first Annual Report highlighting its progress in improving university-industry dialogue and collaboration. In it ACBEE reveals that it is moving towards measuring the contribution and benefits that higher education courses make to the industry. It has also announced plans to extend its approach to regional engagement and further education.

The report was presented to Peter Rogers, Chairman of the Strategic Forum for Construction, by John Hobson, former Director of the DTI Construction Directorate, at an evening reception held at RIBA in London on June 17th.

“Construction is going through a process of major change in culture and working practices as it implements the ideas in the Latham and Egan reports and develops the concepts of partnership and collaborative working,” said John Hobson. “It has therefore been a great personal pleasure to watch the development of ACBEE over the past year, from a gleam in the eye to an established programme of case studies with genuine buy in from stakeholders.”

ACBEE was established in 2003 to encourage the built environment industry, universities and professional bodies to work together to improve dialogue and provide more relevant training and education for the future. It promotes the need for courses and teaching programmes that align with key industry themes and which demonstrate active university, industry or institutional partnerships.

Last October ACBEE called on the universities, industry and professional bodies who represent the built environment to submit case studies of high quality that demonstrate the concept of collaborative university-industry education for the sector. It has already attracted in excess of the initial 20 case studies expected.

The case studies embrace both graduate and undergraduate courses and programmes and can be found at www.cebe.ltsn.ac.uk/learning/acbee/index. They are from universities across the UK (and one from the Netherlands ) and include industry partners from all sections of the built environment.

A preliminary study, r ecently conducted by ACBEE on the issue of macro-level measurement for university / industry engagement, revealed that most of the case study promoters are planning to develop methods of measuring the success of their courses in order to demonstrate improved industry performance.

“The concept of measurement has received general assent and this is extremely encouraging for the future,” says John Hobson. Our task now, with the support of the Strategic Forum and the training community, is to build on these foundations and produce an intellectually rigorous set of ideas that will deepen understanding and improve the quality of dialogue which already exists.”

Announcing its plans for the coming year, ACBEE revealed that it has started a South East region sub-group, to pilot regional industry-education engagement and explore the potential for extending ACBEE principles to further education by encouraging dialogue between regional companies and local colleges.

The ACBEE programme is funded by ConstructionSkills, the Sector Skills Council for Construction, and forms part of the accelerating change agenda endorsed by the Strategic Forum. It is guided by a pan-industry steering group representing CITB ConstructionSkills, CEBE (Centre for Education in the Built Environment), LTSN Engineering, Construction Industry Council, Constructing Excellence, and academic and industry specialists.

Read about CIC ’s involvement in ConstructionSkills

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4. Health and safety scam

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has urged companies to ignore information they receive from three firms purporting to regulate health and safety legislation

HSE has received hundreds of complaints from companies across the country that have been sent requests for payment in return for compliance with health and safety law.

The three firms, all based in north-west England , have written to companies all over Great Britain asking for between £125 and £249 to ensure they comply with health and safety law. A Liverpool firm calling itself the Health and Safety Enforcement Agency (HSEA) demands £125 for a health and safety compliance pack. The Manchester-based Health and Safety Compliance Agency (HSCA) says a health and safety compliance register will become law on 1 May and that all businesses should apply for registration, for a fee of £129.25. A third company, the Health and Safety Registration Enforcement Division (HSRED), which gives a Rochdale address, tells recipients to pay up to £249 for health and safety registration. Anyone receiving literature from any of these companies can ignore it; there is no legal need for anyone to buy literature or services from these companies.

Justin McCracken, HSE’s Deputy Directory General, said: “None of these companies is connected to HSE. Organisations should be very wary of any approach from these firms, or any company ‘offering’ similar services. All three firms use wording suggesting they are official enforcement bodies, but they are not.“HSE never writes indiscriminately to firms seeking advance payment for services which it has not provided.

“These companies are asking for significant sums of money, claiming they will send out information, much of which HSE provides free of charge,” added Mr McCracken. “HSE’s legitimate Health and Safety Starter Pack is available to any business for £30. Not only does the pack cost a lot less than the information provided by these companies, but it is also the real thing." HSE is liaising with trading standards offices and the police, who are investigating all three companies.

Anyone receiving literature from any of these firms should report it to HSE’s Infoline on 08701 545500, or their local HSE office.

More information on The Health and Safety Starter Pack: Health and Safety Advice and Guidance for New and Small Businesses can be found on HSE’s website: www.hse.gov.uk/startup/content/starterpack.htm
The pack contains most of the basic health and safety advice you need to help your business comply with the law and protect its employees. It also includes copies of the HSE Accident Book and the Health and Safety Law Poster, which must be displayed in your business premises by law.

5. Improving business support for construction

ConstructionSkills is surveying the needs and requirements of small firms in the construction industry, particularly in the provision of support, advice and guidance to improve business performance.

Whether you are an architect or builder, a decorator, engineer, plasterer, or surveyor - this is your chance to tell Constructionskills what you need.

Responding to the survey will only take about 15 minutes and all respondents will be entered into a prize draw for a weekend for two..

For further details visit http://www.citb.co.uk/news/survey/default.htm

Questionnaires must be completed by 23 June

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6. Construction partnership tackles building site waste

A new project to cut high levels of waste on construction sites and improve health and safety has been announced by Employment Relations Minister Gerry Sutcliffe

Currently, about 15-20% of all material delivered to construction sites ends up in skips, costing industry hundreds of millions of pounds a year. The Health and Safety Executive reports that almost half of accidents are the result of untidy and badly laid out construction sites.

The project aims to spread environmentally friendly practices throughout UK construction sites by closer working between the main contractor, sub-contractors and trade unions.It will provide companies running construction projects with the necessary tools to ensure that everyone joining a construction site learns about environmental concerns and safety as part of their induction.

These tools will include learning packs, tools to manage and maintain partnerships and a framework for reporting success.

Mr Sutcliffe has earmarked a 191,500 from the DTI's Strategic Partnership Fund, which helps strengthen employer-employee relationships and improve business performance. Business will make up the rest of the 827,600 in total needed over two years to get the scheme off the ground.
Gerry Sutcliffe said:
"Health and safety on construction sites must always be a top priority. I welcome this initiative for its direct approach to tackling safety and environmental concerns."

Project manager Uly Ma, of Greenfile Developments Ltd, said:
"A majority of the construction sector employs subcontractors and this means that good practices learnt from one project may not be carried through to another. Also, many of these small companies may not have the resources to provide lifelong learning for their employees.
"We believe that significant cost savings, reduction in accidents and minimising environmental impacts - the three components of sustainable development - can be achieved through a well-organised and neat construction site, coupled with teams that know how to spot waste and how to resolve waste problems."

More information about the Partnership Fund is available at www.dti.gov.uk/partnershipfund

7. Events

Architecture week 2004, 18-27 June www.architectureweek.co.uk

The events page of the CIC website is frequently updated visit the events page for details. The following CIC members’ events have been added recently:

Understanding and adapting buildings for climate change (CIBSE)
Address your liabilities for building design (CIBSE)
On the waterfront: regeneration of a city - BIAT AGM/Conference (BIAT)

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	For general information please contact CIC

Construction Industry Council is a company no. 2388396 limited by guarantee, registered in England. CIC registered office: 26 Store Street London WC1E 7BT