Newsletter March 2007

CDM 2007 is Law

As many of you will know, the CDM Regulations slipped into the state books on 6th Feb 07 giving the UK a full 2 months to ready themselves for the 'off' on the 6th April. To most, this will come as no surprise. What is surprising though is the general lack of awareness about the new regulations and the significant changes that they introduce.

The practice of delegating responsibility from the client to an agent is, from 6th April outlawed for all new projects. Local Authorities, for instance will no longer be able to pass responsibility to Clients Agents for health & safety aspects of projects as has been the case under the 1994 regulations.

The signing of the Project Notification by council employees at any level will in effect make them responsible for all aspects of health and safety as defined in the new regulations, for the life of their projects. This is a major change.

The regulations apply to all (non-domestic) projects; not just notifiable ones. The criteria for notification changes too. CDM-C's (CDM Co-ordinators) will need more of everything; more time to carry out their greater, pro-active, responsibilities, more communications with their colleagues in construction and they will need a bigger share of the project costs to pay for their necessary involvement. Not that there are too may CDM-C's available out there. As we understand it from our customers, supply and demand has already had an effect. With only a few hundred individuals both qualified and willing to take on their new and onerous responsibilities their salaries have escalated accordingly. The new ACoP was approved on 13th February 2007. We have a copy and it is illustrated here. It has been available from HSE Books (L144) from 1 March 2007 for £15 per copy.

HSE's Explanatory Memorandum

This excellent document on the HSE web site is both very long and very clear on the background and intentions of the new CDM 2007 regulations.

For a summary and links to the full document, see the News section of cdmUK - HSE's Explanatory Memorandum.

ToolKit CS™ Users Get CDM 2007

The ToolKit CS™ product has been undergoing some redevelopment over the past months to accommodate the many changes in the new CDM regulations.

Besides the obvious changes, CDM-C's instead of Planning Supervisors, and revised documentation, there are many additional design changes required in the management routines including increased support for competency recording, with an automated CHAS link, and project notification with improved visibility. The Management Console includes more project and organisation based data and better reporting.

We are anticipating a release date of late March so that users can receive the new revisions in time for April. We are holding a number of training workshops to ease users into the many changes required (see below for details). Here is a synopsis of the changes;

• Updates to the CDM Regulations including routines to update existing CDM1994 projects to CDM 2007
• A redesigned Enterprise module for web users
• A new Optional SHEQ module which includes
  • Key Project Stages
  • Project Auditing
  • Key Performance Indicators
  • Document management for CDM, Environment, Fire, Occupational Health and Quality

ToolKit CS™ Users Option for SHEQ

Those users taking our Safety Health Environment and Quality (SHEQ) Option will be able to work with us and our major clients who are continuing to mastermind additions to the content of this exciting new module.

The product offers Key Stage or Gateway management with individual dependency checks, external audits and reporting. Key Performance Indicators are included at both strategic and (some) detail level with consolidated reporting across all selected projects. Some of the KPI information is collated automatically; other data is entered by the departmental representatives which includes Environment, Occupational Health, Quality and Fire Safety in addition of course to CDM and General Health & Safety. All the data collected is analysed and collated. In time we intend to enable benchmarking of selected data through our centre of excellence site, cdmuk.com.

cdmUK.com

Our new wrap around CDM compliance service for corporate customers was launched at a recent seminar in London.

The service includes a Corporate ToolKit CS™ software licence for a medium size corporation, CDM training for departments in the day to day management of the CDM regulations and quarterly external audits by qualified CDM trained personnel to give an independent view of how the new regulations are being managed. That service is available for a limited number of clients and for an annual fee and on a first come first served basis.

Please contact Ai Solutions for more details of this innovative service without delay.

Enhanced Training & Support Package

To further improve the quality of our service delivery, we are offering an Enhanced Training and Support package for all new customers. Existing customers will be able to purchase the package on demand, or at their annual renewal.

The package is a five year commitment and offers the following tariff for network customers depending on the value of their renewal:

• Set up and installation of the new product
• Training days and support and consultation at Ai Solutions and/or on site, for corporate clients
• Bi-annual updates to application and knowledge base
• Product support via telephone, email or internet remote support
• Free access to our web site and Newsletters
• Attendance to 'Pre-release Workshops'
• Annual Conference attendance at a reduced rate

If you would like to hear more about this new offering then please call us on 01525 850 080.

IOSH Conference 27th & 28th March 2007

Our next big event is the IOSH exhibition at Telford.

We are exhibiting at the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health conference at the Telford International Centre and hope to see as many of our clients as possible as well as meeting some potential ones. We will be conducting a survey of IOSH attendees to see how well informed they are about the CDM2007 regulations so please feel free to come and take part. There will also be a 30 minute presentation on the 27th March at lunchtime and you will be welcome to join us for that free event or as a visitor to our stand. If you would like more details please go to the IOSH website www.iosh.co.uk.

If you would like to attend the IOSH event for free please contact Shirley Cirket and she will provide you with a free invitation.

Annual Conference RAF Club Piccadilly London

Our keynote speaker will be Richard Boland, from the Health & Safety Executive, in his new role as Head of Construction Operations, London and the South East. He will be talking about the new CDM 2007 Regulations. Richard was instrumental in putting these regulations together and directing them through the various consultative stages including the CONIAC committee before taking up his new operational role in London. He does, therefore have a unique view to bring to the conference as both designer and operator of the changes that effect everyone in construction including, notably, the client... more information

Focussing on the Need to Reduce accidents in Construction

Worker's leg crushed

A pair of heroic construction workers hauled a half-tonne steel girder off their trapped colleague after his right leg was crushed. Lawrence Rice, aged 64, needed life-saving surgery when the 13-foot piece of metal crashed down on top of him. The Rowecord Engineering site manager was offloading girders from a lorry at the site of the new Sainsbury's supermarket in Avebury Boulevard.

His employers, based near his home in Newport, Wales, flew his wife back from Canada so she could be by his bedside at Milton Keynes General Hospital.

Surgeons performed an emergency operation on Tuesday afternoon but the Citizen understands a further period in theatre is imminent. The Health and Safety Executive launched an immediate investigation into the incident. One worker at the HBG construction site, who was standing just yards away, said: "I heard a sound and I turned round and he was on the floor with the girder on his right leg. He was lying on his back."

The worker shouted to another colleague to call an ambulance as two of Mr Rice's quick-thinking co-workers rushed to help him.

"Two blokes lifted the girder off him. He was just laying there with his head in his hands. But he wasn't unconscious."

Emergency services arrived swiftly and tended to Mr Rice before taking him to the hospital. He appeared to be chatting with the ambulance crew as he was being lifted into their vehicle.

Health and Safety Executive officials were on-site yesterday holding discussions with management. The investigation was launched and is expected to take several months to complete. The principal inspector for construction in the Home Counties, Philip Poynter, said: "We will need to make a judgement about whether someone was at fault. We are yet to see exactly how it happened. "Our first priority is to make sure everyone is carrying out their duty in a safe manner."

Schedule of Events

Ai Solutions has a lot planned to keep our users well informed about what is happening in CDM and Asbestos Management and some dates for your diary... more information.

CDM ToolKit™ 2007 Workshops

We are deploying a new release of our software to come into place as the new regulations come into force in April this year. To support our end users in this release we will be holding a number of workshops prior to the release (March 6th, 13th and 20th) at our office in Leighton Buzzard.

Please contact us to book your place on 01525 850 080.

Callsafe Newsletter

Our Partners Callsafe continue to issue their monthly analysis of health & safety issues which we comment to your reading. The current issue includes an analysis of the ACoP changes in the release version now available from the HSE and the previous draft made public in Oct 2006. The analysis majors on the Criminal Liability aspects. Callsafe also list a number of prosecution and other news stories.