Industry Group publishes new guidance on managing competence in organisations across the built environment The Industry Task and Finish Group (ITFG) has published its guidance on Managing Competence in the Built Environment: An industry guide on how to meet the ICC principles, providing practical, proportionate and risk-based support for organisations operating across the built environment. The guidance sets out what effective organisational competence management looks like in practice for organisations of all sizes and risk profiles, enabling them to demonstrate that people working for them, or on their behalf, are competent for the work they undertake. Its flexible and proportionate approach means that the guidance can be used alongside existing management systems, or as a foundation where no formal approach is yet in place. The guidance has been developed alongside, and is fully aligned with, the Industry Competence Committee (ICC) publication Setting Expectations on Competence Management. Used together, the ICC advice sets out what good looks like at a high level, while the ITFG guidance explains how organisations can put those principles into practice. The guidance looks at the role of organisational leadership and governance, while emphasising that actively managing competence is not simply about qualifications or training records; it is about ensuring that organisations have enough people with the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for their role. Using the principles set out in the ICC document, the ITFG guidance sets out the key elements organisations, SME’s and large organisations alike, should think about when putting effective competence management in place, defining what competence is needed for different roles and activities, assessing and verifying competence, and making sure competence is monitored and maintained over time. Sofie Hooper, Chair of the ITFG comments “With competence being a critical determinant of health and safety, building safety and quality outcomes, the management of competence by organisations is not only a requirement for building safety, but it actively underpins the safety, performance and reliability of structures through the built environment. “This important document will provide much needed guidance across the sector on how to manage competence well and it could not have been done without the cross sector support and the dedication of the experts in the Steering Group. We would also like to thank the ICC for the collaboration so that we could align our guidance- making a difference together.” The guidance will next play a key role in shaping the development of a future British Standard on managing competence in organisations. The documents is available from the BSI Competence hub (https://lnkd.in/eePFAsMU ). The ITFG will next be developing case studies and encourages organisations wanting to contribute to get in touch with Sofie.Hooper@aps.org.uk.
Thank you for sharing Peter, TTD Ltd. are pleased to have registered with the Built Environment Competence Hub
This is a significant and welcome step forward for the sector, Pete. What stands out in the ITFG guidance is the shift away from competence as a record-keeping exercise, towards how organisations design, govern, and sustain competence in practice. That distinction matters. Most organisations already have systems that describe competence - frameworks, matrices, training records, assurance processes. The harder question is whether those systems reliably produce competence under real operational and commercial pressure. That is where the real challenge sits for leadership teams, HR functions, and delivery organisations. At MyrusBuild, we are seeing increasing demand from clients trying to bridge that gap between documented compliance and demonstrable capability across roles, teams, and supply chains. The alignment between the ICC principles and this guidance is important. It moves competence from interpretation into implementation. The next test will not be whether organisations have a competence system, but whether they can evidence it as a living, continuous responsibility. That is a higher bar - and rightly so.