As a business owner or manager, embarking on construction or maintenance work, you take on the role of a ‘construction client’.
This comes with a number of responsibilities and duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.
The regulations aim to ensure health and safety issues are appropriately considered during the development of construction projects. The overall goal is to reduce the risk of harm to those who have to build, use and maintain structures.
This guide from the Health and Safety Executive ‘ Need Building Work Done?’ sets out clearly what your roles and responsibilities are as a construction client.
The ‘Client Buddy’ Scheme is free to access and aims to help you to understand what your responsibilities are, and where you can find the right guidance and advice. It will also help you to avoid common pitfalls and get the very best outcome from your construction project.
The Client Buddy scheme’s website provides a wealth of information which should answer most questions you have, as a construction client.
But if you have any more questions after reviewing the information available, can fill in an online form and we will arrange a call for them to discuss things in more detail with a ‘client buddy’.
The buddies are from experienced construction clients who are members of the CCLG. They are give their time voluntarily, so there is no cost to business owners accessing the scheme.
Having ‘construction clients’ better understand how they fit into the construction process is so important – unless they are fully engaged in the project and have the knowledge and confidence to play their part effectively, quality and budgets can be compromised. In addition, if they don’t comply with your duties under CDM2015, they could also be endangering the health and safety of those working on the project, and/or the general public. This can lead to the work being halted, and at worst, prosecution.
To find out more about the buddy scheme visit https://www.cclg.co.uk/clientbuddy.