Staticus has just completed a BSA 2022 Assessment. Carried out by Astutis, an international consultant and training provider, this in-depth audit evaluated our preparedness in relation to the 2022 UK Building Safety Act (BSA). The report from this audit indicates that we are on the right track in terms of the Health & Safety practices we have in place.
This audit was just the latest element of an ongoing evolution of our safety practices in the UK that started in 2021. We have undertaken extensive training courses and internal workshops in response to the BSA. We spoke to Giedrius Valantinas, Project Director at Staticus, and Bilal Emiroglu, our Health & Safety Manager, about the audit by Astutis and our ongoing initiatives in light of the BSA. They pointed out that it is our culture which is key in this area. “All of the steps we have taken have been proactive and internally driven,” Giedrius comments. “In other words, it is our culture of responsibility and continuous improvement – beginning at the very top of our organisation – that is defining our response to the BSA. We are targeting strong growth in the UK market between now and 2027, and having forward-thinking and robust Health & Safety practices in place will be critical to achieving this.”
Investing in Health & Safety best practice
As a façade contractor, we take our responsibilities under the BSA very seriously. We are committed to investing in our people and creating better environments for them to work in, and to ensuring we deliver even safer buildings to the UK market.
According to Giedrius, this commitment comes from the very top, and is born out in concrete actions. “We are investing in courses and ongoing training, and in 3rd-party consultancy to ensure we are on track,” he explains.
“These actions all go back to having the right ethics and culture, which are formed by our senior management. Our attitude is to be proactive and to take responsibility. In the end, nobody told us to do these things. They come from our internal drive to ensure we are reliable partners and the value we place in people and their safety.”
Staying one step ahead in the UK’s evolving construction safety landscape
Since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017, façade safety has rightly been in the spotlight. Like all façade contractors, we are committed to meeting all the necessary standards to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again.
“In 2021, we undertook intensive training, including courses by CIOB, in preparation for BSA coming into force. And we have continued to train up our team since then,” explains Giedrius. “We have to ensure we all understand the material, design and testing requirements the BSA stipulates, and that our employees have the necessary qualifications. Naturally, we have also put into place data storage practices that are in line with the BSA’s Golden Thread requirement.”
“Since 2022 we have collected the career professional development (CPD) hours of our engineers and technicians to ensure they meet requirements,” continues Giedrius. “At the same time, our leadership team has taken IOSH safety training. This includes Aušra Vankevičiute (our CEO), Ilona Guobyte (CODO), Ignas Stasiukonis (COO), Paulius Kabašinskas (Chief Projects Officer), Modestas Midveris (Head of Installation) Aaron Dehara and myself. This training has supported us in understanding our corporate responsibilities, and being aware of what our team needs in terms of training and support.”
Gaining an expert 3rd-party perspective
“We reached the point this year where we felt it necessary to take a step back and gain a complete picture of where we were in terms of our Health & Safety practices in the UK. “We asked Astutis, a global leader in Health & Safety training, to conduct a BSA 2022 Assessment. This is an audit of our practices conducted as if it were by a building regulator,” comments Giedrius.
Astutis completed an online audit for this process and conducted an onsite assessment with our site team at the International Way project in London. In late September, they shared the results of their findings with us in a report/
“This report highlights that we are on track. Its recommendations for ongoing improvement will guide us in our next steps,” explains Bilal. “It has been an important and valuable process to bring Astutis onboard as consultants. We know internally how we want our practices and processes to be. Getting a third-party to look at us from the outside has given us a different perspective, and helped us understand how a regulator would perceive our work and our practices.”
Being assessed as a “Main contractor”
“We are a subcontractor,” continues Giedrius. “However, we understand that general contractors are looking to us to take responsibility and meet very high standards. Therefore, we asked Astutis to audit our practices as if we were a main contractor. This helps us feel confident that we can provide all of the necessary information, including Golden Thread data as defined in the BSA, to our general contractors and clients to the same level as a main contractor.”
“For me, this is a good example of the attitude we have of wanting to be one step ahead,” concludes Giedrius. “We know that technically it is not a requirement for us to be at this standard. But we also know it will bring value for our partners, our clients and our people. So, we are aiming for a level of clarity and understanding that is above what we need, and to have Health & Safety processes in place that meet the highest expectations.”
A site-visit checklist for our leadership team
“The report from Astutis is guiding our next steps in this field, and we already have one concrete initiative underway – creating a detailed and unified checklist for our leadership team when they visit projects,” says Giedrius.
Staticus already has in place a Health & Safety reporting system that uses a single, unified scale. Each site is given a safety score based on very detailed on-site assessments, and project teams can use this to compare their safety performance with other Staticus teams.
“Alongside our Health & Safety assessments, our management team also conducts monthly visits to sites. During these visits we speak to the team and check on the site. It is important for us to feel the conditions on site. What is the mood among the team? Are there issues that need addressing? We believe that you can’t get a good sense for these things remotely – you have to physically be there in person.”
“We noticed that these visits often vary in terms of their focus,” continues Giedrius. “That is why we are in the process of formalising them by creating a clear checklist. In this way, each time we go to a site we will work through a checklist that covers all of the basics from a top management perspective. This will help us collect data more consistently, and give site managers a clear understanding of what to expect from these visits.”
These visit checklists will augment our existing Health & Safety practices, and give the management team even greater clarity on our onsite practices. “Ultimately, this is about us taking responsibility. We have an obligation – to our people, to our partners and to ourselves – to be on the ground with our teams listening to them and understanding the issues they face.”
All comes back to culture
“A common feature of all of these initiatives is the active role of our leadership team,” concludes Giedrius. “From our auditing by Astutis through to training courses and our on-site visits, we are directly involved in the continuous improvement of our Health & Safety processes in the UK.”
“In the end, this is about people. We care deeply about people and our partners,” says Giedrius. “And we take full responsibility for ensuring the façades we deliver in the UK meet the highest safety standards.”
