All buildings including HRBs (CIOB Principal Designer Certified/Provisional for all including Higher Risk Buildings):
- Chartered Membership of the CIOB or equivalent
- Typically, 3+ years’ experience in designing or managing design of building works for higher-risk buildings as defined under the Building Safety Act 2022 and relevant secondary legislation
All buildings excluding HRBs (CIOB Principal Designer Certified/Provisional for all non-Higher Risk Buildings):
- Chartered Membership of the CIOB or TechCIOB or equivalent
- Typically, 3+ years’ relevant experience in designing or managing design of building works
In addition, applicants should be performing the duties or overseeing and/or managing Principal Designer under BSA 2022.
Section 1 – Behavioural Competence
In this section, to demonstrate competence you need to give specific work-based example(s) of how you:
- Evaluate the limits of your own (and, where relevant, your organisation’s) competence, including declining a Principal Designer role when project needs exceed capability.
- Recognise when project needs exceed competence and seek support from appropriately competent persons.
- Demonstrate integrity by refusing non-compliant design work and reporting safety occurrences where necessary.
- Cooperate with dutyholders to achieve compliant design work, including supporting clients in providing required information.
- Liaise and cooperate with dutyholders, including Principal Contractors, sharing information and considering compliance feedback.
- Use communication skills to encourage designers to fulfil their duties and cooperate with other dutyholders.
- Challenge designers to revise work where evidence of compliance is insufficient.
- Challenge Principal Contractor feedback if it risks compromising design compliance.
Section 2 – Legislative and regulatory framework for compliance
In this section to demonstrate competence you need to give specific work-based example(s) of how you applied your understanding of the:
- Duties and behaviours required of Principal Designers
- Purpose, structure and scope of the legislative and regulatory framework to appraising and challenging evidence of design work compliance
- Identification and application of the legislative and regulatory framework governing how design work, including HRB design work, if built, is expected to comply with relevant requirements
- Identification and application of the legislative and regulatory framework governing how Principal Designers and other dutyholders are expected to perform their duties, follow prescribed procedures, and comply with legislation, including when working on HRB design work.
Additionally, for class A applicants only, to demonstrate competence you are required to give work place example(s) of how you:
- Demonstrated your understanding of the legislative and regulatory framework related to designing HRBs, including in relation to prescribed procedures and information
- Evaluated the duties of other dutyholders in the context of HRB projects for the ways they could affect the Principal Designer’s duties and design work compliance
Section 3 – Management of design work compliance
In this section to demonstrate competence you need to give specific work-based example(s) of how you:
- Show understanding of how client briefs, KPIs, programmes, designers’ competence, and organisational capability affect design compliance.
- Demonstrate how insurance scope, warranty limits, appointment terms, and risk allocation impact design compliance.
- Develop strategies to manage design work compliance.
- Apply knowledge of recording, maintaining, and approving evidence of design compliance.
- Show understanding of designers’ duties and their contractual responsibilities on a project.
- Identify and manage gaps in designers’ competence, capability, or capacity to support compliance.
- Monitor compliance risks and manage changes affecting design compliance.
- Manage processes that achieve designer consensus to ensure coordinated design compliance.
Additionally, for class A applicants only, to demonstrate competence you are required to give workplace example(s) of how you:
- Evaluated the system of regulated procedures and information related to working on HRBs and their implications for the performance of the Principal Designer’s duties (including contributing to the golden thread of information, reporting safety occurrences to the Building Safety Regulator, and making competence and compliance declarations)
- Evaluated ways to establish and maintain throughout the construction phase a system for inspecting HRB design work for safety occurrences and promptly reporting safety occurrences
- Created ways to instruct reporting persons, about the system for mandatory safety occurrence reporting (related to working on HRBs)
Section 4 – Technical framework for compliance
In this section to demonstrate competence you need to give specific work-based example(s) of how you demonstrated that you:
- Understand the purpose, structure, and scope of technical guidance and standards governing building design and construction compliance.
- Know how to find and apply technical guidance and standards to review and challenge evidence of design compliance.
- Apply technical guidance and standards to manage compliance when coordinating design packages and building work.
- Use technical guidance and standards to help identify risks to compliance.
- Evaluate how identified risks may impact design compliance.
- Understand construction principles sufficiently to review Principal Contractor comments on compliance.
- Use information management systems to establish and maintain records supporting design compliance strategies.
- Use information management systems to establish and maintain processes to manage these strategies.
- Use information management systems to establish and maintain processes to control changes affecting design compliance.
Additionally, for class A applicants only, to demonstrate competence you are required to give work place example(s) of how you:
- Evaluate building safety risks to support mandatory reporting of structural, fire, and other safety occurrences in HRBs.
- Assess during construction inspections how new safety risks may emerge or existing risks change, including becoming safety occurrences.
- Evaluate design compliance to follow required procedures for declaring compliance.
- Understand information management systems to support accurate, accessible digital records within the golden thread.
- Understand information management systems to establish and maintain mandatory occurrence reporting systems.
