CPA Bulletin

www.cpa.uk.net CPA Bulletin > August 2024 29 TRAINING & CERTIFICATION: 2 Young Plant Operators There is also a perception that young plant operators e.g. under the age of 18 cannot legally operate equipment on site. This is not the case and the ‘Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999): Regulation 19 - Protection of Young Persons’ states that employers need to assess any particular risks to young people before they start work by taking into account their inexperience, their lack of awareness of potential risks and their potential immaturity. They should also not undertake activities which are beyond their physical or psychological capacity, or where there is a risk of accidents which it may reasonably be assumed cannot be recognised or avoided by them owing to their insufficient attention to safety or lack of experience or training. The regulations also state that there should be no risks to their health from extreme cold or heat, noise or vibration. Naturally, young people may need more supervision to make sure that they do not act irresponsibly or take short cuts which put themselves and others at risk but getting young people onto site as plant operators is a key step to ensure a future workforce. Summary What this article is indicating is that red card holders should not be written off just based on the fact that they hold a red card, but an assessment (desktop and/or observational) should be made as to the extent of their learning journey, from basic training to operational competency, is taken into account. With a shortage of operators for certain machine types and in trying to attract new blood, the blank refusal not to use red card holders or young persons may not be helpful long term to industry. Following the tragic fire of Grenfell Tower a number of years ago, the issue of industry competence was raised from the subsequent investigations and reports, with a lack of competence a cited factor of the tragedy. This has led to legislation that imposes minimum requirements of those involved in building works, with the Building Regulations etc. (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023 stating that under competence: General requirement; that any person carrying out building work or any design work must have - where the person is an individual - the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours necessary. Being overseen by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) Competence Steering Group, in essence a series of competency frameworks are being devised for a large range of occupations that ultimately will identify the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (SKEBs) required for each sector and relevant occupations. The relevant SKEBs will be devised by a sector-defined ‘Super Sector’ groups, with various specialist federations and organisations acting as a lead organisation and who will provide the required content and entry routes etc. for each occupational SKEB. Plant operations are in scope for the competency frameworks and will be undertaken within the Civils Super Sector programme, with the lead organisation being the Plant Sector Representative Organisation (PSRO), for which CPA are an active partner of the PSRO and who will be leading on the core element of the work along with CITB. The PSRO have already devised a competency framework for the requirements of card schemes, which will be used as the basis of the super-sector frameworks. Once the plant operations framework is in place, the PSRO will work with CITB and the existing plant card schemes to adopt and adjust their standards and delivery content to meet the framework requirements. Industry Competence and Frameworks Programme Training Standards Development As reported in previous CPA Bulletin articles, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) have been developing and introduced a set of short-duration training standards for the operation of plant categories and from which plant grant payments are now based on. CPA technical staff have been fully involved in the development of the standards and CPA are supporting their adoption by the sector as a means of ensuring sufficient skills are learnt to safely and efficiently operate plant, and create a level playing field for plant training. CITB launched the first set of new standards last year for the categories of excavator 360, forward tipping and rear tipping dumper/truck, ride on roller, telehandler, plant marshaller and slinger/signaller. Further categories are in development and due for release near the end of the year. For employers to be able to claim grant, basic training will need to be against the relevant standard that is delivered by a CITB-approved training organisations (ATO) and lead to a CPCS and NPORS card. CITB Plant Operations Short Course Duration Training Standards