The Healthcare Sector and Building Safety Act

This October marks the one-year anniversary of the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022. Following in the wake of Dame Judith Hackitt’s ‘Building a Safer Future Report’, and the lessons learned from the Grenfell Tower Fire enquiry, it is understandable that much of the discussion to date has focused on the design and construction of residential buildings. However, the Act impacts all sectors, and places additional responsibilities on those who operate and maintain certain buildings – including many in the healthcare and care home sector.

With the Act now enshrined in law, there is a requirement that all parties meet their obligations at the three gateway stages (Planning, Design, Construction) of the new building safety regime. The existing roles of Client, Principal Designer, and Principal Contractor, have also been expanded to impose additional obligations on these duty-holders to promote compliance with the Act. Failure to comply at any stage could lead to significant delays and increased costs for healthcare projects, while some buildings could even be denied a building control certificate so that it cannot be legally occupied. There are also quite serious sanctions for non-compliance – right up to imprisonment and unlimited fines.

Clearly, the consequences of failing to comply with the Building Safety Act are profound, yet we have often been surprised at the varying levels of understanding about the Act within the healthcare sector. At a recent roundtable organised by Stephen George + Partners (SGP) in partnership with Clarion Solicitors to discuss the implications of the Act for the healthcare sector, participants from across the healthcare construction supply chain widely echoed their concern at the lack of knowledge and considerable ignorance of some of the Act’s key provisions, whether that be from developers and clients in the public sector, or NHS Trusts themselves.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Building Safety Act 2022 was introduced in October 2023, and is overseen by a newly created Building Safety Regulator as part of the Health and Safety Executive. It governs the design and construction of new higher-risk buildings (HRBs), and the renovation and refurbishment of HRBs that are at least 18 metres high or seven storeys or more, and that contain ‘overnight accommodation’. As Clarion’s Phil Morrison pointed out during our roundtable debate, the diverse nature of the healthcare estate means NHS clients often have buildings they don’t think fall under the Act, but if they are connected to an HRB, then they will be. “Equally, if your building existed before the Act came into play, it can still fall under it – either because it’s connected, or it becomes an HRB when you start refurbishing it. So, if a client is refurbishing a ward or reconfiguring it, then it falls under the Building Safety Act too.”

Ultimately, the Building Safety Act is about widespread behavioural change, reducing safety risks, and driving improved standards. It is imperative that healthcare estate owners and all those involved in their development and delivery understand the increased obligations imposed on them by the Act, and it was for this reason that we convened our roundtable discussion.

The roundtable debate is being reported on in two parts in Health Estate Journal (HEJ), the monthly magazine of professional engineering institute, the Institute of Healthcare  Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM), by the journal’s Editor, Jonathan Ballie, who attended. Part one of the discussion, reported on in the September 2024 HEJ, outlines the kind of buildings covered by the Act, the various Gateways through the planning, design, and construction process – and what each entails – and some of the dangers inherent if the various parties involved in both new-build and refurbishment healthcare projects do not take the correct steps to ensure safety and compliance at the right time. We would advise all parties affected by the Building Safety Act to have a good read. Part two, headlined ‘Timescale issues and a distinct lack of data’, will appear in the October 2024 Health Estate Journal, due for publication around 4 October.

Steve Batson, SGP Studio Director and Sector Lead for Healthcare, says: “The idea behind the roundtable was to ensure that everybody in the healthcare construction and healthcare EFM arena understands what the Building Safety Act entails and what it means for the sector. There is now a clear duty on all professionals operating in the sector to ensure they are ‘competent’ for the work they undertake, and that processes are documented and evidenced, whilst building owners will also need to demonstrate safety at each of three new ‘gateways’. I would like to thank all participating parties for their valuable input, and hope that the discussion goes some way to helping understand the Act and its implications for the healthcare sector.”

Health Estate Journal Building Safety Act Roundtable Part 1: Widespread ignorance on Building Safety Act (healthestatejournal.com)

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