Healthcare Sector and the Building Safety Act Part 2

We are now fully one year on from the introduction of the Building Safety Act 2022. This complex new regime of building safety legislation places additional responsibilities on those who operate and maintain certain buildings, including those within the healthcare and care home sector. Yet, as our previous article (The Healthcare Sector and Building Safety Act) discussed, some concerns remain at the lack of knowledge within the healthcare sector of some of the Act’s key provisions.

For this reason, Stephen George + Partners (SGP) in partnership with Clarion Solicitors organised a roundtable to discuss the implications of the Act for the healthcare sector and the key highlights have been serialised by Health Estate Journal across two separate issues. While the first half our discussion examined the kind of buildings covered by the Act and the various Gateways through the planning, design and construction process, the second part of the debate moved on to focus on subjects such as legal responsibility, the pressures imposed by short project lifecycles in the healthcare sector and, in particular, the potential issues for refurbishment schemes where building data is incomplete.

The latter point is critical if we are to continue to refurbish, extend and maintain the existing healthcare estate. However, our roundtable participants widely noted that NHS Trusts often have little to no existing information on their estate; nor do they often have any information on what’s happened between refurbishments, extensions or alterations. The contractor or a consultant may hold it for them, but there’s no central repository.

In the past, this has often seen refurbishment projects move ahead with predicated assumptions to the point at which ownership of the space is gained and then unforeseen health and safety issues might arise and all the good work on design detail and specification gets put on hold to address the issues encountered on site. Under the more rigorous Building Safety Act, design and intent could be completed and set out through Gateways 1 and 2 of the new regime, but once the space is opened up to discover what’s behind the walls or above the ceilings, not only could the project be severely delayed to deal with the issues, but it could also add significantly to the growing backlog of maintenance costs. Such costs and delays could have a massive impact on deliverability.

Participants at the roundtable considered how we might address the issues of estate-related data. Given the sheer enormity of the NHS estate, would a central data repository to maintain the ‘Golden Thread’ of ownership be beneficial, for instance? Or could a common data environment be linked with the Premises Assurance Model (PAM) and Elimination, Reduction, Isolation, and Control (ERIC)? Taking successful data models from other sectors and applying them to healthcare projects was also considered.

When it came to the issue of liability under the Act, questions were raised about ultimate responsibility given the complex and often fragmented nature of the NHS estate. However, Clarion’s Phil Morrison reminded us that the Building Safety Act 2022 charges everyone with responsibility. “The Building Safety Act can be quite clever, because while the client has the ultimate responsibility, including for appointing other parties, that doesn’t detract from the next person’s responsibility. So you can’t just say: ‘Well, I appointed a designer, or a contractor, I have nothing to do with it subsequently.’ Everybody has a level of responsibility they must comply with.”

Concluding, Steve Batson, SGP Studio Director and Sector Lead for Healthcare, said: “While the Building Safety Act might seem intimidating and onerous to some, it is worth reminding everybody that the legislation is intended to improve the design, construction and management of buildings – including healthcare – and that can only be of benefit to all parties. I would once again like to thank all participating parties to our roundtable for their valuable input. From an awareness and training standpoint within the NHS estate, from Project Managers all the way through to Board Level personnel, I’m hoping some of our discussion will help them on their journey to better understanding the Building Safety Act and the responsibilities placed upon them. I would also urge everybody in the healthcare construction and healthcare EFM arena to take some time to read these articles as the consequences of failing to comply with the Building Safety Act are profound.”

Health Estate Journal Building Safety Act Roundtable:

Part 1: Widespread ignorance on Building Safety Act (healthestatejournal.com)

Part 2: {xxxxx insert link when available xxxxxxxxx insert link when available xxxx}

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