Category Archives: Compliance

Mosaic App Articles and Blogs on Compliance

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The importance of Document Management for Construction Safety

Good document management is a critical element of construction safety and being able to demonstrate compliance with Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM2015) ). Failure to manage your documentation throughout the construction process can introduce risk into your project and ultimately result in serious injury or death, and prosecution

What does CDM2015 require?

CDM2015 states that there should be suitable arrangements in place for managing a project. These arrangements should ensure that all construction documents are managed in a controlled and systematic way so that the right information is available to the right people at the right time.

This may include the identification, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information. The aim is to ensure that construction designers and workers have access to the information they need to work safely.

Document management is essential for construction safety because it helps to control the flow of information. By managing documents effectively, designers and construction workers can be sure that they are working with the most up-to-date information.

It is important to ensure that you consider all elements of a construction project and the documents that might be required to comply with CDM2015.

How Document Management helps with Construction Safety

Construction Design Management is a critical part of construction safety. To comply with CDM2015 it is recommended that all construction companies have a document management system in place to ensure the safety of their workers. This system helps to track and manage all of the documents related to the design of a construction project as it relates to safety, including pre-construction information, safety plans, hazard assessments, and worksite inspections. By having a central location for all of these documents, construction companies can more easily ensure that their workers have the information they need to stay safe on the job. Additionally, online document management systems can help to streamline the construction safety process by automating tasks such as document creation and approvals.

By keeping track of documents, construction safety managers can ensure that everyone on site is following the correct procedures and that any potential hazards are identified and dealt with quickly. In short, document management is an essential part of construction safety and should not be overlooked.

How does Mosaic help?

Mosaic provides an online collaboration tool for the design team to collectively provide the information needed to complete the Pre-Construction Information packs (PCI), the Health & Safety File (H&S File), and the Risk Register, 3 of the essential outputs of CDM2015.

Mosaic includes a PCI and H&S File Framework, giving you a comprehensive list of all the documents that may be required on a Construction Project, giving the Principal Designer the option to include or exclude documents on a project-by-project basis. Mosaic also generates a Risk Register from the output of Mosaic’s unique Hazard Assessment and Risk Identification wizard (HARI). Every designer on the project is required by Mosaic to complete the HARI, giving a complete picture of the Risks on that project, and ensuring everyone has considered every risk possible.

If you are keen to improve your CDM output on your Construction Projects, and produce compliant PCI and H&S documentation, give Mosaic a try with our free 30 day trial, our clients never look back, 100% of our users have stayed with us, not many apps can say that!

www.mosaic-app.com/sign-up

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Maintaining CDM 2015 Compliance while Unable to Meet Your Design Team due to COVID19

Unfortunately, a principal designer cannot safely organize design meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the designer still has to undertake design risk management and provide health & safety information. Most importantly, the principal designer must coordinate the flow of all this information with their team and the client, to comply with the requirements of CDM 2015.

This demands a remote remedy. For instance, Mosaic’s cloud-based app solves your collaboration and document management needs during this era of social distancing. And even after the COVID-19 pandemic, it will continue to be an essential resource. Apart from simplifying your coordination responsibilities, the app saves your time. Let’s see how this is possible.

 

Providing Pre-construction Information

The CDM regulations 2015 require the Principal Designer to plan, manage and monitor H&S during the pre-construction phase and this includes managing design risks. Again, it demands that you assess health & safety standards and provide information to the project stakeholders during the pre-construction phase.

“The right information to the right people at the right time”

Mosaic’s proprietary HARI tool allows you to identify hazards and risks. This you can do via the application’s online Hazard Assessment and Risk Identification questionnaire. Again, you can create a comprehensive workflow amongst your design team through collaborative risk assessment.

Mosaic App enables you to:

  • Identify risks
  • Eliminate the risks
  • Comment on the risks
  • Upload safety documents
  • Produce risk registers

Additionally, the Mosaic app enables you to add essential Health and Safety information. Through the app, you can provide your design team with files for both the Pre-Construction Information and the Health & Safety File.

Mosaic App enables you to:

  • produce document checklists for PCI and H&S Files
  • Prompt users via automated reminders
  • Produce easily navigable folder structures
  • assign document responsibility to individuals

 

Coordinate Your Project Team

In as much as COVID-19 restricts your physical design team meetings, you can comfortably guide the team remotely via the Mosaic app, and host your team meetings via conference software such as Zoom. Project Team members can all have access to Mosaic, there is no limit to the number of collaborators you can invite in. Everyone can have their input and be provided access to the information being collated, providing an essential, open and informative tool. You can collect the right data, serve your client while providing resources to other designers and every stakeholder on the project.

Mosaic are currently running a Beta version of the app which enables you to run multiple projects free of charge. The app allows you to:

  • control all your design responsibilities from one place, across multiple projects;
  • invite collaborators to join the project directory and provide input;
  • keep everyone informed throughout the pre-construction phase;
  • create informative Risk Registers and PCI files for interested parties, i.e. Principal Contractors.

CDM 2015 requires you to prepare, update as well as revise safety documents. Forget about unnecessary meetings and tedious excel spreadsheet preparations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Mosaic app lets all project stakeholders:

  • Create instant and comprehensive reports on health and safety status
  • Access a PCI and H&S file exporter. You can access these through one-click of a button
  • View all actions taken by other collaborators via the audit log
  • Get access to the latest versions of essential project files any time

Through the features mentioned above, Mosaic enables the Principal Designer to oversee decisions that affect the construction design. Apart from the availability of checklists and workflows, the app saves your time. With one-click reports and one-click email reminders, you won’t spend hours providing status updates and chasing up the project team.

Equally, you can avoid lengthy travel up and down the country to site meetings, even when not on lockdown. Via the app’s automatic generated reports and email reminders, you can send your project stakeholders personalised reminders informing them of information they are required to provide, and fully detailed status reports to inform the project meetings.

 

Conclusion

Although the COVID-19 pandemic restricts face to face meetings, you can still accomplish your CDM 2015 compliance. As a principal designer, you can remotely manage your design team.

Through the Mosaic app, you can discharge your CDM duties by identifying hazards and risks, providing pre-construction information, and health and safety files as well as overseeing designs.

Lastly, the app saves your time by allowing all project team members to instantly access risk registers, the PCI, and the H&S file. Sign up for the app FREE today to enjoy unlimited resources during lockdown!!

The real cost of neglecting principal design on building extensions

Fines for not following health and safety in construction can go into the hundreds of thousands of pounds even if there is no accident, but when extending a building there is the added complication of current inhabitants.

The new Construction Design Management Regulations (CDM) were put into place in 2015 and enforced a greater emphasis on accountability from the conception stage all the way through to the finalization of a project, yet there have been a number of high profile cases where workers and members of the public have been put at risk since then.

In early 2016 concerns were raised about the lack of health and safety controls at a large timber frame extension being built onto a residential home in Exmouth.  Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive visited the site and found a number of health and safety breaches, including uncontrolled high-risk activities that put workers at risk of death, serious injuries or ill health. This included falls from height, fire, slips and trips and badly controlled wood dust.

Perhaps worse, as this was an extension there were inhabitants still at the premises, so 80 physically and/or mentally impaired residents were put at risk due to the possibility of fire spreading into the home.

Unsurprisingly the construction company involved were fined, but more significantly for this purpose so were the architects involved, as the legally responsible Principal Designer on the project.  Whilst they were involved in the design of the building and not the actual building of it, the responsibility of health and safety is now spread much further than just a supervisor on-site with a clipboard tick list.

How a principal designer reduces the risks

Architects taking on the role of principal designer might make them more responsible and liable, but it also gives them more control.  In setting the standards in health and safety at the design stage they not only reduce the risk of fines or worse, injury or loss of life, but they also set the standard expected by those involved.

The real cost may seem monetary and this number would no doubt have been so much higher if someone had been injured or killed.  In fact, the real cost is ethical.  In this example, very vulnerable members of the public were at risk but even in an event where members of the public aren’t involved, more vulnerable team members such as apprentices and trainees could be at risk if standards aren’t maintained.