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Construction Skills Certification Scheme

What is the Construction Skills Certification Scheme?

• The Construction Skills Certification Scheme was established in 1995 with the primary objective of improving health and safety in the construction industry. It is a voluntary scheme but is increasingly being adopted by client organisations, and reputable contractors, as the primary means of ensuring that those on site have a basic grounding in health and safety issues.
• More information is available on the CSCS website at [www.cscs.uk.com].

How does the scheme affects architects?

• When the scheme is in operation on a construction site, architects will require an appropriate CSCS card before being allowed to visit the site.
• One of the three types of Yellow Card will generally be required for architects who are not resident on site:
• Regular Visitor Card.
• Professionally Qualified Person (PQP) Card.
• Professionally Qualified Person with Design (PQPD) Card. It is not immediately apparent from the CSCS website that there are two versions of the PQP card, although the two options are shown in Section A3 of the application form which refers to two slightly different Health and Safety Tests.
• There appears to be no authoritative guidance on which is the most appropriate card for non-resident architects, with some practices opting for the Regular Visitor Card and others for one of the PQP Cards. As the Regular Visitor Card is cheaper and easier to obtain, most architects seem to be opting for this Card unless specifically required to obtain one of the PQP Cards.

Does the CSCS Card replace site safety induction training?

• In general, where sites operate a CSCS Card scheme, possession of the appropriate card is necessary before those who visit the site can receive the site-specific induction training.
• Contractors who manage their sites in this way work on the basis that the CSCS training provides a basic grounding in site health and safety which is then "topped-up" by further site-specific training applicable to the site to be visited.

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