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The Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA), Build UK, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA), the Federation of Piling Specialists (FPS), the Home Builders Federation (HBF), the National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC) and the Scottish Plant Owners Association (SPOA) have teamed up to support the creation of a new umbrella organisation – the Plant Sector Representative Organisation.
The Plant Sector Representative Organisation – or PSRO – has been in the works for more than three years. The project was slowed by the pandemic. It is only now ready to announce its launch onto the world.
The creation of PSRO comes on the back of the fragmentation and collapse of confidence in industry card schemes relating to plant operations after the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) repositioned itself.
The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) identified the need for an employer-led organisation to work with standard setting bodies, such as the CITB, to agree suitable qualifications and any additional sector requirements for use with any card schemes using the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) logo.
It is a requirement of the CLC that any card scheme wishing to bear the CSCS logo must demonstrate that they have the support of industry. When it came to plant operations, there was no ‘industry’, or at least no organisation that could speak for all sides of the industry.
There was also widespread industry concern over the 2018 sale by CITB of the leading plant card scheme, the Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS), to NOCN Group and the proliferation of plant-related card schemes being offered to the construction sector.
Employers told the CPA that it was not clear what the various card schemes were offering, with each having different levels of standards and delivery methods. Employers also said they felt that there should be national minimum technical and delivery standards set by an industry-led body for all card schemes to abide by.
CPA shared the feedback with other relevant associations and federations and this resulted in the incorporation of Plant Sector Representative Organisation Limited (PSRO) in September 2021. Chief executive of PSRO Ltd is Kevin Minton, who is also chief executive of the Construction Plant-hire Association. He is also chair of PSRO .
The principal aim of PSRO Ltd, it says, is to represent the users and owners of construction plant and advise both industry and any relevant authoritative bodies, including the CLC, on the standards required for the training, assessment and certification of plant-based occupations. These occupations include operators, maintenance, installation, inspection, hire, delivery and supporting roles.
Two sub-groups have also been established: a technical review group and a certificating bodies group.
One of the first tasks of the technical review group was the development of a competency framework. This sets out the principles that benchmark competency, including the components that define the requirements for skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours. It is divided into four sections and defines what the principles are for competency and certification by clarifying each learning journey stage, and what the compliance requirements are at those stages for both employers and certificating bodies.
The framework details the compliance requirements for certification bodies, ensuring clarity, transparency and consistency for card schemes that wish to attain CSCS Partner Card Scheme recognition and bear the CSCS logo.
PSRO Ltd has now agreed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the CITB that sets out how the two organisations will work together on the implementation of any relevant requirements of the card scheme criteria.
Kevin Minton said: “Feedback from the sector indicated that respect for card schemes is relatively low in terms of assessment and quality assurance and that the variations amongst the card schemes is causing confusion with employers, who have limited time available to understand them.
“On behalf of the PSRO board members, we’re pleased that the construction sector federations have come together to form the PSRO and are starting to provide overarching solutions to these employer concerns. We also acknowledge the co-operation of CITB and of all the card schemes who have joined the certificating bodies group.
“We’re collectively working together to provide long-term solutions and assurance to the sector and meeting the aim of the PSRO in ensuring the supply of operatives for the plant occupations that possess a level of competence achieved in an efficient and sustainable way.”
For more detail see www.psro.org.uk
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