Chartered Quality Institute responds to Chartered Institute of Building draft Code of Quality Management

The Code aims to highlight quality issues across construction processes and offer guidance on current best practice. It brings together information which is currently in the public domain to help project teams establish quality management processes.

CIOB opened a consultation on the draft code inviting views from those involved in the construction industry. Announcing the consultation on the Code as a parliamentary reception in December 2018, Paul Nash FCIOB, Chairman of the Construction Quality Commission, said:

“Quality, or rather the failure of quality, is arguably the most important issue facing the construction industry today. Our research identified … an underlying cultural issue in the industry. Quality was being sacrificed to achieve targets.”

CQI Policy - Response to CIOB Code of Quality Management Consultation

Responding to the CIOB Code of Quality Management Consultation, CQI Chief Executive Office Vince Desmond said;

“The CQI supports the growing realisation that quality management will provide the solution to the waste and product safety issues that have been exposed in the sector in recent years.”

The CQI Construction Special Interest Group (ConSIG) already supports the ICE Get-It-Right initiative, which focuses on reducing waste in the sector which accounts for between 5% and 20% of project cost.

Indeed, we may draw parallels with the 2008 Lord Darzi Review of Health and Care which included as point seven in its recommended ten-point plan ‘revitalising quality as the organising principle’ to improve safety, effectiveness and efficiency.

The concept is correct; however, the secret is in implementation. Quality management, like any other discipline, requires the expertise of competent professionals to develop and drive programmes of change and help develop competence and culture within the whole organisation.

Estelle Clark, CQI policy director, said:

“The CQI provides these qualified quality professionals and we emphasise that the construction sector will only see effective implementation of, and sustained improvement from, quality management programmes by working with these professionals.

“Therefore, we are encouraged that bodies, such as the CIOB, are proactively working with the CQI in this area.”

Code of Quality Management Consultation

The summary response from the CQI is:

• The CQI supports the intent of the initiative.
• The problem is well defined in the document.
• The document does not read as a code and the concept requires further development work from the technical, commercial and stakeholder buy-in points of view.

Jon Adshead, Chair of the CQI Construction Special Interest Group, said:

“The CQI and its construction special interest group (ConSIG) offer their support as a partner in shaping the CIOB concept, noting also that good practice and experience can be learned from other sectors represented in the CQI’s industry wide scope.”

The draft version of the Code is on the CIOB website [https://www.ciob.org/campaigns/construction-quality-commission] and remains open for consultation until 17:00 GMT on Friday 29 March 2019

The full CQI response to the CIOB draft Code for Quality Management may be viewed below.

Established in 1919 and with 20,000 members, the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) is the chartered body for quality professionals. We work to advance the practice of quality management in all sectors, improving the performance of organisations by developing their capability in quality management. The CQI defines the standards for the quality profession through the CQI Competence Framework, encompassing the whole quality community from nuclear to pharmaceutical and construction to healthcare.

The CQI ConSIG is as representative group of quality professionals within the construction industry. Its purpose is to advance quality and improvement in the construction industry by:

• representing the interests of quality professionals in the construction sector
• providing a network to share best practice and benchmarking of quality management practices
• defining quality competence and developing a Body of Construction Quality Knowledge
• supporting the professional development of quality practitioners working in construction
• providing insight and subject matter expertise on matters pertaining to quality in the construction industry

The group offers its 1,400 contruction focussed members professional development while also serving to represent the interests of quality professionals in the construction sector through collbaboration with peer organisations in the built environment, including the ICE and Get-it-Right intiative.

For any enquiries, please contact Alexander Woods, Policy Manager ([email protected]).