Guest Post: The Most Successful Of All Competent Persons Schemes

Someone has been kind enough to write another guest post to mark this site's second birthday! This one is from Letitia J Smith:

The most successful of all Competent Person’s Schemes by Sheit Lan Man, FENSA

Now we at FENSA are not ones to boast, but we did just want to let you know about a report by the Communities and Local Government which considered FENSA to be one of the most successful Competent Persons schemes to date across the UK.

Self certification schemes were introduced by Government in 2002 under the Building Regulations. The report, which can be found here, was made a year on in 2003 and found that FENSA is making a significant contribution to compliance with building regulations.

So how do FENSA ensure compliance? Well firstly every installation by a FENSA company has to be notified, and then a proportion of all jobs are inspected for compliance. Secondly, FENSA provide technical seminars, a technical Guidebook (revised issue being published soon) and a helpline to help installers stay up to date with compliance changes to the building regulations. In the report, FENSA was found to be the most successful of the 4 compliance schemes looked at.

Since that report in 2003, over 9000 companies are now registered FENSA Fitters. FENSA registered businesses who are undertaking consumer-facing, domestic contracts must be registered with an Insurance Backed Guarantee (IBG) provider. IBG’s provide added protection to the home owner should the installation company cease to trade and be unable to honor the terms of their own guarantee.

The FENSA Fitters are a major part of the glazing industry and FENSA is always looking for ways to improve the industry, and the work of FENSA further. A key way that we do this is through our focus groups, where we invite fitters to have their say with FENSA. Focus research groups are organised annually to help us better understand fitter’s views and perceptions on the industry, and the next on is on Thursday 17^th March in Manchester. During previous focus groups, installers have requested for help with saving money on petrol and last minute purchases from DIY stores. Subsequently FENSA has negotiated an exclusive deal with B&Q and developed a fuel discount card for its Registered Business. If you would like to attend the next event, please email sman@fensa.org.uk or telephone 020 7645 3715.  

Thanks Letitia!