I have recently been asked about BIM and how it works with CDM 2015

So this week we are looking at BIM (Building Information Modeling) and how it should make building safer

We are going to look at BIM and are hoping we can get a discussion going about it on our Facebook page. Some of the questions you may be asking or hopefully be close to answering include:

  • How ready is your business for the new BIM requirements?
  • How easy will it be for us to use?
  • How much do you know about the forthcoming BIM requirements, and how prepared is your business?

These are questions for further discussion and, if there is enough interest, we have a colleague who is willing to come down from Oxford and address a seminar about the benefits of BIM and how to set it up in your practice. For this newsletter we are just looking at the safety aspects.


The two HSE cases this week both look at tragic accidents that shouldn’t have happened

As ever, if you have a subject that you would like us to cover one week, please contact us by phone 01458 253682, email or via our Facebook page or by Twitter.


How will BIM Make Building Safer?How will BIM Make Building Safer?

Do you want to make health and safety easier, quicker and cheaper during your building projects?  Well you’re going to love BIM.

The rapid growth of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is dramatically cutting costs in construction; by 20% and more according to early reports.

But great savings also come from the health and safety benefits; because accidents are costly!  Especially when they lead to fines and lawsuits.  So cut these down, and you cut costs too.

And for this, BIM will help.

Firstly, what is BIM?

Business Information Modelling is the development and implementation of a consistent modelling approach across all sectors of the building and construction industry. The bottom line purpose of this is to save money, with the Government looking to BIM to help cut the construction costs of public sector buildings by 20-30%.

It’s a tool to generate a dynamic digital model of a building project – and more importantly All the data involved – before construction at the design stage.  It increases productivity and efficiency; cutting costs at all stages of building and maintaining the building.

For a detailed introduction to BIM, check out this great post at the NBS: What is BIM.

The computer model created by the design company includes a huge amount of essential information which could provide valuable information to subsequent parties involved in the construction, maintenance or removal of a property. That knowledge could help improve the decision making process, cut costs, cut time, avoid unforeseen problems and improve safety.

How will BIM Make My Building Safer?

Well it is early days yet but we can already see many ways BIM will improve health and safety during the construction process. As well as improving safety it should also make it quicker, cheaper and easier for you to meet health and safety regulations.

Here are the 4 clearest ways BIM will make your building safer:

  • Simulating Potential Hazards and Solutions; Identifying Risks Earlier

With forward thinking you can easily simulate potential hazards.  For example: What are the potential hazards and risks going to be with the use of cranes on site or the need for plant and other vehicles to move through sites.  Especially for the distribution and movement of materials, a major cause of accidents.

With BIM you can model these movements and look at how you can best alter or improve a potential crunch point rather than wait for it to be a problem on site that hadn’t been previously considered.

Many potential hazards can be safely and carefully analysed and worked out with ease, and well-mitigated and planned for beforehand.  All unique to your particular building site!

  • Automatic Checking against Health and Safety Regulations

The BIM Task Group is working to fit all BIM software to safety regulations in the UK; intended for completion by 2016.  Basically, architects and engineers can instantly see if designs comply with the regulations, saving time and money working it out.

For example, the minimum headroom needed on stairwells, the numbers of people who can safely use a building, where fire compartments need to be, etc.  These can all be automatically worked out with your BIM.

There will always be many judgment-based decisions requiring human consideration. Scott Bronrigg with the BIM Task Group estimates 30% of regulations can be incorporated into BIM software.

But that’s still a nice big reduction in what you have to spend time working out.  With the extra advantage of;

  • A Reduction in Human Error

Many incidents are due to human mistakes in judgment, often because they just were not expecting that!  So the more we can consider what could happen, prepare and model, the less likely we are to have any incidents.

  • Better Communication; More Clarity

Sadly, too many incidents are caused by a lack of communication.

BIM can help display the potential hazards throughout the site, and provide clear visual aids to help awareness, memory and understanding. This can be used by the design team to advise the Principal Contractor of hazards and risks that could not be designed out.

It can also be part of the site induction with everyone to discuss what to look out for, and involve them in developing and carrying out the health and safety process.  Of course, nothing beats human face to face communication to explain things.  But any extra tool helps!

Beyond this BIM will just make everything is far clearer and better understood during the entire design and construction process.

Who knows in how many ways this will help your health and safety in the long run?  All we can say for sure is architects and builders using BIM should be making safer sites.

How is BIM influencing the way you plan and run a construction site?

Do you have any more ideas or questions about the implications of BIM for health and safety?

Do you want to learn more about BIM or are you already “au fait” with it and happy to help others?

Please do join in the discussion about it on our Facebook page and as stated earlier, we have a colleague who is willing to come down and address a seminar about BIM

So if you would like us to organise this seminar please get in touch by phone 01458 253682, email or by our Facebook page or Twitter.


We have been shortlisted again!!How will BIM Make Building Safer?

The Wilkins Safety Group has been shortlisted for two APS National CDM Awards again this year http://bit.ly/apsshortlist

This is the 3rd year running we have made the finals.

How will BIM Make Building Safer?

We have once again been shortlisted as finalists for Principal Designer of the Year 2017 and Consultancy of the Year 2017.

Hopefully, in this our 25th Year, we can go one better than the last two years and win the top award but we know that we are yet again taking on the big boys such as:

  • Arcadis, who are a leading global Design & Consultancy firm employing 27,000 people over 70 countries and
  • The Waterman Group which is a multidisciplinary consultancy and part of CTI Engineering, the leading Japanese engineering consultancy.

The APS National CDM Awards are now in their tenth year.   They were started in 2008 to recognise, reward and share outstanding good practice in the Design and Construction Health and Safety Risk Management sector.


Training CoursesTraining room

We are pleased to announce that we have been appointed as a British Safety Council approved Training Centre.

This allows us to run Ofqual accredited qualifications. These Qualifications sit on the Regulated Qualifications Framework and include such courses as

  • the CSCS Green Card which was developed in partnership with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) for people wishing to apply for a CSCS card.
  • Level 2 & 3 Supervising Staff Safely mixed with Risk Assessment which is comparable to IOSH Managing Safely

There are more courses to follow in May and June – See below.

We are also looking to run some short Health and Safety awareness sessions to emphasise the need for improving your H&S procedures.

We do not run open courses during July and August as it clashes with the holiday period but we are available for your “In House” course

Our next batch or courses will start in September 2017

If you have any questions about these courses or any other training or would like us to run a particular course for you, call Jon Wilkins of the Wilkins Safety Group on 01458 253682 or email him