Situation
Housing association Gentoo engaged safety case expert Adelard, part of NCC Group, to help develop a pilot safety case for one of their high-rise buildings in line with new obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022.
The Act, adopted following the tragic events at the Grenfell Tower and subsequent investigation and recommendations, introduced a new safety case requirement for higher-risk residential buildings, prompting their owners to assess and manage safety more holistically and stringently and, in turn, ensure safer outcomes for residents.
The notion of a safety case is novel to the housing sector. However, Adelard's team has decades of experience in the research, development, and consultancy of safety and assurance cases required in other safety-critical industries such as defense, transport, nuclear, and medical. Adelard's ASCE software – the Assurance and Safety Case Environment – was designed to create and manage safety cases.
At a Glance
Organization: Gentoo Group
Industry: Housing
Challenge: To develop new capabilities and expertise internally within Gentoo's fire and building safety team to build and maintain safety cases for HRBs.
Solution: Adelard worked with Gentoo on a pilot project dedicated to their specific HRB and has transferred knowledge and advice about safety case development and maintenance. ASCE software supported the project, which was used to create the building's safety case applying Claims-Arguments-Evidence (CAE) notation.
Result: Gentoo was able to prepare its first safety case report for the subject high-rise building and gained valuable knowledge and skills to develop and maintain safety cases independently in the future.
Challenge
Historically, safety management systems in the housing sector have tended to be compliance-oriented; for example, compliance with gas, asbestos, fire, and structural safety are all separate elements. This can give rise to a siloed approach to building safety where it is hard to understand the overall risk picture and what control measures were in place to reduce risk across the disciplines.
New regulatory requirements demand significant mindset change and urge building owners to start viewing their buildings as complex holistic systems whose safety depends not only on the building design features but also on a range of stakeholders who interact with it, including residents, maintenance contractors, and landlord services.
Gentoo Group embraced these challenges and has sought to develop new skills and capabilities within their team, aiming to transcend mere compliance in building safety management towards a more holistic safety case approach. As a first step, Gentoo's safety team proactively gathered the Golden Thread information about their buildings, which consisted of various evidence such as surveys, safety management policies, and the creation of 3D building models.
To make the best use of this evidence, Gentoo's safety team looked to develop its capability to build and maintain safety cases based on established methodology and good practice.
Solution
Gentoo Group collaborated with Adelard on a pilot project for a specific higher-risk building project in the Sunderland area. The project aimed to develop Gentoo's own safety case capabilities within their building safety team, evaluate the use of the ASCE safety case tool, and prepare a broader programme of work and roadmap for safety case adoption.
Adelard's consultants worked in a mentoring role during this pilot project and transferred knowledge and advice through a series of workshops, training, and consulting sessions.
Underpinning the process was Adelard's software ASCE, which acted as an integrated project tool and was used to create structured safety arguments applying the Claims-Arguments-Evidence (CAE) notation. ASCE provided a graphical view of the overall safety case, presenting the safety argument of the building together with its supporting evidence.
Adelard provided Gentoo with a high-level structured argument in the form of an ASCE template, allowing Gentoo to tailor the structured argument to their unique circumstances and start incorporating their evidence in support of the safety argument. Using ASCE facilitated an easy collaboration between Gentoo's team and enabled the comprehensive and fluid management of high-volume building data in one place.
With ASCE's visual safety case "map" with colour coding highlighting areas of concern, the safety team could readily see which parts of the case were successfully developed and where there were any gaps requiring additional information or further evidence. This aided Gentoo's ongoing safety management planning and efficient effort allocation. In addition, ASCE facilitated the smooth preparation of project documentation with its export feature, allowing the creation of safety case reports within minutes.
As part of the project, a Hazard Identification (Hazid) study was conducted by bringing together Gentoo's multi-disciplined team of fire, building, structural, health, and safety professionals along with Adelard's consulting team. A Hazid study is a structured approach for identifying potential hazards using a set of what-if scenarios based on a series of known types of failure collated by the Building Safety Regulator.
A risk register was developed from the study's findings to record any potential building hazards and the corresponding control measures in place to mitigate risks.
Result
Gentoo prepared its first safety case report for the subject high-rise building, providing a structured overview of the preventive and protective measures in place to ensure the building's safety. Furthermore, Gentoo's team developed crucial knowledge and skills through this joint work, empowering them to develop and maintain safety cases going forward independently.
Gentoo also adopted ASCE software, which will enable them to maintain safety cases as living documents tracking changes throughout the lifecycle of each building, thus ensuring continuous robust safety management and readiness for regulatory reviews.
"Gentoo is using the ASCE software to develop safety cases for our high-rise residential buildings. The safety case can be easily updated and summarised to produce the safety case report when required to be submitted to the Building Safety Regulator.
Utilising the ASCE solution and having the support of the Adelard consultancy has meant that the group has a consistent and structured approach to developing and managing its safety cases. This ensures they are accessible, accurate, and up-to-date so we can comply with our requirements under the Building Safety Act.
By adopting the ASCE solution and the claim, argument, evidence model, this has future proofed the development of our safety cases. It ensures we take a thorough and consistent approach to the development of our safety cases and safety case reports. It allows us to develop building-specific safety cases whilst ensuring we can create and maintain these across our portfolio of high-rise residential buildings.
The added benefit has been that the safety case can be hyperlinked to related documentation such as survey reports, risk assessments, and the building safety management system, therefore providing comprehensive and efficient access to evidence which demonstrates how each building is safe for our customers to occupy."
About Gentoo Group
Gentoo Group is a housing association that provides homes for more than 60000 people. We are a values-led organisation with a clear vision, a social purpose, and a commitment to invest in people, place, and property.
We believe everyone has the right to live in a good quality home they can afford. We invest millions of pounds every year to keep our existing homes safe and decent.
We also play our part in helping to deal with the UK housing crisis locally by building hundreds of new, modern homes for rent in Sunderland. Homes that meet the needs of local people.
Not only do we provide vital housing, but we also support our customers and communities by investing in services that help people live their best possible lives.
This includes helping and supporting:
• People back into work
• Vulnerable customers
• People affected by domestic abuse, antisocial behaviour, hate crime, and hate incidents
• Young people to live independently
• All customers and leaseholders to improve their wellbeing
About Adelard
Adelard, part of NCC Group, is a product and services practice supporting clients in safety, dependability, security, and risk management. Our applied research programme enables us to bring cutting-edge techniques and methods to bear to solve our clients' difficult problems.
We add value by enabling our clients across industry sectors to:
• Efficiently develop, communicate, and maintain safety and assurance cases. This process is supported by our ASCE software solution.
• Have confidence in the status of safety and related compliance evidence.
• Respond to regulatory change and manage reputational risk.
Discover how we can help your safety team
We offer a range of services dedicated to supporting housing safety teams through every step of their safety case journey. Contact us today to book a free safety case consultation with one of our experts.