Posted By David Wyatt I am currently undertaking an Undergraduate Degree in Building Surveying at Sheffield Hallam University. In fulfilment of this course, I am required to research a topic area and produce a dissertation. The topic I have chosen to look at is 'An Investigation into the role and duties of a CDM Co-ordinator under the CDM 2007 regulations'. I would be very much grateful if anyone would be able to spare a few minutes of their time to complete my questionnaire via the web link provided below and if possible help me in distributing the questionnaire to fellow CDM Coordinators. http://www.surveymonkey....OhScVEZG0X_2b6NFOA_3d_3d Thank you

Posted By NJS Done. good luck, i thought my dissertation was going to kill me.

Posted By Ciaran McAleenan Hello David Good luck with your dissertation. I note in your survey you ask about membership of APS. You should explore the Institution of Civil Engineers - Construction Health, Safety and Welfare Register. You can get a list of the members of this register and the companies on the ICE website; http://www.ice.org.uk/jo...ng_specialist_lists4.asp http://www.ice.org.uk/jo...ng_specialist_lists2.asp Best wishes Ciaran ICE - Construction H&S Registered

Posted By David Wyatt Thanks for the help from people in filling in my questionnaire, its very much appreciated. To outline the aim of my dissertation is to investigate the role and function of a CDM co-ordinator and how the role has evolved from the role of the Planning supervisor and to view how the change of role and title has impacted upon the health and safety on the construction site for a given project. Any sort of input is welcome in the completion of my dissertation. Regards David

Posted By JasonGould In this day and age most new construction projects should be very straight forward with few significant things to worry about if and this would be further improved only if the CDMC was involved and actively consulted at stage B by the lead designer e.g. given the basic drawings and went through them together to look at the issues at hand. By saying this, I mean, designers appear to spend most of their time gathering information for the planning application and in some cases, they see everything else as a hindrance to that one goal. They try to play round the CDM aspects and are perfectly happy with the numnut CDMC's that play the send the letter game and hide throughout the project. Not so happy with the ones that correct them on their actions and even slapping their own plan of works in their faces to show where the interactions should be. Personally, I would be a happier CDMC if they would just follow their own plan of works! They hate it if a CDMC plans separate meetings and feel this is a waste of time in many cases and avoid the issue of what is considered a effective design review in relation to h&S matters,(How many times do we here the saying "we will sort that in detailed stage" Stage B input from the cdmc often gets bi passed and then they try to whizz through stage C. The CDMC eventually cops on and then brings up the issues that were supposed to have been addressed earlier on, OMG they say, "you cant make us do that now as it will need to go through planning and you need to explain to the client". How often as CDMC;s heard that line. I do however feel things could improve if it was a condition of planning to produce some form of CDM progress report that is signed by both designers and CDMC of which required some considered input from all parties. Unfortunately as it stands today the planning applications cannot demand such a thing so it is left to the persuasion powers of the CDMC as he has no real bite in his role and in many cases, is not really that fully supported by the companies whom employ them. This is only the typical problems of a new build and does not cover the more difficult areas of refurbishments etc and lower priced scale works. The decent CDMC companies are being outbid by the cowboys whom will just send the basic letters etc and thus even when the decent cdmc gets the work, he does not really have the resources to do the job properly so you get half baked efforts due to his original underpricing. Personally, I would support compulsory design reviews in which reports were required describing how design risk managemnt was applied for that project. I am sure that when people need to sign such things off with their signature, it makes them do a slightly better job than when they don't. This was not just a rant at the designers here, the CDMC'S have a lot to explain for in the sense that many still just want to sit at their PC's and send out various "you must do this and do that rather than being part of the team. A message for clients is to ensure your CDMC are given the support to get what they need from a project e.g. by demanding design reviews and officially asking the CDMC practices about their thoughts on design risk management on their projects.

Posted By David Wyatt No that's fine Fiona, the more input the better. Hope yours is going a bit better than mine at the moment. The best source really is going out and asking people in the know, due to the relatively new introduction of the CDM-C. Thanks for everyone's input so far, it's helped a great deal. Regards David

Posted By colin1936 Just reading this and in response to Jasons comments on the role. I agree with what Jason has said but the sad fact is that until a Client is prosecuted for not supporting the cdm-c or bringing him in at the right stage (b) then i am afraid the role of the cdm-c is watered down. Quite rightly said when cdm-c eventually see drawings it is often too late to change. In this economic climate with the big retail shops im sure you know who i mean asking suppliers to cut costs by 50% something has to give and i am afraid it is often consultants input to projects. You may be interested to know i raised this issue with the HSE at a northern regional meeting, they are aware of the pressures being put on cdm- c consultancy companies and are looking into it. Alas nothing much will change untill clients/ designers/ consultancy are prosecuted and the whole process reviewed. I feel that some of the major consultnacy are relying on cdm-c to do long hours well above the working time directive to make frameworks pay. its time cdm-c and conslutancy's stood their ground puting in propper fees not holding my breath that this will happen soon.