Northumberland County Council is taking its CDM responsibilities very seriously with the recent roll-out of an extensive online training programme from the dedicated www.CDM2007.org portal, developed by London Borough of Bromley.
From an initial commitment to 10 licences spread across the Property and Highways departments, Northumberland CC has extended this to 80 licences providing training not only for the CDM co-ordinators, but also in-house designers, site managers, those with Client duties and Internal Auditors.
Neil Hodgson, Design Office Manager, Highways Division at Northumberland CC, said: “Initially five senior staff in the Highways department, including myself, started the training. I was so impressed that I decided it provided a good level of training for everyone. It is a very flexible programme, allowing each individual to choose the time and place of training to suit our workload and lifestyle.”
CDM2007.org was developed by London Borough of Bromley to provide the tools necessary for construction personnel to meet the government and industry standards redefined by the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007 (CDM2007). It delivers comprehensive modular training and detailed support materials through a dedicated website aimed primarily at local authorities and public service organisations.
“We take CDM compliance very seriously at Northumberland CC,” continued Neil Hodgson. “That is why we have identified www.CDM2007.org as an ideal tool for training and monitoring staff competency and being able to demonstrate it in accordance with the requirements of CDM 2007. The training programme is also a useful mechanism for the continual development of the staff by encouraging them to re-sit modules if issues have arisen during the course of projects, or when something has been raised by our Health & Safety Officers.”
Awareness of the CDM regulations amongst the team at Northumberland CC has increased and improved as a result of the training, which so far has covered Post-Construction, Construction and Client Modules.
Further details on the CDM2007.org project are at www.CDM2007.org