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Plant Sector Representative Organisation - PSRO
What is the Plant Sector Representative Organisation?
The Plant Sector Representative Organisation (PSRO)* is an employer-led body comprising of representatives from construction-focussed employers and their Federations, Associations and other bodies that have a valid interest including from allied sectors.
Note – The term “employer” is used to include those who have significant and direct control over the work activity of a relevant worker [as per HSWA] and the term ‘certification body’ includes card schemes and awarding organisations.
The PSRO supports the planning and actioning for a sufficient supply of plant operatives and associated occupations; that possess a level of competence that optimises risk management and total cost; who are trained and assessed against an agreed PRSO-devised competency framework that is well defined and understood by employers; which has been arrived at in the most efficient and sustainable way.
The principal aim of the PSRO is to act as the Sector Representative Organisation (SRO) for the construction plant sector and advise industry, relevant authoritative bodies including the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and other relevant parties over the necessary standards required for plant occupational-related training, assessment and certification activities.
The SPOA maintains two chairs on the board of PSRO and a further chair on the technical sub-group.
The PSRO, through its Technical Review Group is developing a PSRO-derived and badged Eco-operating syllabus as an ‘open-source’ programme that will be promoted to industry in support of CarbonZero initiatives. The syllabus will cover emission reduction and fuel saving. This is particularly relevant given the withdrawal of red diesel for the sector from April 2022
Constitution of the PSRO
In fulfilling the role, the PSRO has formed a Board comprising of representatives encompassing major stakeholders as listed below and is hosting both permanent standing and ad-hoc sub-groups to allow meetings of these stakeholders where required through industry initiatives and changes. The PSRO will further consider feedback through various methods from employers, employer representative bodies and other relevant organisations to ensure that industry needs are identified.
The Membership of the PSRO Board will ensure a balanced composition for the representation of both SME and large employers but be limited to major associations or federations representing construction-linked employers directly involved in plant operations including:
- Scottish Plant Owners Association (SPOA)
- Build UK
- Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA)
- Federation Piling Specialists (FPS)
- Home Builders Federation (HBF)
- National Federation Demolition Contractors (NFDC)
- Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA)
The scope of activities under the PSRO Board will be confined to;
- Operation of construction-based plant, equipment and accessories;
- Lifting Operations within the context of construction;
- Installation, maintenance, examination and inspection operations;
- Other relevant hire and supply activities that relate to the safe and efficient use of plant.
Objectives of the PSRO
The objectives of the PSRO include:
- Identify employer needs against plant-based operational practices, including any barriers relating to certification, delivery and skills identification;
- Make recommendations over industry requirements for training, assessment and certification to the CLC Skills Plan and relevant Standard Setting Bodies (SSB);
- Define, in liaison with standard setting bodies and others, frameworks for competency that relate to plant occupation-based standards and certification, including apprenticeships;
- Determine the impact on employers of certification body delivery activities against Government and construction industry initiatives, legislative and national requirements;
- Review and report on certification body and national training and assessment standards against construction industry operational and safety initiatives, legislative requirements, new equipment and changed working methods;
- Provide industry-agreed competency frameworks to guide the development of certification body standards and delivery methods including apprenticeships;
- Advise relevant standard setting bodies and funding agencies on grant and payment support strategy policies for plant-related training, assessment and apprenticeship activities;
- Provide guidance and advice in the event of any compliance issues arising around certification bodies interpretation of PRSO-derived competency frameworks and the practices and standards contained within.
Sub Groups
Permanent-standing Stakeholder sub-groups have been formed to represent the various interests of the construction sector, including a Technical Review Group and a Certification Bodies Group.
The aim of the Technical Review Group is to:
- devise and maintain a competency framework that encompasses the key principles of the CLC Skills Plan and other competency-based publications;
- provide direction, guidance and clarity for employers both to the journey-to-competence' and certification requirements;
- provide a complaince specification for certificating bodies to ensure clarity, transparency and consistency for card schemes bearing the CSCS logo;
- map applicant schemes seeking CSCS logo approval against the framework and other industry-derived requirements.
The certification bodies sub-group provides a platform and voice to the PSRO Board and encourages schemes to work with employers in a bid to support and enhance the skills landscape.