NASC president Sarah Klieve says CISRS served notice on CSCS to seek a resolution “from a stronger negotiation position”, as Build UK tells the scheme the card rules are not meant to keep scaffolders out of other sectors.
CISRS served notice to end its CSCS licence partly to give itself a stronger hand in talks over the industry card rules, according to a member of its board.
In a statement to Scaffmag, Sarah Klieve, President of NASC and a member of the CISRS Board, said the board had faced a choice once it concluded the scheme could not fully comply with the rules.
“We could consult on the non-conformance and risk a 90-day termination or terminate with a long consultation period and seek a resolution from a stronger negotiation position,” she said. “I must stress that it has always been the board’s position to seek change of clause 4.”
Her comments come after Build UK wrote to CISRS saying the rules do not stop scaffolders working outside construction, and after training centres disputed that CISRS had ever been at risk of losing its licence.
The rule at the centre of the row
Clause 4 of the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) Industry Card Schemes rules, issued in March 2024, states: “Cards will not be issued for non-construction related occupations or those visiting sites.”
Klieve said that wording “is incompatible with the issuing of cards for the non-construction work that makes up so much of the scaffolding and access industry.”
“Construction is only one of the sectors to which scaffolding and access are essential: the industry needs a certification scheme that is applicable to all the projects on which scaffolders work and all the places in which they work,” she said.
CISRS has given notice to end its licence to carry the CSCS logo on its cards. CSCS gives the end date as 31 May 2027. CISRS has said it would withdraw the notice if Clause 4 is reworded.
Build UK: no intention to stop cross-sector work
Build UK chair Paul Brown set out his organisation’s position in a letter to CISRS and NASC group chief executive Clive Dickin, dated 23 September and published on Build UK’s website.
“There is no intention to prevent scaffolding occupations from working in sectors other than construction,” Brown wrote.
He added that he was “aware that the CLC has clarified the intent behind point 4 of the recommendation and, along with Unite the Union, has reaffirmed its commitment to the recommendation.”
Build UK says it will work with CSCS, the CLC and others to make sure cards carrying the CSCS logo remain available for scaffolding occupations. Brown offered to meet Dickin and the chair of CISRS and NASC “to discuss the options available to CISRS going forward.”
The CLC’s clarification has not been published.
Training centres dispute “termination risk”
The Scaffolding Training Alliance (STA), an informal association of principals from CISRS-accredited training centres, has challenged the reasons CISRS has given for leaving.
At the CISRS webinar on 22 September, CISRS said its legal advice had found a risk of the licence being ended with only 90 days’ notice.
In a “fact check” published on 28 September, the STA said: “There had been no threat of termination. The 90-day period is simply the standard notice period within the affiliate agreement.”
Klieve’s statement describes the 90-day risk as something that could follow if CISRS consulted on its non-conformance. It does not say CSCS had threatened to end the licence.
The STA also questioned how CISRS measured the scale of the problem. CISRS surveyed the 20 largest NASC members, which the STA calls around 2% of a membership of about 900.
“NASC has created a perceived problem that does not exist,” the STA said.
The STA is calling on CISRS to publish its legal advice or a summary of it, disclose its “Project Realign” strategy in full, re-run the webinar with every question visible, issue written guidance on site access and card validity, and consult formally with scaffolders, employers, contractors and training centres.
“No intention of diluting the CISRS standards”
Klieve said CISRS was “working with a range of stakeholders to try to find a solution to this issue that is acceptable to all parties”. She said it wanted to remove “the prospect of scaffolders having to carry multiple cards and companies having to put systems in place to recognise them.”
“There is absolutely no intention of diluting the CISRS standards or opening work in access and scaffolding to people without industry-recognised qualifications,” she said.
She described much of the reaction as “ill-founded speculation and rumour”, and said the board’s “only intention has been to protect the interests of all card-holding scaffolders and the scaffolding companies that employ them.”
The statement did not say whether CISRS has accepted Build UK’s offer of a meeting, whether the CLC’s clarification resolves its concerns, or whether it will publish its legal advice.
Why it matters
Build UK’s Training Standard says workers in construction occupations need a card carrying the CSCS logo, and that standard has not changed. Unless CISRS withdraws its notice, new and renewed CISRS cards issued after the licence ends will not carry the logo.
Build UK’s letter does not say whether its members would accept those cards. It does say the card rules are not meant to stop scaffolders working across sectors, which is the problem CISRS says it is trying to solve.
Existing CISRS cards with the CSCS logo remain valid until they expire.
CISRS and NASC will hold a second webinar on the subject at 10am on 8 October. Registration is open on the NASC website.
