It’s easy to make comparisons between a ceiling collapse in a historic building especially when they both occur in a theatre during a performance, but the collapse at the Piccadilly Theatre in November and the Apollo theatre in 2013 are markedly different.

The failure of the fibrous ceiling at the Apollo Theatre galvanised the theatre owners and managers to look again the condition of all the ceilings and worked with the FIS Heritage and Fibrous Plastering Working Group to develop methodologies to carry out structured inspections and reports following robust competency checks.

It appears that ‘The Piccadilly Theatre incident was caused by a sudden very large influx of water from ventilation contractors working on the exterior roof in the morning’, according to Mark White, Communications and Publication Committee Chairman of the Association of British Theatre Technicians. He added  ‘This water flooded the inside of the building, running down the stairs etc and the staff embarked on a massive cleanup operation to get the theatre more or less dry to admit the public that evening to a very popular show. They did not realise that some of the water had escaped into the ceiling void as none was visible during the day. Audience members reported the drips starting just before the show and the plasterboard came in about 40 minutes after curtain up.’

FIS Heritage and Fibrous Plastering Working Group Chair Jon Riley added: ‘Whilst not knowing anything about this particular theatre or ceiling, it does underline the importance of the recent Historic England Guidance, endorsed by FIS, ABTT, Theatres Trust, Historic Environment Scotland, Department of Communities & Cadw. A copy of this can be found on https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/technical-advice/buildings/inspection-and-maintenance-of-fibrous-plaster-ceilings/

Theatre managers and owners wishing to have an inspection carried out are encouraged to use a vetted FIS member and commission the report in accordance with these process notes.

A £1.9m support package for apprenticeships has been introduced in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. 186 small businesses have received grants of £3,000 to help create new apprenticeship opportunities via Greater Manchester’s #SeeDifferent Small-to-Medium Enterprise Apprentice Support package, offering additional incentives to smaller employers and helping to remove barriers that may prevent them from creating apprenticeship opportunities.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “This support package has already created a substantial number of opportunities for residents in the city-region and we hope to create even more as we move forward.

“Apprenticeships are crucial in bridging the skills gap and creating good quality employment opportunities which boost productivity. It’s vital that we continue to remove the barriers and make job opportunities in the city-region feel accessible to Greater Manchester residents, both young and old.”

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) commissioned the Growth Company to develop and deliver an online apprenticeship Levy Matchmaking Service that ensures as many levy payers as possible transfer unspent funds to non-levy payers – negating the need for them to pay 5% co-investment costs. Since the launch, in August 2019, over £2 million has been committed by Greater Manchester’s apprenticeship levy payers which could support over 300 apprenticeships.

Large businesses are encouraged to pledge their unspent levy to the matchmaking service and can do so by visiting the Levy Matchmaking Service website.

Councillor Sean Fielding, Leader of Oldham Council and GMCA lead for Education and Skills said: “These results show just how important apprenticeships are to the city-region and that we are doing everything we can to help businesses make the most of them.”

“Improving the quality and growth of apprenticeships is a fantastic way to get people into work, allowing them to have the support they need to enter and sustain employment and with the chance to up-skill and progress in their careers. Apprenticeships are an excellent route for anyone looking to start, change or develop their careers.”

Work has been carried out to deliver the Stimulating Employer Demand for Apprenticeships (SEDA) project which has provided 515 workforce development plans that have been implemented across the city-region. The plans aim to highlight any skills gaps or need for upskilling across businesses, then decide how to access training for existing staff or recruit new staff using the apprenticeship model and taking advantage to the funding available to them.

GMCA is continuously working to improve the quality and grow the numbers of apprenticeships in Greater Manchester with approximately 22,250 apprenticeships started in 2018/19.

Guidance and links that you need to ensure that you are complying with the building regulations.

Regulation 38 is a requirement under Building Regulations to provide critical fire safety information to the ‘responsible person’ at the point of first occupation or completion of the project in buildings other than dwelling houses yet is often forgotten. It applies where building work consists of a building where the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies, which covers most if not all the work in the fit-out sector.

This technical note will provide you with the guidance and links that you need to ensure that you are complying with the building regulations.

Please email FIS Technical Director joecilia@thefis.org  if you have any questions.

To address the largest number of questions we receive about the quality finish of plastering and drylining, we have produced the a technical note titled: How to improve the quality of internal finishes.

 The key points to remember are

• Start with the specification
• Produce an achievable benchmark that is agreed by everyone and kept available for the duration of the project.
• Ensure that the task lighting replicates the lighting including natural lighting that will be apparent in the finished work
• Inspect the work from the centre of a room or minimum of 2mm from the wall without washing the wall with lights.

Please email FIS Technical Director JoeCilia@thefis.org if you have any questions.

‘Look Beyond’ has been announced as the theme for the 13th annual National Apprenticeship Week 2020 (the Week, NAW2020), taking place from 3 to 7 February 2020.  The week is run by the National Apprenticeship Service.  The ‘Look Beyond’ themed week will celebrate the diversity and value that apprenticeships bring to employers, apprentices and communities across England today. From highlighting the breadth of industries and roles available to the talent and energy apprentices bring into the workplace.

We urge all FIS Members and Approved Training Providers to let us know about any plans they have for the week and refer any stories/case studies that could help to promote the sector to the FIS team via info@thefis.org or call us on 0121 707 0077 so that we can incorporate into our activities. 

We have established an FIS Apprenticeship hub on our new website here that we will be developing in the run-up to the week.

Approaching seven million workdays are lost in the UK due to Musculoskeletal Disorders every year with construction topping the naughty list. To combat this, The Health in Construction Leadership Group has set out its stall for 2020 with a plan to reduce musculoskeletal disorder in the sector. A specialist taskforce has been set up to look specifically at plasterboard ingress and this is to be chaired by FIS Technical Director Joe Cilia.

The Health in Construction Leadership Group (HCLG) was formed in 2014 after a challenge from the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Construction Industry Advisory Committee (ConIAC) for the industry to do more to ‘Think Health’ and responding to the influence of ‘Construction 2025’, the Industry Strategy for Construction. The group is comprised of contractors, clients, HSE, professional bodies, trade associations and trade unions.

The taskforce is building on existing best practice guidance, but vitally also looking at the health and economic case for improvements in occupational health and how the supply chain can collaborate more effectively to understand the long term implications of poor sequencing and site lay-out and how designers can factor this thinking into their CDM responsibilities.

Work is being broken down into sections on Planning, Supply and Distribution, Delivery and Offloading, Storage, Vertical Movement, Horizontal Movement, Storage at Point of Installation, the Installation Operation itself, Storage of Off-cuts and Removal and Egress of Waste.

Joe Cilia stated “our aim is to develop a seminal report that will give us a roadmap to improve safety at each stage in the construction process, from procurement through to waste removal. In so doing we will reduce the risk of injury and improve productivity and working conditions for operatives on site. To achieve this we have brought together the supply chain and delivery teams to share best and good practice and make recommendations with health and economic outputs. Within this work it is vital that we consider not just the manual operations, but risks our decisions can create for others, ultimately how the wider construction operation and better sequencing and planning can reduce risk.”

Balfour Beatty, Chair HCLG MSD Task Group Occupational Health and Hygiene Specialist, Health team |HSES| Ian Strudley said ‘’more working days are lost in construction as a result of musculoskeletal disorders than any other single cause of ill-health. There is so much more that we could and should be doing to make sure that we keep people healthy in work and we better manage the consequence of any musculoskeletal ill-health that has been caused in and indeed out of the workplace. I am pleased to say that the Plasterboard Group has already done much to improve productivity and reduce ill-health from the movement and handling of plasterboard materials. These next steps looking at each stage of the construction process will help consolidate this effort to achieve further improvements in musculoskeletal health, and therein achieve additional risk reduction and greater productivity.”

Senior Policy Advisor, Health and Safety Executive Construction Health Team, Sue Brandrick said ‘’tackling work-related ill health is one of HSE’s priorities. There is particular focus on musculoskeletal disorders in sectors, like construction, where they are amongst the most common cause of sickness absence. This has a serious impact on the lives of sufferers, their families and the industry overall.

Working collaboratively and tackling the problem holistically is welcomed by HSE. This is a more effective approach compared to focusing on individual aspects in isolation. I am pleased to be working with HCLG in this area to reduce the health risks to construction workers from lifting, moving and handling large amounts of plasterboard”

FIS is calling for volunteers to support this group please email Joe Cilia to register your interest and find out more about the project (joecilia@thefis.org).