Mental Health Awareness Week provides an important opportunity to reflect on the pressures faced across the construction industry and the role we all play in supporting one another.

In construction, poor mental health remains one of the biggest risks to our workforce. Long hours, financial pressure, demanding programmes, uncertainty, travel, isolation and the wider pressures of everyday life can all take their toll. Whilst our industry is built on resilience and problem-solving, it is important to recognise that continually “just getting on with it” is not always the answer.

At FIS, we believe that creating a healthier industry starts with openness, awareness and practical support. Mental wellbeing is not separate from the conversations around quality, competence, leadership and culture, it sits at the heart of them.

This week, we encourage everyone across the finishes and interiors sector to take small but meaningful steps:

• Check in with colleagues, friends and family
• Make time to talk and listen
• Be aware of changes in behaviour or signs that someone may be struggling
• Take steps to manage your own wellbeing, both physically and mentally
• Remember that asking for support is a strength, not a weakness

We also recognise the importance of addressing some of the wider industry behaviours that contribute to poor mental health, including unreasonable pressure, poor payment practices, uncertainty and conflict within projects. Improving culture across the sector remains a key priority for FIS.

No one should feel they have to face challenges alone.

If you or someone you know is struggling, support is available. The construction community has made huge progress in opening conversations around mental health, but there is still more we can all do together.

FIS remains committed to supporting a safer, healthier and more sustainable industry, not just physically, but mentally too.

Deaf Awareness Week (4–10 May 2026) is a timely reminder that hearing loss is one of the most common and most overlooked occupational health risks in construction. Around three in four construction workers are exposed to daily noise levels above 85 dB, yet protective measures often clash with other PPE such as hard hats, leaving workers vulnerable.

 The Hidden Health Impact

Hearing damage can be temporary or permanent, but even temporary deafness after leaving a noisy environment is a warning sign. Repeated exposure gradually erodes hearing, often going unnoticed until age‑related loss compounds the damage.

Sudden, extremely loud noises – such as cartridge‑operated tools – can cause instant and irreversible harm. And hearing loss is only part of the story. Many workers develop tinnitus (ringing, buzzing or humming in the ears), a condition that can disrupt sleep and significantly affect quality of life.

 The Psychological Toll

The impact of hearing loss and tinnitus can run much deeper – they affect people’s mental health.  Workers with untreated hearing issues often withdraw from conversations, avoid group settings and experience increased anxiety, frustration and depression. Communication becomes harder, confidence drops and social isolation grows. Left unaddressed, this becomes a cycle that harms both wellbeing and workplace culture.

Why Workers Don’t Speak Up

According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), around 10 million adults could benefit from hearing aids, yet only 3 million use them. Many delay seeking help because they don’t want to appear “difficult”, “old” or “in the way”. In construction’s fast‑paced environment, this silence can be dangerous.

 Your Legal Responsibilities

Under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, employers must assess and control noise risks.

Key thresholds:

• 80 dB – assess risks, provide information and training
• 85 dB – provide hearing protection and designate hearing protection zones
• 87 dB – absolute exposure limit (after accounting for PPE)

 Employers must:

• Identify and reduce noise risks
• Provide suitable hearing protection where required
• Ensure PPE is used correctly
• Offer information, training and health surveillance
• Review controls whenever work or equipment changes

 Noise control doesn’t always require major investment – but it does require consistent attention.

Call to Action

1. Check Your Kit

FIS is supporting the British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) campaign “Listen Today, Hear Tomorrow.” Key principles:

• Hearing protection is a last resort, but essential until noise risks are controlled
• Choose the right level of protection – more is not always better
• Ensure compatibility with other PPE and comfort for the user
• Stress the importance of wearing protection continuously in noisy areas
• Removing protection for just 5 minutes in an hour halves its effectiveness

 For guidance on selecting the right PPE for hearing safety, click here.

2. Get Your Hearing Checked – and Encourage Your Team

RNID offers free, accessible hearing checks. A hearing test takes just three minutes using the RNID online tool – a simple step that could prevent long‑term harm.

3. Further Reading 

This excellent resource gives employers a deeper understanding of occupational deafness and managing worker safety

[1] Construction Site Hearing Issues: How Noise Damages Workers’ Health & Prevention Tips – UK Construction Blog

FIS is proud to announce the launch of its new Drylining Design Engineer Competency Framework, a significant step forward in defining professional standards, improving quality, and supporting career development across the interiors sector.

Developed in collaboration with industry experts, contractors, manufacturers, and training providers, the framework establishes a clear benchmark for the knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours required of drylining design engineers.

As construction projects grow increasingly complex, the need for qualified and competent design professionals has never been greater. This new framework aligns with broader industry initiatives around competency, including post-Grenfell regulatory reforms, and reinforces the importance of robust design processes in ensuring building safety.

The framework outlines core competencies across several key areas, including:

• Technical design knowledge and system understanding
• Regulatory compliance and building safety
• Risk management and problem-solving
• Communication and collaboration across project teams

Commenting on the launch, FIS Technical Director James Parlour said:

“Competency frameworks are required urgently across the industry, and we are grateful to our members for helping to identify and fulfil this critical gap where competency in delivering what seems to be a relatively narrow function is holding up the design of the entire interior system due to its wide ranging interfaces with other packages. It is also a prominent area of risk where contractors design portion is often defined and constrained poorly, and competent design management is key to mitigating this risk for the supply chain.”

The development of this competency framework reflects FIS’s ongoing commitment to raising standards and driving continuous improvement across the sector. It adds to a growing suite of installer competency frameworks that are already available from FIS, including:

• Ceilings

• Drylining

• Fibrous Plastering

• Moveable Walls

• Solid Plastering

• Raised Access Flooring

• SFS (Steel Framed Systems)

The Competency Framework is available to download from the FIS website at https://www.thefis.org/membership-hub/publications/competency-frameworks/drylining-design-engineer-competency/

To underpin the Competence Frameworks, CITB, in partnership with Build UK and fire industry experts, have developed a free Fire Safety in Buildings e-learning course to improve an individual’s knowledge of fire safety measures in buildings. The course is suitable for anyone working in the design, construction, or maintenance of buildings, with a specific focus on installers and can be accessed here https://www.thefis.org/skills-hub/training-offers-for-members/fis-training-modules/fire-safety-in-buildings/

The Industry Competence Committee (ICC) has published ‘Setting Expectations on Competence Management’ setting down clear principles for managing both individual and organisational competence under Building Regulations.

The ICC was formed under the Building Safety Act 2022 to provide strategic leadership, assistance, and encouragement to facilitate the improvement of competence in the built environment industry. It advises both the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and industry on matters of competence.

The ICC has set out clear expectations for industry by sharing clear principles on how organisations should manage the competence of those working for them.

This document is aimed at organisations who:

• Carry out any design or any building work (in all buildings)
• Manage buildings, and particularly those that manage Higher Risk Buildings (HRBs)

The advice builds on feedback received from industry consultation in May and September 2025. It establishes ICC’s expectations for how organisations should manage competence, setting out the common principles that should be in place across the sector.

The ICC will build on this advice during 2026 by developing case studies and examples, to assist industry at a more practical level

FIS has been involved in the drafting of this document and commends this resource to members.

The document can be accessed via the Built Environment Hub Setting Expectations on Competence Management – ICC Advice for Industry

Conflict in the Middle East and its potential impacts on the global economy, the UK economy and the construction industry cast a dark shadow over the forecasts for 2026 and 2027. It appears increasingly likely that the second half of this year will see a drop in demand and sharp cost rises. How long the global disruption and high oil and energy prices last remains uncertain at the time of writing, and the CPA has had to make assumptions about the extent and duration of the supply shock.

However, based on the CPA’s assumptions, construction output is now forecast to fall significantly in 2026, with growth in 2027 also adversely affected. The largest of the conflict impacts are likely to be felt on both the demand and supply side for private housing and private housing repair, maintenance and improvement (rm&i), the two largest construction sectors. In addition, the risks to the forecasts remain heavily skewed to the downside, although potential upside risks remain if the government provides stimulus to boost demand and reduces its additional cost burdens on the construction industry. In addition, all construction forecasters continue to highlight the major problems with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) construction output data on which construction forecasts are based, so users should treat the historical data with extreme caution.

At the end of last year, with the uncertainty created by the government’s Autumn Budget out of the way and with an expected slight acceleration in UK growth this year, there was a degree of cautious optimism over prospects for many key construction sectors in 2026 and 2027. However, the start of this year was already challenging for construction, with persistent rain affecting activity, particularly outdoor work and the start of new projects. The hope was that better weather in March and April would lead to stronger activity, and this appeared to have occurred, although there was little evidence of any significant ‘catch-up’ activity delayed at the start of the year. But the Middle East conflict is likely to raise its own challenges for the UK economy and the construction industry in particular. Even if there was a resolution to the conflict on the day of the forecasts being published, a degree of permanent damage would be done to oil production, shipping channels, and additional global uncertainty and risk would be priced in, which is likely to lead to both a spike in CPI inflation across the economy and construction product price inflation due to oil, energy and input cost rises.

Privately funded construction sectors are most likely to be affected by these cost increases. In addition, privately funded construction sectors will be affected by increases in mortgage and financing costs, which will hit homebuyers and site viability, respectively. Publicly-funded and regulated sectors are likely to be less affected by these issues and with strong pipelines of activity in some areas, clients may be more willing to accept cost rises on projects over the next 12-18 months. However, if not, these sectors may also suffer from project viability issues and major contractors’ and consortia’s unwillingness to sign up to large projects in an uncertain cost environment, given the increasing risk.

Due to the uncertainty over how long the disruption will last, how high oil and energy prices will peak, and how long they will remain at those peaks, the CPA’s forecasts are based on oil prices remaining above $100 per barrel for four months, which occurred in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The CPA also has an Upper Scenario, which assumes oil prices remain above $100 per barrel for 2 months.

In the CPA’s forecast, construction output volumes are expected to fall by 2.5% in 2026, due to a weather-affected Q1, followed by a slowdown in demand and a sharp upturn in cost inflation in H2, driven by the impacts of the conflict in the Middle East. This is a major revision down from the 1.7% growth forecast in the CPA’s Winter forecast, and the only precedents for such large downward revisions to the forecasts were during the global financial crisis in 2008, the initial Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020, and the energy commodity price spikes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Output is still forecast to rise by 1.2% in 2027, but this is a significant revision down from the CPA’s Winter forecast of 2.8%, and the growth would be from a lower base. In addition, the risks to the 2027 forecast remain firmly on the downside, as the lagged impacts of borrowing rate increases and cost rises feed through to the ground, affecting consumer confidence and spending, as well as business confidence and investment. Aside from issues arising from the recent conflict, the fundamentals in key construction sectors remain unchanged. However, as with the impacts of the energy and commodity price spikes in 2022, the recent conflict is likely to affect the cost bases of firms throughout the supply chain.