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Organisational Capability

It is now a requirement for all companies involved in the design and construction process to demonstrate Organisational Capability.  Risk and Quality Management sit at the core of any demonstration of organisational capability.  FIS has been working with our community to address the issues of providing clear evidence of compliance and competence through an initiative called the FIS Quality Framework:  Product Process People (PPP).

Demonstrating Organisational Capability

Since October 2023, Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010 has required anyone carrying out building or design work in England to be competent. For an individual, that means having the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours. For an organisation, it means having organisational capability. This applies to every contractor and designer, whatever their size and whatever the building.

Organisational capability is your business’s proven ability to plan, manage and monitor its work so that it complies, and to do so consistently. It depends on three things working together: competent people, enough of them for the work you take on, and the systems and culture that let them do the right thing. Skilled individuals are not enough if workload outstrips supervision or resources.

Official guidance (development supported by FIS) now sets out what this looks like in practice. The Industry Competence Committee’s Setting Expectations on Competence Management (April 2026) describes what good looks like. The Industry Task and Finish Group’s Managing Competence in the Built Environment (May 2026) explains how organisations of any size can put it into practice. Both are free on the BSI Built Environment Competence Hub.

The FIS resources below help you meet the requirement and evidence it. They include the FIS Quality Framework: Product Process People (PPP), the Integrated Management Standard, and tools for managing risk, competence and a dedicated toolkit to support pre-qualification (often used alongside FIS Accreditation as evidence of capability).

Product: specification, test evidence, purchase orders and delivery notes.
Process: dated sign-off records and site images, especially of performance-critical work that will be covered up.
People: competence records for everyone involved in the installation, including CSCS cards, qualifications and training.

The FIS Integrated Management System draws on Managing for Health and Safety and provides a starter for helping you to align your processes and suppport evidencing compliance and business improvement.

FIS Building Safety Act Introduction Training Course

FIS has developed an online training course to support all members in understanding compliance with the Building Safety Act.  The course has been designed to be user-friendly guiding members through the process of compliance as it relates to working in the finishes and interiors sector.

Sign up for the e-learning course

Building Regulation Compliance: Contractor Roles

Specifically to support contractor oprganisation capability this course is designed to help you to understanding the duty and evidence your capability as a Principal Contractor or Contractor when carrying out building works.  It is freely available to FIS Members.

Sign up for the e-learning course

FIS Integrated Management Standard

The FIS Integrated Management Standard (IMS) was developed to help members implement tried and proven methods of streamlining their company for the benefit of their business and its stakeholders.  This IMS helps sets the parameters for FIS members to manage their internal controls to ensure that they understand options.  It provides a framework for implementing risk management systems that will help organisations to meet statutory and legislative requirements as a minimum.

Click here to download the FIS Integrated Management Standard

Pre Qualification and the Common Assessment Standard

Pre-qualification in construction refers to the process of evaluating and selecting qualified bidders before the bidding process begins. The process involves reviewing the qualifications of potential bidders, such as their financial stability, experience, skills, and resources, to determine whether they meet the minimum requirements to bid on a particular project. Proliferation of providers has however been identified as a concern and FIS is to this end supporting and encouraging members to support the Common Assessment Standard.

Access the FIS Common Assessment Standard Toolkit

FIS Product, Process, People (PPP) Risk Management Tool

This tool has been created to help members embrace the thinking behind this quality framework and to encourage a culture of scrutinising risk in a structured way at the outset of a project.  FIS will be reviewing this tool on a regular basis as a way of supporting members in unpicking the impact of the Grenfell Review process on their business.  Members can download the FIS Product, Process, People Risk Management Tool via the link below.

 

Click here to download the FIS PPP Risk Management Tool

FIS Best Practice Guidance

FIS is built on the collective wisdom of the community, which it harnesses in an extensive library of publications and guidance notes that support specifiers, end users, designers, suppliers and contractors involved in the Finishes and Interiors Sector. Best Practice Guides and Site Guides feature top tips, key challenges and detailed checklists that can support compliance and quality management systems.  

Click here to access FIS Best Practice Guides

Access to British Standards

Standards support compliance and are often referenced in Regulation and as part of a Specification to support. At FIS we strive to make the key standards free to our community via the FIS Standards Portal.  It is important moving forwards that we have a robust standard setting body, but the cost to access and use the standards is not prohibitive, particularly for SME’s.

Find out of you are eligible for FREE Standard access via the FIS

FIS Campaign: Empowering the Responsible No

As FIS have explored the competence and capability with our community, the importance of deploying “No” has been repeatedly raised.  Ultimately competence and capability require you to know your limits and ensure that all reasonably foreseeable business risks can be effectively managed and addressed. 

If we don’t clarify, qualify and draw the line we take responsibility for issues outside of our control, assume responsibility for compliance and sign up to damages and delays that we can’t cover. 

The FIS is focussed on Empowering the Responsble No and has launched a campaign to support this.  Within this campaign we also focus on the waste created by multiple Prequalification Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) frameworks and the need to adopt the Common Assessment Standard.   

Click here to find out more about the FIS Empowering the Responsible No campaign

FIS Business Risk Management Tool

FIS has produced a Business Risk Management Tool to support contractors and help them adopt a structured approach to understanding risk and reducing uncertainty. The tool identifies over 120 common risk areas for contractors against the categories including Business Management, Contractual, Financial, Quality, H&S and Procurement,  providing a mechanism to score and rank risk and advice on mitigation and management.

A risk management matrix ranks risk in term of probability of an event occurring and the severity of the impact should the event occur. It can be used to identify and prioritise activity so that a contractor can then make informed business decisions and improve their resilience.

Click here to download the FIS Business Risk Management Toolkit

FIS Competency Management Toolkit

FIS guidance sets down the requirements for creating a Competency Management Plan (CMP) for organisations working in the finishes and interiors sector. The Toolkit offers examples and signposts to available information and standards that support FIS Members in developing competence within their workforce, meeting the requirements of legislation and avoiding any enforcement penalties,

Click here to download FIS Sector Guide - Competency Management Plans

 

FIS Vetting – Accreditation and Membership

FIS accredited members can promote themselves to their clients as an FIS Accredited Member.  Every accredited member is vetted on application and audited at regular intervals through our vetting process (which for contractors includes site visits).  FIS membership helps you to demonstrate your organisational capability and can promote, not just that you have been audited, but that you are plugged into a compliance network.  FIS membership highlights your company’s dedication to keeping up with industry trends and adopting the best practices that ultimately support compliance, safety and quality.

Click here to find out more about how to promote yourself as an FIS Member

Supporting information from FIS

  • FIS RACI Matrix – The RACI model is a straightforward tool used for identifying roles and responsibilities and avoiding confusion over those roles and responsibilities during a project.
  • The FIS Digital Toolkit – has been developed to suppport the creation of a Golden Thread the Act also requires the creation of a Digital Information Management Plan.
  • The FIS Legal and Contractual Toolkit – FIS members have access to a legal and contractual toolkit that includes a wealth of best practice guidance, a subsidised contract review service and specialist QS and legal helplines.
  • The FIS Health and Safety Toolkit – FIS have an active Health and Safety Working Group that looks st core risks and challenges in the sector and provides tools and guidance to help members manage risk and keeep workers safe.
  • Demonstrating Individual Competence – FIS has been working with the Regulator to develop a framework that helps our community define, manage and demonstrate competence.
  • Dealing with non compliance issues – In the event that completed work has been identified as being non-compliant by a client, contractor or by a 3rd party specialist via a commissioned report, there are a number of steps that members should take which are somewhat universal to the type of construction and the nature of the complaint that should be followed.
  • FIS Specifiers and Best Practice Guides – FIS produce a range of Specifier, Best Practice and Site Guides (including a new pre-construction guide to dry lining) to support the decisions in the sector and training for competency.  To supplement this guidance FIS is working through our Working Groups and a new Walls as a System Group to challenge and identify and resolve any compliance issues that arise.  FIS also helped to establish and continue to support the new Passive Fire Knowledge Group to help drive system thinking and a better supply chain approach to compliance
  • The FIS Acoustic Verification Scheme – In a bid to curb growing incidents of ‘passing off’ FIS has teamed up with Cundall Acoustics to develop an acoustic test certificate verification scheme.  The scheme takes test data and reports and runs a series of checks to verify information is accurate and genuine.
  • FIS Drylining Quality Checklist – This quality check list for drylining has been produced by members of the FIS drylining working group to help members assess risk during the project and provide a detailed quality check list throughout the installation process.  
  • FIS Technical Hub – Fire Safety – A summary of all support available from the FIS related to delivering fire safety through the construction process.  
  • Product Process People White Paper May 2018 – the initial discussion document produced to set process in motion to develop the FIS PPP Framework.

Recommended Additional Information