The duties of the Construction Design and Management Coordinator (CDM-C) are diverse and include the following:
- Advise and assist the Client with their duties under the CDM Regulations – In practice considerable time should be taken over this. It is not enough to simply send the Client a list of his duties.
- Notify the HSE – Mostly undertaken on line, the Coordinator will issue an F10 Notice well in advance of commencement to the Health and Safety Executive. The Coordinator will also monitor and update the Notice as appropriate to take account of programme changes and add duty holders to the Notice.
- Coordinate all the health and safety aspects of design work and co-operate with others involved in the project – This is potentially very time consuming and will involve establishing procedures where none exists and attending Design Team meetings.
- Facilitate and encourage good communication between Client, Designers and Contractors – Again potentially very time consuming, this duty is again about putting in place structures and maintaining procedures.
- Liase with the Principal Contractor regarding ongoing design and in particular the management of design changes which may affect construction – Of course, design changes occur all the time in construction projects and the key here is to make sure that these design changes are managed effectively without detriment to Health and Safety.
- Identify, collect, collate and issue as appropriate any Pre Construction Information – There is no limit to what might be included in the Pre Construction Information Pack, it all depends on the circumstances and the size and complexity of the project. For instance the Pre Construction Information for a major redevelopment project would be far more extensive than for the fit out of a shop.
- Prepare (or update an existing) Health and Safety File – The CDM-C will, on completion of the Project, prepare the Health and Safety File, The purpose of this document is to provide a record of the project, focussing on Health and Safety issues and in particular alerting those who may carry out works in the future of any residual risks. Again it is important that the size and complexity of the Health and Safety File is proportionate to the complexity of the Project.
