Paul Hull, Director of PR Hull Plumbing and Heating, comments on the latest scheme launched by Capita that adds another layer to gas safe qualifications. This post was originally published on the Gas Safety Superheroes website. 

When I joined the plumbing and heating industry 30 years ago, the certificate that represented the successful completion of my apprenticeship was the only evidence I needed of my commitment to the safe undertaking of gas work. I’d worked hard for four long years for very little in terms of income but huge amounts in terms of both insight and opportunity. My career since then has been based on the honour of my word, the quality of my work, and the satisfaction not just of my clients but everyone I build a relationship with in my work life. The ability to do that, I hoped, would be enough to separate the engineers with just the qualifications, and the engineers with the qualifications and the personal qualities to drive this industry to greatness.

However, this week has seen the introduction of yet another scheme  – Capita Gas Compliance Services (CGCS). We, the hardworking and honourable engineers, will be expected to join in order to prove ourselves once more. I’ve seen lots of these schemes come and go in the last three decades, and whether it has been Corgi, Gas Safe or other trade memberships, history has shown that the shortcomings of these schemes are addressed by the introduction of a new scheme rather than investing in the improvement and innovation of the existing one.

Of course, the challenge is that as soon as any accreditation becomes mainstream, there becomes an issue attached to the standard and quality it represents. With over 100,000 Gas Safe engineers in the UK, the differences in skill, service and working standards are simply too great to fall into one category. Of course, with different categories should come different opportunities, different earning potential and levels of professional recognition. Naturally, different categories need defining, assessing and policing – all of which will require a level of funding that engineers are forced to support. Yet adding another bolt-on, another accreditation, or membership that will penalise the best of us doesn’t seem to be the right answer.

Undermining gas safety

On its own, another scheme (particularly if it remains voluntary) will do very little to help our industry. Memberships like this have been in the industry for more than a century yet we are still in a position where engineers refuse to join, which means there isn’t the funding to take any significant action, which in turn means consumers remain unaware of various gas safety schemes and uneducated about the realities of gas safety.

Whilst the industry remains dysfunctional in this way, we will continue to have to enter price wars with less qualified engineers; we will continue to see shockingly poor work; and we will continue as an industry to put the lives of our collective consumers in danger. We will struggle to attract young people to an industry that can make no promises of security, progression or professional regard. The outlook and opportunities for many hardworking and honourable engineers will be limited and jeopardised by those that are individuals breaking the rules.

Many of you will be aware of my passion for and commitment to this industry and will know my long-standing desire to improve apprenticeships and training, energy efficiency and overall gas safety. In my role at The Gas Safety Superheroes, I hope to create some significant change and improvement in the industry. However, until then I think it is important that we do more than simply share views on the inappropriateness of the solution Capita have presented. It is understandable that so many of us engineers have taken to social media to vent our frustrations. However, it is important I think to consider alternative solutions and work collaboratively to find ways to take our industry forward.

Redirected energy

Just like the new Capita Scheme, many of the solutions we present won’t actually solve the problems our industry are facing. Many of the solutions we find for one aspect of the industry will cause problems in another, and schemes that are designed to protect one audience will pain another. I hope that as we are able to share more information about The Gas Safety Superhero campaign and our long-term objectives, we may be able to present a blueprint that will allow the industry to unite, evolve, innovate and improve.

Until then, we may have to accept that Capita’s new scheme will become a part of our industry, but we should gain comfort from the fact that, just like the memberships offered by iGEM, they have not affected the way we work from day to day.

To me, it would be sensible for us to use the energy and frustration this announcement has created to find the solutions that will really solve some of the problems we face and make our industry a place of efficiency, improvement and innovation rather than disruption and dispute.

For more information on the opportunity I believe our industry faces, please visit http://www.gassafetysuperheroes.com/our-industry