​A good question – why is it that most construction and trades workers are required by law to take asbestos awareness training? To add to the widespread frustration is the need for frequent refresher courses which often leads to the question:
 
“I took the course last year and the risks haven’t changed, why do I need to it again?”
 
Asbestos is a hidden killer. 20 tradespeople per week lose their lives because they unknowingly breathed in microscopic asbestos fibres whilst they were working. Asbestos fibres can cause scar tissue in the lungs, abnormal cell growth or pass into the body. This leads to a range of nasty respiratory cancers and illnesses – most of

CHAS is now offering an assessment to the new construction pre-qualification ‘Common Assessment Standard’.

What is the Common Assessment Standard?
The Common Assessment Standard is a set of general pre-qualification questions that clients can ask contractors, either directly or through a recognised assessment scheme such as CHAS. A key aim of the Common Assessment Standard is to standardise the current construction pre-qualification landscape, to the benefit of both clients and contractors. The questions in the Common Assessment Standard are accompanied by assessment criteria which enable reliable and consistent assessments against the new Common Assessment Standard.
 
Why do you need a new Common Assessment Standard?
The aim of the Common Assessment Standard is to provide, over time, the main route to pre-qualification in construction and maintenance, removing a key driver for the variety of pre-qualification schemes we have now, and the associated waste and additional costs to clients and contractors of having to engage with these schemes.

On Friday (11th October 2019), staff from Carney Consultancy Limited attended the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) - North East's annual ball to help raise money for a charity called the lighthouse club.

Staff and partners got dressed up for the occasion, taking part in the evenings activities (including a large amount of dancing).

Photos will be added once available.

We are happy to announce that Sarah James will be joining the Carney Consultancy team from the 1st July. Sarah previously worked as a Junior CDM Consultant for a year prior to starting with Carney
Consultancy and assisted in the production of Pre-Construction Information and Construction Phase
plans whilst carrying out Principal Designer duties along side assisting with internal and external
audits.

In 2015 Sarah undertook her NEBOSH General Certificate and is starting her NEBOSH Construction
Certificate in September.
​
Sarah is a member of the IOSH Future Leaders Steering Group Committee

We hosted this free seminar to give a better understanding on who CDM Regs apply to. The seminar outlined the below:

• Aware of what will be investigated in a CDM Track back exercise?
• Confident you have complied with your duties under CDM2015?
• Got everything in place in accordance with the requirements of CDM2015?
• Planning a future project and are confident everything is in place?

Carney Consultancy hosted a free seminar following the HSE’s Health and Refurbishment campaign. The session was to explain the issues that notices were issued following the inspections carried out in October. It also detailed the control measures that must be in place to prevent enforcement action and Fee for Intervention (FFI).

​ The session was a success with attendance from many different backgrounds within the construction industry. 

We have now had our second ISO 9001 / ISO 14001 / OHSAS 18001 surveillance audit. Thankfully, we can report back that we have passed with no observations or non-conformances.

A big well done to our consultant and trainer Martin Crammond who manages our systems, and to the rest of our staff working to comply with these systems.

We have now had first Pro-Qual audit for NVQs. This was passed with flying colours.

A big well done to our consultant and trainer Simon Hogg who  prepared for the audit and provided the required evidence for the audit. 

Carney Consultancy Ltd will be closed from 4pm on Friday 21st December 2018 until 8am on Wednesday 2nd January 2019.

Please note : Online booking is not yet available for 2019 courses. This is an element still being worked on and will be released in the coming months.

For the second time, Carney Consultancy Limited have given a donation to the volunteer crew of Cullercoats RNLI. Back in February of 2015, Director Angela Carney and family visited the crew and presented them with a donation of £350 (see news story here).

This year, Carney Consultancy Ltd made another donation to the crew in support of their harbour day. Firstly, a donation of £30 was made to sponsor one of the holes on the crazy golf course which was set out on harbour day and created by the crew. Secondly, ontop of the £30, we donated another £220 to help support the charity in their mission to save lives at sea.

Today has been a positive day for Carney Consultancy Ltd as we were not only highly commended in the bast places to work awards, but also came 16th in the top 50 companies to work for.

​Unfortunately however, this news has come on the final day for one of our Health & Safety Assistants Kerry. Kerry has left the team to spend the next 6 months travelling around the world. Although she will be a great miss here, we wish her the best of luck and hope she enjoys this amazing experience.

This year we again attended the Constructing Excellence North East (CENE) awards night dinner. We were fortunate enough to have been shortlisted for one of the awards however we were not destined to be winners 2 years in a row.

However, we would like to say a massive congratulations to all of the winners and a massive thank you to CENE for putting on such an amazing evening! We are already looking forward to next year.