Covid-19: CITB chief exec update – 4 June 2020

Good afternoon,

I hope you’re having a good week. Today’s email looks at; supporting mental health as construction gets back to work; an update on CITB’s support measures for industry during COVID-19; and a reminder of the documents available to you to support a safe return to site, where possible.

Mental health

As sites reopen in these different circumstances, not everyone will be comfortable talking about mental health at work. The Lighthouse Club, a charity dedicated to the wellbeing of construction workers and their families, has a helpline and has created an app which you can download here.

Update on recent support measures

Site Safety Plus

We’re pleased to have been able to provide support to training providers and employers. A total of 1,821 delegates have been accredited using remote delivery and have now successfully completed their Site Safety Plus course – an increase of over 56% in a week. There has also been a further increase in Site Safety Plus training centres delivering remote learning since our last update – 98 in total. For a full list of the centres delivering remotely use the course locator tool.

Test Centres

We are continuing to work on the re-establishment of Health, Safety and Environment testing operations in England. The majority of Pearson VUE centres have now re-opened, with Internet Test Centres also gradually becoming operational. We are continually reviewing Government advice with our partners to re-establish testing in Scotland and Wales. The latest information and updates on test delivery can be found here. 

Grants

CITB announced in March that it would pay grants for current second and third year apprentices in advance. Since then over £3.6m has been paid to 1,999 employers, supporting 4,148 apprentices in total. This includes the extension of the Advanced Grant support to Higher Level Apprenticeships, where £224k has been paid to 76 employers to support 360 apprentices.

Skills and Training Fund

The new Skills and Training Fund for micro, small and medium sized businesses was launched on 1 April. To date we have allocated over £350k to successful applicants. 

Support documents

CITB has produced a range of checklists and forms to ensure those who are permitted and able to return to work have a clear understanding of how they can apply the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) latest COVID-19 site operating procedures guidance in practice.

CITB’s COVID-19 Urgent Messages page is refreshed daily and includes updates on the full range of our work.

You can also read the range of support measures made available to UK businesses and employees by the UK Government.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a lovely weekend, stay safe.

Sarah Beale
Chief Executive