Trigon's Competency Statement

Introduction

Following Dame Judith Hackitt’s “Building a Safer Future”, which emphasized industry competency, there has been a strong focus on improving and demonstrating competence in the construction sector to ensure safety and trust.

The Building Regulations requires that any person and organizations involved in design, construction, refurbishment, and maintenance work must be competent to undertake their respective roles. Competence is defined as having the necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours to carry out their duties.

Trigon is committed to upholding high standards and the following outlines our approach to competency. A further detailed competency statement is available on request as well as sector specific evidence.

Trigon

Trigon is a wholly independent fire engineering consultancy founded in 2019. Our three founders are Chartered Engineers registered with the Institution of Fire Engineers (“IFE”). Trigon employs eight Chartered Engineers.

One competency criteria often cited (in The London Plan 2021 for example) is that qualified fire safety engineers should have relevant experience in fire safety, such as Chartered Engineers registered with the Engineering Council by the IFE. This provides a good indication of competency, in that a process of education, training and experience is required to achieve this. All of Trigon’s projects are overseen and reviewed by a Chartered Engineer registered with the IFE and supported by a team of fire safety engineers and administrative support.

1. Skills

All employees follow Trigon’s Continued Professional Development (“CPD”) programme and keep a comprehensive and auditable record of their CPD training. In addition, Trigon maintain a record of the qualifications of all employees . The industry standard recommends a minimum of 25-hours of CPD training per year, however, we are proud that the average in the last year was over 100 hours per Trigon fire engineer.

Trigon has developed role descriptions for the different engineer grades that sits alongside their Career Progression Matrix that sets out the requirements for a specified range of skills that are needed to meet different grades.

2. Knowledge

To ensure our employees continue to learn and develop, Trigon have prepared a ‘Training & Development Policy’. This policy details the importance of developing all employees and sets out the strategies in place to ensure that employees receive sufficient training to support their role.

Trigon are proud to have developed and implemented a well-established ‘Technical Training Programme’ providing a framework for continuous learning and development for employees at all levels.

All employees follow Trigon’s CPD programme and keep a comprehensive and auditable record of their CPD training. In addition, Trigon maintain a record of the qualifications of all employees.

Trigon have appointed a ‘Research Lead’ and have put together and implemented a programme of ongoing research; and our employees regularly undertakes research initiatives. Trigon's research feeds back directly into providing ongoing training and development to our engineers.

3. Experience

Our directors have an average of over 20 years’ experience and our senior engineers have an average of 10 years’ experience, with a total combined experience of over 150 years of working in the fire safety industry. Curricula Vitae for our Directors can be found on our team page.

Our employees have extensive experience across all sectors within the built environment. This includes developing fire safety strategies, fire safety management plans and fire risk assessments. This also includes undertaking independent third-party reviews for fire safety strategies, fire risk assessments, CFD modelling or structural fire engineering assessments. Sector specific competency statements can be provided on request.

Trigon, as a responsible employer, is committed to developing our engineers and other employees throughout their career supported by providing extensive continued professional development. Trigon currently employs eight Chartered Engineers registered with the IFE. Trigon supports all engineers in attaining their Chartership recognition ideally through the IFE and the Engineering Council.

We can demonstrate experience in all areas of fire engineering services, including:

  • Fire safety design

  • Advanced fire engineering (e.g., smoke modelling, evacuation modelling and structural analysis or heat radiation analysis etc.)

  • Fire risk assessments

  • Third-party reviews

  • Site supervision

  • Expert advice and expert witness services

  • Fire safety management

4. Behaviour

All Trigon employees are required to demonstrate a personal commitment to professional standards, recognise obligations to society, the profession and the environment. Employees must comply with codes of conduct, exercise responsibilities in an ethical manner and recognise where an issue falls outside of their area of competence.

We developed and follow a number of policies including, but not limited to: corporate social responsibility, whistleblowing, anti-bribery, diversity and equality, anti-harassment and bullying etc. These policies are backed up by regular, comprehensive training to ensure all employees are aware of their duties.

All Trigon engineers are aware of and encouraged to familiarise themselves with Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures UK, the confidential reporting system which allows professionals working in the built environment to report on fire (and structural) safety issues. Issues can be published anonymously to share lessons learned, create positive change, and improve safety.

Similarly, Trigon’s engineers are familiar with the ‘Mandatory occurrence reporting’ (“MOR”) system for higher-risk buildings (HRB’s). The MOR system enables persons to report building safety incidents and risks that have caused, or if not remedied are likely to cause death or serious injury.

Trigon is a member and actively supports numerous professional bodies including those indicated on our website.