ConstructionSkills has announced that it has made an agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to bring the award-winning Government ‘Achieving Behavioural Change’ (ABC) health and safety course to the wider industry. The announcement was made at the industry launch of the Behavioural Change Programme, which was led by Lord McKenzie, Minister with responsibility for Health and Safety.

The ABC course, which will now be available through the ConstructionSkills Site Safety Plus scheme, was previously known as the DWP Jobcentre Plus (JCP) ABC course.

This one-day Behavioural Change Programme was developed as part of the JCP National Rollout Project; the refurbishment of over 900 Jobcentres and Social Security offices in Great Britain, one of the largest government construction programmes in recent years.


All management and operatives working on DWP’s Jobcentre Plus were obliged to attend and pass the ABC course, and to obtain an appropriate passport to work card. The course was specifically written to address working in occupied buildings, identifying typical hazards that would be found during refurbishment works and encouraging operatives to think and behave safely towards others. Its success helped the Jobcentre Plus project reduce the average Accident Incident Rate (AIR) nearly ten times fewer than the Construction Industry Average for that year, equating to minimum project savings of £8.9 million over £600m construction spend. It was also recognised as best practice in several cross-industry award schemes.

Kevin Fear, Head of Health, Safety and the Environment at ConstructionSkills, and a speaker at the event added: “ConstructionSkills is delighted to be able to roll out this successful course as part of the Site Safety Plus Scheme. The ABC course developed by DWP Jobcentre Plus is a great example of Government, Industry and ConstructionSkills working together to achieve a shared objective of driving down accident rates at construction sites.”

(JM)