Course
Debrief

1. The Contract

Everything starts with what you signed. Your contract is with the main contractor, and the documents decide who wins when things go wrong. Read the order of precedence first, find the six clauses that drive outcomes, and know which standard form you are on before you price a single lift.

• You manage the job you agreed in writing. Not the one you assume.
• Your contract is with the main contractor. Everything flows through that subcontract.
• Know which contract form you are on before you sign. The form sets the rules.
• Read the contract in the right order. Precedence first, then the six clauses.
• The Construction Act puts a floor under every contract. Pay-when-paid cannot dig below it.

Look it up: Module 1 · Module 3

2. The Money

The commercial side is a cycle: price it right, convert the quote into a contract on your terms, track cost against value while the job runs, and apply for payment like the Act is watching. Margin is not made at final account. It is protected week by week.

• Your quote is your case. Write it like it will be read in a dispute.
• The last document in the chain wins. Never accept terms by silence.
• Price the risk or carry it. There is no third option.
• CVR is your early-warning system. Run it monthly or run blind.
• Daywork: seven days, signed, submitted. Late is disputed.
• Retention is your money. Diarise the release events and chase them.

Look it up: Module 2 · Module 7

3. The Paperwork and the Programme

Design, RAMS, programmes and notices are not admin. They are the evidence base that decides variations, delay claims and your defence if something fails. The habit that carries all of it: write it down on the day it happens.

• TG20 compliance or bespoke design. There is no third route.
• No unchecked changes to a designed scaffold. Ever.
• Your RAMS are evidence. Write them like they will be read in court.
• Know your completion date obligation. EOT is your shield, not a favour.
• Their delay becomes yours the moment you fail to notify.
• Standing time unrecorded is margin gone. Notify and evidence it the same day.

Look it up: Module 4 · Module 5

4. The Law

Two bodies of law sit over every scaffold contract. Safety law says what you must do and record: HSWA, CDM 2015, Working at Height, RIDDOR. Payment law says what you are owed and how to get it: notified sums, pay-less notices, statutory interest, suspension and adjudication. Both have clocks. Miss the clock, lose the right.

• Every HSE breach is a contract breach. Safety paperwork is commercial armour.
• No signature, no record. No record, no defence.
• First 24 hours after an accident: people, scene, evidence, notify. In that order.
• No pay-less notice, no deduction. The notified sum stands.
• Adjudication: 28 days to a decision. Pay first, argue second.
• Suspension is legal with the right notice. Powerful, so use it properly.

Look it up: Module 6 · Module 8

5. The Operating Discipline

Knowledge only pays when it becomes routine. Seven habits, run weekly, cover most of what this course teaches:

• Read before you sign. Contract, order of precedence, six clauses.
• Confirm every instruction in writing before you build it.
• Track cost against value weekly. React while the job is live.
• Submit applications and daywork on time, every cycle, evidenced.
• Notify delay and standing time the same day, in writing.
• Keep the safety file current: talks signed, inspections recorded, RAMS live.
• Diarise the deadlines: retention release, notice periods, limitation.

That is the job. The tools taught you scaffolding. This course taught you the business wrapped around it.

Downloads

The one-page Site Card: every rule from this debrief, sized for a phone screen or a cab door.