Compliance & standards
What is a temporary works coordinator?
A temporary works coordinator is the person responsible for managing the temporary works process on a project — making sure designs are produced, checked and followed, and that structures are not loaded before they are signed off.
The role is defined in BS 5975, the British Standard covering the management of temporary works. Scaffolding is temporary works, and on most sizeable projects it sits inside a wider regime alongside propping, falsework and excavation support. The coordinator is the role that holds that process together.
The role is procedural rather than design-focused. The coordinator does not produce the design; they prepare the design brief, make sure a design exists and has been independently checked, that the structure built matches it, and that a permit to load is issued before it is used — and a permit to remove before it comes down.
For a scaffolding contractor, this is the person who will ask for the compliance sheet or the bespoke design, and who will notice if a structure has been adapted without anyone revisiting it.
What goes wrong on site
- Treating the role as paperwork rather than as the control on whether a structure may be used.
- Adaptations made without the coordinator being told, which breaks the chain the role exists to maintain.
- Assuming a coordinator has been appointed on a project where nobody has.