Compliance & standards
What is a temporary works designer?
A temporary works designer is the competent person who produces the design for a temporary structure, including a scaffold that falls outside published guidance.
The role sits in BS 5975 alongside the coordinator. Where a scaffold cannot be covered by a compliance sheet, this is the person who designs it — working from the design brief the coordinator prepared, and producing calculations and drawings for that specific structure.
Competence here is specific rather than general. Designing a scaffold requires relevant engineering competence in temporary works, which is not the same thing as being an experienced scaffolder or a structural engineer in another field.
The design is then independently checked before anything is built to it. That check is part of the process rather than an optional extra, and its scope depends on how complex and how risky the structure is.
The designer's output is only half the job. The design has to reach site, the structure has to be built to it, and any later change has to come back — which is a records problem as much as an engineering one.
What goes wrong on site
- A design produced by somebody without demonstrable competence in temporary works.
- A design issued and then superseded on site without the designer being consulted.
- The designer never told the scaffold was adapted, so the calculations no longer describe what is standing.