CDM Principal Designer Services
Nautilus provides CDM Principal Designer, CDM Consultant and CDM Principal Designer Advisory services for construction projects across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Hertfordshire.
We work with architects, property developers, commercial clients, project managers and homeowners, helping them meet their duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015).
Our approach is practical and proportionate. CDM doesn’t need to mean unnecessary paperwork or making straightforward projects complicated. We focus on the things that matter: making sure significant design risks are properly considered, designers communicate with each other and the right information reaches the people who need it.
When is a CDM Principal Designer required?
Under CDM 2015, a Principal Designer must be appointed by the client where a construction project involves, or is likely to involve, more than one contractor.
The appointment should be made as early as practicable in the design process so that the Principal Designer can help plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety during the pre-construction phase.
For domestic clients, the client’s CDM duties are generally transferred to other members of the project team. Where the project involves more than one contractor, the Principal Designer role is still required, although the arrangements for appointment can differ from those for a commercial client.
Not sure whether you need a CDM Principal Designer? Contact us and we’ll be happy to advise.
What does a CDM Principal Designer do?
The CDM Principal Designer plans, manages, monitors and coordinates health and safety during the pre-construction phase. In practice, this means making sure designers work together, significant risks are considered during the design process and relevant information is communicated to those who need it.
At Nautilus, we work alongside the client and design team as the design develops. Where design work or significant design changes continue during construction, we remain involved and coordinate relevant design risk information with the Principal Contractor and other designers.
Our involvement also includes periodic site visits and CDM audits where appropriate, providing the client with additional oversight and protection during construction and helping identify matters that may need to be addressed by the project team.
At the end of the project, we prepare and hand over the Health and Safety File, bringing together information needed for the safe future use, maintenance, alteration or demolition of the completed building.
What our CDM Principal Designer service includes
Our service is tailored to the size, complexity and risks of each project. Rather than applying the same process to every job, we provide a proportionate level of support appropriate to the project and client.
Typically, our service includes:
- Reviewing existing information and identifying gaps – establishing what information is available and whether further surveys, investigations or design information may be required.
- Preparing and developing the Pre-Construction Information (PCI) – bringing together relevant information about the project, existing site or building, significant risks and other matters designers and contractors need to know.
- Design risk management and coordination – working with the design team to make sure significant and unusual risks are considered and relevant residual risks are properly communicated.
- Supporting the client with their CDM duties – providing practical advice and helping the client understand what is required of them under CDM 2015.
- Construction Phase Plan – confirming that a Construction Phase Plan has been prepared and is in place before construction begins.
- F10 HSE notification – preparing and submitting the notification to the HSE on the client’s behalf where the project meets the notification thresholds.
- Ongoing design coordination during construction – responding to design development and significant design changes and ensuring relevant information continues to be communicated between designers and the Principal Contractor.
- Periodic site visits and CDM audits – providing additional oversight and client protection during construction and raising relevant matters with the project team where appropriate.
- Preparing the Health and Safety File – compiling the information needed for the safe future use, maintenance, alteration and eventual demolition of the completed project.
Throughout the project, we remain available to the client, designers and Principal Contractor to provide practical CDM advice when needed.
CDM Consultant and Principal Designer Advisory Services
Many architects, project managers and other organisations are willing to retain the formal CDM Principal Designer appointment but don’t necessarily want the additional workload nor responsibility that comes with managing the role in-house.
Our CDM Principal Designer Advisory service allows your team to concentrate on what they do best, while Nautilus provides the practical CDM support behind the appointment. This can reduce the time and administrative burden on your staff and provide additional confidence that the requirements of CDM 2015 are being properly addressed.
It can also be particularly valuable where an organisation has control over the pre-construction phase but doesn’t have individual members of staff with the skills, knowledge and experience to comfortably manage every aspect of the CDM role themselves.
We work alongside the appointed Principal Designer as their CDM Consultant and Adviser, providing support tailored to the project and the experience of their team. This can include:
- Preparing and developing the Pre-Construction Information
- Coordinating design risk information and liaising with the design team
- Providing practical CDM advice as the design develops
- Monitoring significant design changes during construction
- Liaising with the Principal Contractor
- Preparing F10 notifications where applicable
- Undertaking periodic site visits and CDM audits
- Assisting with the preparation and compilation of the Health and Safety File
The organisation formally appointed as Principal Designer retains responsibility for the role and its duties under CDM 2015, but has an experienced CDM Consultant alongside them to help manage the practical workload and provide advice when needed.
We can also provide wider CDM advisory services, including helping Principal Contractors prepare Construction Phase Plans and providing practical CDM advice to clients and other members of the project team.
CDM Principal Designer experience across a wide range of projects
University estate – Cambridge City
CDM support for an LV infrastructure upgrade within an occupied university estate, including temporary power arrangements to maintain occupied buildings during the works.
Former industrial site redevelopment – South Cambridgeshire
CDM Principal Designer for the redevelopment of a former industrial/commercial site to provide 43 homes, involving demolition, new build and conversion of an existing building.
Retail showroom refurbishment – Ely
CDM support for the refurbishment and fit-out of an existing retail unit, including internal alterations and new mechanical and electrical services.
Charity accommodation refurbishment – North Cambridgeshire
CDM Principal Designer for extensive refurbishment and alteration works to occupied accommodation, including structural alterations and conversion of existing spaces to new uses.
Mixed-use development – Cambridge City
CDM Principal Designer for the demolition of existing buildings and construction of houses, flats and ground-floor commercial accommodation on a constrained urban site.
Residential development – West Cambridgeshire
CDM Principal Designer services for a nine-home residential development, including drainage, infrastructure, incoming services and external works.
Why choose Nautilus as your CDM Principal Designer?
We believe good CDM advice should be practical, proportionate and useful. Our job isn’t to create paperwork for the sake of it, but to help the client and project team manage the things that genuinely matter.
- Experienced, practical advice
We work across a wide range of construction projects and tailor our involvement to the project, its risks and the experience of the project team. - We remain involved during construction
Our service doesn’t simply stop when the contractor arrives on site. Where design work continues, we remain available to deal with design changes, coordination issues and CDM queries as the project develops. - Site visits and CDM audits
Periodic site visits and CDM audits are included as part of our service where appropriate, providing additional oversight and client protection during construction. - Straightforward communication
We’re approachable and easy to get hold of. We work directly with clients, architects, project managers, designers and Principal Contractors to resolve issues without making CDM more complicated than it needs to be. - Support from start to finish
From the initial review of project information and Pre-Construction Information through to construction-phase support and completion of the Health and Safety File, we remain involved throughout the project.
Who you'll be working with
Nautilus is a small, specialist consultancy. You’ll deal directly with experienced people who understand your project, rather than your work being passed between different departments or junior members of a large consultancy.
We work closely with clients, architects, project managers, designers and contractors, providing straightforward advice, responding when issues arise and helping keep the CDM side of the project moving.
Our approach is professional but informal. We believe good working relationships and clear communication usually achieve far more than unnecessary paperwork and complicated procedures.
Tim Boutle – CDM Projects Director
Peter Scott (CMIOSH) – Health and Safety Director
Tim heads up the CDM side of Nautilus and is the person you’ll normally deal with day to day. Construction has always been familiar territory; his father was well known in the Cambridge construction industry and Tim later studied civil engineering. After owning and running other businesses, he returned to the industry and has now worked as a CDM Principal Designer for around 10 years.
Peter is a Chartered Health & Safety Consultant and has spent around 40 years in construction, including 25 years in health and safety. He heads up the operational health and safety side of Nautilus, dealing with the more technical aspects of health, safety and environmental legislation. He brings extensive practical experience and a straightforward, common-sense approach.
And when they’re not working…
Tim and Peter have been mates since they were 12 and share a love of old-school two-stroke motorcycles, (Peter also has a particular passion for classic Lambrettas). When not working (and occasionally when they are!), both enjoy a decent pint at the local.
Areas we cover
Nautilus provides CDM Principal Designer, CDM Consultant and Principal Designer Advisory services across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Hertfordshire.
Based near Newmarket, we regularly work throughout the region, including Cambridge, Ely, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich, Norwich, Colchester and Bishop’s Stortford, as well as the surrounding areas.
For projects further afield, please get in touch – whether we can provide a practical and cost-effective service will usually depend on the project, its requirements and the level of site involvement needed.
Frequently asked questions
The CDM Principal Designer is a statutory dutyholder under CDM 2015 and is appointed by the client to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety during the pre-construction phase.
A CDM Consultant or CDM Adviser isn’t a separate statutory dutyholder under CDM 2015. The term is generally used for someone providing specialist CDM advice and support.
Nautilus can either accept the formal CDM Principal Designer appointment or provide CDM consultancy and advisory support where another organisation retains the appointment.
The CDM Coordinator was a duty holder under the previous CDM 2007 Regulations. The role was removed when CDM 2015 came into force and the Principal Designer role was introduced.
If your construction project involves, or is likely to involve, more than one contractor, the client will normally need to appoint a CDM Principal Designer and Principal Contractor.
So if you’re searching for a CDM Coordinator for a current project, it’s probably a CDM Principal Designer that you require.
Yes. An architect can act as CDM Principal Designer provided they are a designer with control over the pre-construction phase and have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience, together with the organisational capability where appropriate, to fulfil the role.
Some architectural practices retain the appointment but use Nautilus as a CDM Consultant or Principal Designer Adviser to reduce the workload on their staff and provide specialist support.
Yes. Our CDM Principal Designer Advisory service is intended for organisations that wish to retain the formal appointment but would benefit from additional CDM expertise and resources.
The organisation formally appointed as Principal Designer retains responsibility for the role, while Nautilus provides practical support behind it.
Where a project involves, or is likely to involve, more than one contractor, the client must appoint the Principal Designer as soon as practicable and, in any event, before the construction phase begins.
Early appointment is preferable because it allows the Principal Designer to become involved while important design decisions are still being made.
No. They are separate roles under different legislation.
The CDM Principal Designer carries out duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, principally concerned with managing and coordinating health and safety during the pre-construction phase.
The Building Regulations Principal Designer has separate responsibilities relating to Building Regulations compliance.
Nautilus provides CDM Principal Designer services; we do not undertake the Building Regulations Principal Designer role.
Please see our separate page on the Building Regulations Principal Designer and how we can potentially help.
Yes. Although the pre-construction phase ends when construction begins, the CDM Principal Designer’s involvement continues into the construction phase.
Design development and changes frequently occur during construction, so the Principal Designer continues to liaise with the Principal Contractor and designers and to coordinate health and safety matters relating to ongoing design work.
At Nautilus, we also undertake periodic site visits and CDM audits, providing additional oversight and client protection as the project progresses. We remain involved through to completion, including preparing and updating the Health and Safety File for handover to the client.
Fees depend on the size and complexity of the project, programme, level of risk, information already available and the level of involvement required.
We prefer to understand the project before providing a fee rather than applying a standard price that may not reflect the work involved.
Unlike many practices, we base our fees on the anticipated time actually required rather than allocating full or half days to individual tasks. This allows us to price our services accurately and competitively, while reflecting the level of support each project genuinely needs.
In the first instance, send us some basic project information. If necessary, we can then have a call and provide you with a fee proposal within 48 hours.
Need a CDM Principal Designer or CDM advice?
Whether you need Nautilus to take the formal CDM Principal Designer appointment, support your organisation in an advisory capacity or simply want to discuss what your project requires, we’re happy to have an initial conversation.
Please get in touch to discuss your project and we’ll let you know how we can help.