This toolkit is for every kind of firm in the Welsh built environment: the client, the supply chain down to the specialist trade, and the organisations that support them.
Construction is many industries at once, and guidance written for a national contractor does not reach a sole trader. So the toolkit starts by placing your firm: what it usually does, how close it is to the client, and the size of job it works on. A 4th question records your specialism.
The sector wheel
The wheel shows the whole model in one picture. Your usual Role is the segment, Level is the ring, and the client sits at the centre. The largest typical Project Value you work on completes the set. Organisations that support and shape the sector sit outside the rings, and the gaps between the segments show that they reach every part of the chain.
When you register, a pin marks your firm’s place, with your Project Value shown on the pin. The wheel places each firm. It is not a ranking system: it is designed to ensure you get the most relevant advice. You can change your answers whenever your work changes, and your account keeps your history.
Pick a part of the wheel
The direction round the wheel is what a firm does. The rings are how far it sits from the client who pays. Choose a segment to see what it covers.
1. General Role: what your firm does
Roles are described as verbs. 9 sit in the contract chain: commission, design, approve, make, supply, build, monitor, maintain, and reuse and recycle. A 10th covers organisations that support and shape the sector without holding a contract on the building work, such as colleges, lenders, standards bodies and trade bodies.
Your usual Role is a segment of the wheel.
2. Contract Level: how close you are to the client
Level 0 is the client. Level 1 is appointed by the client, Level 2 by a Level 1 firm, and so on down the chain to Level 4 and beyond. BS EN ISO 19650 already names the first 3 as appointing party, lead appointed party and appointed party.
We ask where you usually sit, because the Level can change from job to job. An architectural practice appointed by the client is at Level 1. The same practice working for a design and build contractor is at Level 2.
Your Level is a ring, running right round through every role.
3. Project Value: the scale you work at
The construction value of the largest project you typically work on: the top of your normal range, not the biggest job you have ever done. There are 5 bands: up to £25k, £25k to £100k, £100k to £1m, £1m to £10m, and over £10m. It is the value of the whole project, not of your own contract. A sole trader working on a £15m school is working at £15m.
Your Project Value flies as a flag on your pin.
And your specialism
Your main specialism is recorded as a tag. It does not move your position. It filters the guidance, because a roofer and a glazier can sit in the same place and need different documents.
Why we never ask how big your firm is
94% of Welsh construction firms employ fewer than 10 people (NOMIS, 2025), so size separates almost nobody. Earlier CEWales survey analysis pointed to a firm’s place in the contract chain as the better guide to the information it is asked for.
Your Persona
Register free to place your firm on the wheel. It takes about a minute.