Accreditation scheme for building consent authorities
One of the initiatives introduced by the Building Act 2004 is an accreditation and registration scheme for regulatory building control providers. This scheme requires territorial and regional authorities to be registered as building consent authorities by 30 November 2007. In order to be registered, applicants must first be accredited against a set of prescribed standards and criteria.
The scheme is intended to strengthen the building consent, inspection and approval stages of the building control process. It will ensure those responsible for checking the compliance of buildings are able to perform their regulatory functions to a higher standard.
Standards and criteria
In October 2006, the Government approved the policy content for the accreditation standards and criteria. These are outcome-focused and performance-based, and have been designed to encourage good practice and consistency among building consent authorities.
The Department is working with the Parliamentary Counsel Office to turn these standards and criteria into regulations. The standards will be phased in over a 6-year period.
Standards relating to policies, systems and processes
Under the new accreditation scheme, building consent authorities will be required to have documented and effective systems, policies and processes. These will cover statutory responsibilities and other administrative and organisational activities that do not have a statutory basis, but affect the performance of building control functions (such as how alternative solutions are assessed).
Documented policies, processes, and procedures are an important mechanism to manage the way that building consent authorities operate, make assessments and decisions, manage risk, and achieve identified outcomes. This helps them monitor, review, and continuously improve their performance.
Effective record-keeping provides an audit trail, detailing decisions made about consents, inspections and code compliance certificates, and the rationale behind these decisions.
The new standards focus on four functional areas
|
| Functional area |
Standard to be met by |
| Formal policies, systems, processes and procedures |
30 November 2007 |
| Skills and resources |
30 november 2007 |
| Quality assurance systems |
30 November 2010 |
| Staff qualifications |
30 November 2013 |
Standards relating to skills and resources
It is important that building consent authorities have the necessary skills and resources - internal and external - to fulfil their statutory responsib-ilities, and cope with the volume and nature of work they face.
It's essential that building consent authorities have systems in place to assess the competency of both internal and external human resources, to ensure they have the right skills and experience to carry out assigned work. Appropriate monitoring and review systems can identify collective skill sets and reveal areas of skill shortage. These should be addressed by training and professional development plans.
Standards relating to quality assurance systems
The new scheme will require building consent authorities to document, implement and maintain an effective quality-assurance system across all building control functions by 2010.
Critical to the success of any quality-assurance system is understanding and consistent application. Without this, quality can be compromised and the achieve-ment of desired outcomes limited.
Standard relating to staff qualifications
Under the new scheme, building officials will be required, by 2013, to hold either a nationally recognised qualification in building control or a recognised international equivalent.
Qualifications provide an independ-ent assessment of a person's competency, and help develop a viable career path for young people wishing to become building officials. Qualifications are also valuable in helping building consent authorities assess the competency of their human resources to demonstrate organisational competence.
Ongoing consultation
In October this year, the Department released the consultation document Proposals to Set Building Consent Authority Accreditation Fees and for Assistance with Accreditation . This document seeks the building sector's views on the proposed fees for accreditation, and on the recently announced accreditation assistance package for territorial and regional authorities.
Consistent with similar schemes overseas, the proposed fees are based on a full cost-recovery approach. This means the total fees collected from building consent authorities would equal, as closely as possible, the total cost incurred by the accreditation body in providing accreditation.
The Building Act 2004 requires fees to be fixed amounts, so proposed fees are based on estimates of the average cost of different accreditation activities. Also, to allow for differences between authorities (for example, volume and complexity of building consent applications), a scale of fees would apply.
This would vary according to the differing values of building work consented.
Building consent authorities can pass on accreditation costs through consent fees, which ensures that those who benefit most from accreditation services pay fees towards these services.
In October this year, the Minister for Building and Construction, Hon Clayton Cosgrove, announced a $3 million programme to help territorial authorities prepare for accreditation. The Department has sought sector feedback on how to best provide help. Possible options include:
- new and innovative 'tools' or 'prototypes' to help local authorities meet accreditation standards and criteria
- workshops, formal training events and other activities to inform and educate local authority building control staff about accreditation requirements
- support and advice to help authorities work collectively to meet accreditation standards and criteria. This would involve working with existing local authority cluster groups to identify specialist resources and advice that will be of the greatest assistance to them as collective or individual member authorities.
For more information on the scheme, see the Department's website ( www.dbh.govt.nz ) or contact one of the building consent authority accreditation and registration project team on 0800 242 243.