USING THE GUIDE
background
The Building Act 2004 requires that territorial authorities (TAs), regional authorities (RAs) and private bodies be registered as building consent authorities (BCAs) in order to undertake regulatory building control functions after 30 November 2007. In order to be registered as building consent authorities, organisations will need to meet the prescribed standards and criteria for accreditation. Those standards and criteria are under development and building consent authorities and territorial authorities will be advised once these are completed.
The application of an accreditation and registration regime to New Zealand’s building control industry is new and is intended to strengthen New Zealand’s building control system.
Accreditation in the building control sector aims to help strengthen the decision-making processes at the critical building consent and inspections stages of the building process. Successful implementation will help bring about greater consistency in regulatory building control across New Zealand. It will help lead to performance improvements and raised standards in the sector and more consumer confidence in the system.
purpose
The Building Consent Authority Development Guide (the guide) is designed to apply a best business and technical practice framework to regulatory building control in New Zealand. The purpose of the guide is to be a tool that:
- assists applicant building consent authorities to assess or challenge how well their building control and quality management systems comply with the statutory requirements
- provides a template that applicant building consent authorities can customise in order to fit specific organisational requirements (where appropriate)
- promotes continued performance improvement
- can be used to demonstrate that building consents, code compliance certificates, notices to fix and compliance schedules are based on good technical decisions made by suitably qualified and experienced people.
The Department of Building and Housing hopes that the guide will encourage organisations to review their current practices and, where appropriate, initiate the establishment of new or improved systems, processes and technical competencies.
structure of the guide
The Building Consent Authority Development Guide CD contains module one, Technical processes and procedures, with additional Territorial authority supplementary guidance material.
Module two the Management policies and processes module will be released separately, these will be dependent on consultation and sector feedback.
The modules use high-level process flowcharts and accompanying process stage narratives to describe end-to-end business processes. These identify process inputs and outputs and highlight critical interfaces between processes and business units. The flowchart also identifies key steps and checkpoints in the process.
Flowcharts are accompanied where appropriate by a narrative process outlining:
- the purpose of the process
- the responsibilities and authorities associated with the process
- any further process detail not covered in the flowchart.
The guide outlines several key procedures including:
- the checking of plans and specifications for compliance with the New Zealand Building Code
- documenting the responsibilities of management and building officials and relationships within the organisation
- regular management review of systems, audit reports, customer complaints, training, and the recording of training needs
- using a staff technical skills matrix and the programming of training needs
- internal audit of the quality system and technical audits of plan processing and site inspection activities
- building consent application flowcharts, procedures, forms and checklists
- inspection of building work during and at the completion of construction for compliance with approved plans and specifications and compliance with the New Zealand Building Code
- evaluation of suppliers, consultants and other forms of external expertise used by the organisation.
Within the guide there are references to (TBA): these notations are substitutes for named roles (e.g Technical Manager). Each building consent authority would designate appropriate roles for these tasks depending on their HR structure and operational model.