Key themes from phase 1 of the bca Accreditation Scheme

Phase 1 of the building consent authority (BCA) scheme is nearing completion. Sixty-nine councils are now accredited, or have cleared their outstanding corrective actions and are about to be accredited. The remaining councils are continuing to work through their outstanding corrective actions to achieve accreditation as soon as possible. A full and up-to-date list of accredited and registered councils is available on the public register at: http://www.dbh.govt.nz/bca-register

Report release

As part of the work to inform phase 2 and review phase 1 of the BCA scheme, the Department recently released a report on the key themes and issues that have emerged from phase 1. The purpose of the report was to get a national picture of:

• the main improvements councils had to implement to comply with the standards for accreditation and be successfully accredited as BCAs, and
• the key issues councils will have to continue to work on over the next two years as phase 2 of the BCA scheme is implemented - either to improve their existing quality assurance systems or develop new ones where these are yet absent.

The report was developed from an analysis of the initial assessment reports¹ from the 72 territorial authorities and 3 regional councils that applied for accreditation as a BCA and were assessed during 2007/08. Each of these reports had been previously prepared by International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) in its role as the building consent accreditation body, responsible for assessing each council under the BCA scheme.

Key findings of the report

The report is based on the standards and criteria that each organisation was assessed against, which are contained in the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006. The key themes under each regulation are summarised below:

Requirements for policies, procedures and systems (regulation 5)

• Nearly half of all councils needed to improve how they were documenting their building control policies, procedures,and systems.
• Over two thirds of all councils needed to improve one or more of their policies, procedures and systems so they were appropriate for their purposes.

Observance of policies, procedures and systems (regulation 6)

• Most organisations needed to strengthen how they were ensuring that:

• at least one (but often more) of their policies, procedures, or systems required by the regulations was being effectively implemented
• their key decisions, reasons for decisions, and outcomes from such decisions were being appropriately recorded.

Building control policies and procedures (regulation 7)

• Nearly every council needed to make some improvement to the policies and procedures they had for performing their building control functions. Most organisations received a number of corrective action requests and recommendations about regulation 7.
• Around three quarters of all councils needed to enhance the consumer information they were providing about the building consenting, inspection and approval process (reg. 7(2)(a)).
• Around a third of all councils needed to improve how they were receiving and/or initially vetting building consent applications to ensure they complied with the Building Act and regulations (regs. 7(2)(b) and (c)).
• Around half of all councils needed to strengthen their policies and procedures for assessing the content of consent applications and/or allocating them to an appropriate processor (regs. 7(2)(d)(ii) and (iii)).
• Around two thirds of all councils needed to strengthen their policies and procedures for assessing building consent applications they had accepted for compliance with the requirements of the Building Act and Building Code (reg. 7(2)(d)(iv)).
• Around 40 percent of organisations needed to strengthen their policies and procedures for deciding whether to grant a building consent application (or refuse it) and then issuing the building consent (reg. 7(2)(d)(v)).
• Around three quarters of all councils needed to strengthen how they were planning, performing and managing their building inspections (reg. 7(2)(e)).
• Around three quarters of all councils needed to improve their policies and procedures for issuing (or refusing to issue) code compliance certificates, compliance schedules and notices to fix (reg. 7(2)(f)).
• Around half of all councils needed to strengthen their policies and procedures for receiving and managing enquiries (reg. 7(2)(g)).
• Around a third of all councils needed to strengthen their policies and procedures for receiving and managing complaints (reg. 7(2)(h)).
• Unsurprisingly, most councils had capacity limitations (either in-house staff or contractors) to meet the volume of work they were faced with.
• Around half of all councils needed to strengthen their systems for assessing and managing their capacity needs (from internal and/or external sources).
• Around one in three councils needed to either improve how they were allocating building control work to competent people (eg, using building categories), the linkages with their competency assessment system (under regulation 10), or their employees' understanding and use of their system.

Establishing and assessing competency (regulation 10)

• Many councils had to strengthen their system for assessing the competence of their staff. Common issues included the following.

• Around half of all councils had to better document their competency assessment system, or improve the records they were making of assessments, the outcomes from such assessments, or the reasons for decisions around competency levels.
• Around half of all councils needed to ensure their competency assessment systems met all of the requirements of the regulations, or more clearly drew out the linkages between their systems and the regulations.
• At least one in four councils had not completed their competency assessment process for all of their building control staff.

Training employees (regulation 11)

• Councils had to strengthen their training systems as most did not completely meet all of the requirements of this regulation. The main areas where improvement was needed, included the following.

• Around two thirds of councils needed to strengthen how they were ensuring training was actually being applied in practice by those who had undergone the training (eg, monitoring and reviewing application of training).
• Around one in four councils needed to bring greater rigour to how they were assessing the training needs of personnel in their building control units.
• Around 40 percent of all councils needed to improve how they prepared their training plans and/or the content of their plans (including specifying training outcomes in their plans).
• Around one in four councils were asked to enhance their system for supervising employees under training.

Choosing and using contractors (regulation 12)

• Around half of all councils needed to strengthen how they were accepting and applying producer statements from external experts in their compliance decision-making.
• Around one in three councils had to improve their overall systems for choosing or using contactors or bring greater rigour to how they assessed the initial or ongoing competence of contractors.
• Around one in three councils had to improve how they were monitoring the ongoing performance of contractors they were using.
• Around one in three councils needed to establish more formalised arrangements with other parts of the council they relied on for services (eg, MoUs, agreements, service level agreements, etc).
• Around a half of all councils had to strengthen how they were identifying and/or enabling their building control technical leaders.
• Around one in three councils needed to improve how they were ensuring technical leaders were appointed based on their actual building control technical competence.
• Around one in four councils had to address issues relating to the 'scope' of their technical leadership (eg, gaps, ambiguities, or overlaps in coverage).

Building control resources (regulation 14)

• Around two thirds of councils needed to strengthen their systems for calibrating the equipment they used in building control (such as thermometers and moisture meters).
• Around one in four councils were asked to enhance how they manage the technical information used by their building control units.

Keeping of organisational records (regulation 15)

• Around one in three councils needed to better document their organisational structures, key reporting lines, or relationships with key internal or external stakeholders.
• Around one in five councils had to improve how they were defining and documenting the roles, responsibilities, accountabilities or limitations of their staff and contractors.

Filing (regulation 16)

• Around one in four councils needed to strengthen how they were defining what information was regarded as 'relevant' for filing purposes and/or better ensure such information was consistently being filed on the consent file.

Further information

Hard copies of the report are available by calling the Department on (0800) 242 243. Electronic copies are also available on the Department's website at: http://www.dbh.govt.nz/pub-bca-accreditation

¹ The analysis is limited to material contained in each council's initial assessment report. A number of councils also received one or more reassessment reports and this information was not included in the Department's report.