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Building consent authority accreditation - latest news

The accreditation and registration scheme is intended to strengthen New Zealand's regulatory building control system at the critical building consent, inspection and approval stages of the building process. It will ensure those who are responsible for checking that our buildings are being built in compliance with the law have the capacity and capability to perform their regulatory functions successfully.More information about the scheme is available from the Department's website, www.dbh.govt.nz, or call the project team on 0800 242 243.

Accreditation fees

The building industry was recently consulted on proposals to set building consent authority accreditation fees. Several suggestions from this consultation will be considered for incorporation in final policy advice. Examples include:

  • basing fees payable by territorial authorities on the average total value of buildings consented within the previous three financial years (rather than one year) and excluding 'one-off' high value buildings (such as a building that exceeds the total value of all other building work consented in a financial year) from consideration
  • clearly defining what is 'critical' for the purposes of special assessments (once developed, a proposed definition will be tested with sector representatives).

In January 2007, government departments and Local Government New Zealand were consulted about the draft policy proposals for regulations under the Building Act 2004. The proposals will be updated and submitted to the Minister for Building and Construction and Cabinet. Subject to Cabinet approval, the Department expects the fees regulations to be in place by March 2007.

Building consent authority registration and adequate means requirements

During early 2007, the Department expects to consult on building consent authority registration standards and criteria, and the Building Act 2004 requirement that private building consent authorities demonstrate 'adequate means' to meet civil liabilities.

The requirement for building consent authorities to be registered is intended to help improve the overall quality of building controls. It will provide assurance about the steps taken to ensure the general suitability and integrity of organisations that act as building consent authorities.

Issues likely to be addressed in the consultation include:

  • the different objectives of building consent authority registration, relative to building consent authority accreditation - particularly from a risk-management perspective
  • how registration standards and criteria might best be applied to manage risks that are not covered by accreditation standards and criteria
  • how building consent authorities might be required to demonstrate compliance with registration standards and criteria
  • how the Department might approach the assessment of 'adequate means' for private building consent authorities
  • minimum terms and conditions for private building consent authority civil liability insurance.

Accreditation standards and criteria regulation

The Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations 2006 were passed on 18 December 2006, and will come into effect on 1 February 2007. These regulations were developed after consultation with local government, building practitioners and sector organisations.

The regulations set out the standards and criteria that an applicant must meet to be successfully accredited as a building consent authority. The regulations also prescribe the form applicants must use to apply for accreditation.

There are 19 regulations, the most important being that:

  • a building consent authority must have documented and appropriate policies, systems and procedures
  • a building consent authority must demonstrate how it plans to implement effective policies, procedures and systems. It must record the key decisions it makes, the reasons for them, and the outcome and actions of these decisions.

Applicants will have to meet 11 of the standards and criteria by 30 November 2007. By this date, an applicant must have:

  • accredited policies, procedures and systems for performing its building control functions (defined as those statutory functions under the Act)
  • accredited systems for: - ensuring an adequate number of employees and/or contractors fulfil its building control functions - establishing and assessing competence of employees to ensure work is allocated to competent employees or contractors - training employees - choosing and using contractors - identifying and authorising technical leadership - ensuring that the necessary technical resources and equipment are available
  • accredited and adequate organisational records, including job descriptions and organisational charts
  • accredited and adequate systems for filing applications for building consents.

The regulations also require that a building consent authority has systems for:

  • quality assurance management, covering its building control functions (required by 1 December 2010)
  • ensuring that employees and contractors undertaking technical building control work have appropriate technical qualifications (required by 1 December 2013).

The regulations can be downloaded from the Department's website at www.dbh.govt.nz

Accreditation preparation and self-assessment guide

A major step in the process of becoming accredited as a building consent authority is for the applicant organisation to assess its building control operations. To help with this process, the Department is preparing the Building Consent Authority Accreditation Preparation and Self-assessment Guide.

The guide will:

  • help organisations prepare their policies, processes and procedures for accreditation assessment and ongoing compliance
  • help organisations assess how well existing policies, processes and procedures comply with the accreditation requirements
  • help organisations establish how well implemented their existing or new systems are
  • provide good-practice guidance that may be used (or adapted for use) by building consent authorities to demonstrate compliance with the accreditation standards.

Specifically, the guide will provide applicants with:

  • information on the sections of the Building Act that cover the building consent authority scheme
  • information on the content of each regulation in the Building (Accreditation of Building Consent Authorities) Regulations
  • information on the purpose and context behind each regulation
  • guidance and examples to help applicant organisations prepare systems and processes for accreditation assessment
  • a list of questions to help applicants demonstrate how they comply with each regulation
  • information on the building consent authority accreditation process
  • a self-assessment checklist for building consent authorities.

The guide provides a good-practice framework for building control in New Zealand. It will be an important tool for applicant building consent authorities to evaluate their organisational strengths and limitations, and prepare for successful accreditation as soon as possible.

The guide is expected to be released in late February 2007 and will be available soon after the regulations come into force. The Department will distribute copies of the guide to territorial and regional authorities and other sector stakeholders. Copies will also be freely available to download from the Department's website, www.dbh.govt.nz

Financial assistance package

In order for an organisation to be accredited as a building consent authority, two things need to happen. The organisation must be:

  • accredited by the building consent accreditation body, International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ)
  • formally registered as a building consent authority by the Department.

To help councils prepare for accreditation, the Minister for Building and Construction announced a building consent authority accreditation preparation assistance programme of $3 million over three years, to be funded from the building levy.

$2.3 million will be available in the 2006/07 financial year to support the preparation and application process, and provide opportunities for territorial and regional authorities to enhance their capabilities to meet the levels required by the regulations.

Money allocated for the assistance programme cannot be spent on the actual accreditation assessment fees.

CONSULTATION

In October 2006, the Department released a consultation document, Proposals to set Building Consent Authority Accreditation Fees and for Assistance with Accreditation. 52 submissions were received, from local authorities and cluster groups, plus businesses and sector organisations, including Local Government New Zealand, the Registered Master Builders Federation, and the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board.

The Consultation identified that local authorities want help in the following main areas:

  • Direct assistance for clusters, including project management, expert advisers, development of shared service arrangements and web resources
  • Staff competency and assessment tools
  • Training for internal auditors and staff on topics such as accreditation, quality management systems and record-keeping
  • Expert support and advice for self-assessments
  • Good-practice operating notes and procedures

STEERING GROUP

To help us make decisions about the best way the fund can be used to help local authorities, a steering group has been established.

Chaired by John Kay, General Manager of Building Controls at the Department of Building and Housing, membership comprises:

  • Local Government New Zealand
  • Society of Local Government Managers
  • Building Officials Institute of New Zealand
  • Department of Building and Housing representatives
  • local authority representatives from: - Auckland City Council - Central Otago District Council - Palmerston North District Council - Rodney District Council - the formative Building Consent Authority Group.

The steering group will meet regularly over the next few months as the assistance options are agreed and rolled out.

OPTIONS

The assistance package will contain a variety of options for local authorities, depending on their specific needs and state of readiness for accreditation. The assistance options could include:

  • needs assessment in each region
  • national training on accreditation and self-assessment
  • identifying and developing a network of advisory support
  • technical assistance with, for example, project management and competency assessment
  • targeted guidance on developing documentation, processes and systems.

TRAINING

The Department plans to run an initial training course in 15 locations from February to April 2007. This course will:

  • explain the building consent authority accreditation standards and criteria, including quality assurance management systems and processes
  • provide advice for local authorities on how to monitor and improve accreditation management systems and processes to check for and achieve compliance by self-assessment against the accreditation standards and criteria.

The Department will issue regular updates before starting specific programme delivery in March 2007.

Accreditation assessment pilot scheme

The Department is working with International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) to carry out pilot accreditation assessments for a sample of territorial authorities around New Zealand. Pilot assessments started in late November 2006 and continue through January and February 2007.

The project has several purposes and objectives.

  • Obtain information that will help territorial and regional authorities assess their readiness for accreditation and deal with any identified shortcomings in their preparations in a timely manner.
  • Help IANZ assessors trial and fine tune assessment processes in the local authority environment.
  • Help develop guidelines for prospective building consent authorities.
  • Determine what further support territorial and regional authorities need to help them achieve accreditation.

IANZ and Department staff were able to test the application of standards and criteria in live settings during visits to the pilot participants and can now fine tune the assessment methodology. Pilot participants were very supportive of the project and found the visits useful to familiarise their staff with the accreditation methodology, and identify priority areas.

Several initial observations were made.

  • Territorial authorities have derived great value from working collectively to develop documentation to meet the required standards and criteria. However, individual building consent authorities have more work ahead to refine their cluster documentation and make it more specific to their individual organisational needs.
  • Implementing the new processes and procedures can be time consuming and involve trialling new systems alongside old ones.
  • New processes and procedures will need to be fully implemented by the building consent authority before they can be assessed by IANZ.
  • Building consent authorities should apply for accreditation early in 2007.
  • Building consent authorities should use competency assessments to determine the scope of work for their staff.
  • Building consent authorities need to develop procedures to deal with consent applications that fall outside the competency scope of the organisation, for example, contracting arrangements with other organisations and specialist technical experts.
  • Accreditation assessments will take into account the scope and complexity of work and will review arrangements made with other contractors.

Lessons learnt from the pilot assessment will be shared with the sector. In addition, important areas for support identified from the piloting will be factored into the assistance package project.