New ISO for construction

Last year LABC (Local Authority Building Control) started consultation with its local authority members to establish a single set of consistent national standards.  Feedback from members was very positive and after a process of formal discussions proposals were created to establish a separate Standards Committee with the option for an Independent Chair.

The Terms of Reference for the Committee also linked Standards with compliance outcomes, surveyor competencies, surveyor learning, consistent service levels and common processes.  With Antony Oloyede (Head of Building Control in Hillingdon) as interim Chair, the new Standards Committee started work early in 2017 and set four objectives:

1. That the LABC Standards should have a 2015 ISO under a UKAS accredited provider and should be audited by that external provider;
2. That the Standards should define all the essential functions of public sector building control including enforcement, public safety and consumer protection;
3. To document a quality system based on the definition of what “good” local authority building control should look like;
4. To provide SMART measures of performance and include the performance measures required by the Building Control Performance Standards Advisory Group (BCPSAG) that collates performance returns for the DCLG and the Welsh Government.

The LABC Board took an early decision that the ISO would be subsidised and should cost less than local authorities would pay to run their own ISO.

Peter Keates, Chair of LABC commented.  'Many building control teams have existing ISOs but the variation is too great and they don’t all cover the whole of building control’s public service duties.  So LABC is going to radically reduce the cost and add support to make the uptake of the new ISO easy.  For local authorities it will improve the relevance, include auto-forwarding to BCPSAG and cost a lot less.  It should be a "no-brainer"'

Anthony Oloyede, Chair of LABC’s Standards Committed, described the work of members.  'It was surprisingly easy to distil the "essential" tasks and processes and slightly harder to agree the measures.  However, the really interesting part was then to use this to define the competencies required and look at the ongoing task of training.  It has been so rewarding to see that our Standards will drive LABC’s Learning operation and, ultimately, even link to the new qualifications we’re developing with the University of Wolverhampton.  The LABC Standards will have real meaning and will be used by local authorities, policy makers, industry and even our customers. They’ll have the reassurance they need and can trust that it has been independently verified.'

Alcumus ISOQAR has been selected as LABC’s external ISO provider.  It has reviewed LABC’s standards framework and ISO and audited LABC’s ‘head office’ functional support and ISO processes.  The ISO is now being rolled out to the LABC membership ready for audits in the New Year.  LABC is recruiting a full time standards manager to be in-place for the roll-out commencing in January 2018.

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