Outgoing LABC President Richard Scott on Improving Building Control

Here at LABC, in our role as membership organisation for a national network of local authority building control teams in England and Wales, we're committed to providing public and consumer protection as well as to enforcing the building regulations.

Here are just some of the ways we're doing this, according to outgoing president Richard Scott at the LABC President's Reception last night...

Driving performance standards

It took months of work by our members in 2017 to agree which best practices would be central to a soon to be introduced performance standards framework.

We also worked on how we're going to measure improvement and train our teams in these best practices (and of course to make sure there are enough people employed to carry them out). 

The newly formed LABC Standards Committee, which has the power to appoint its own independent Chair has now approved these standards and they're currently being trialled.

We've produced a series of videos which answer the questions relating to the introduction of a local authority building control performance standards framework. Here's the first:

To view the rest of the videos, visit Introducing LABC's performance standards framework

ISO

We've also created a single 2015 ISO. This is now fully documented and we're working with the UKAS-accredited Alcumus ISOQAR on rolling out independent audits across our network.

Creating learning

There's an urgent need to recruit and train more building control surveyors, and LABC are actively helping to do this. We've employed new people who have expertise in creating learning for the development of our Learning Management System, with the aim of providing first class training to new recruits from a wide variety of backgrounds. That training will be matched to competencies and career development.

For the first time in many years, we now have a large number of new surveyors who can access learning programmes from anywhere in the country and attend our various subsidised Boot Camps to gain intensive coaching and practical knowledge.

Find out about and register your interest in building control qualifications and apprenticeships

Developing qualifications

Another way of increasing the number of new recruits into building control is to increase the number of routes into the profession, and with the help of the University of Wolverhampton and the support of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), we're doing just that.

With their assistance we're developing an apprenticeship, a pre-graduate certificate, a diploma and a building degree with a Building Control specialism.

Being at the heart of building control means that we're in a unique position to help improve standards, ensure public safety and assist in the construction of buildings that are safe, healthy and efficient, and that's what we'll continue to do as an organisation.

Charity information

Richard has been the energetic focus of a mammoth 12-months of fundraising for Pancreatic Cancer UK, which has raised more than £42,500 for the charity.

There's still time left to donate before his term as President comes to an end and the role of President passes to Winchester's Head of Building Control, Chris Griffith-Jones, who will be nominating his own charity. Find out more and donate on his JustGiving page.

Introducing LABC's performance standards framework (Videos)