Council on track to meet consent demand

Almost all of these recommendations had already been identified by the Council and are in the process of being addressed or implemented.

Council’s General Manager Regulation and Democracy Services Peter Mitchell says the Council is confident that it can handle the increased demand on building consent services in coming months and years.

“There is no doubt the past year has been a tough one for our city and the Council. There remains a big job ahead and we know it won’t be easy, but we have been putting resources and processes in place to ensure we get a good outcome for the city,” Mr Mitchell says.

The DBH review of the period July to November 2011 found that 30 per cent of consents had taken longer than the statutory 20 working day period to process, and identified other areas of efficiency gains. The report notes that at the time of the assessment the Council’s consenting processes were operating from multiple sites due to the earthquakes. The consenting processes are now operating from the Civic Offices in Hereford Street.

It recommended changes to three areas to address the issues: workflow software and information technology; organisational structure and resourcing models; and process efficiencies (outlined below).

“We identified early on that an efficient building consent process will be crucial to the successful rebuild of the city and we have taken steps to ensure this happens. We are looking to recruit up to 70 new staff over time to help the city deal with demand, and will soon have new workflow software in place,” Mr Mitchell says.

“Times have changed and we are changing our processes to address the new environment in which we all live and work.”

Key changes include:

• The recruitment of up to 70 new staff over time to help handle demand.
• The creation of a streamlined process which provides a one-stop-shop for the processing of all Central City earthquake-related consents.
• The launch of new technology and administration systems to replace outdated software and reduce administration times.

Mr Mitchell says the DBH review is an important step to ensuring we are on the right track – the fact that we are already addressing the recommendations set out in the report is reassuring.

He says the Council also looks forward to working collaboratively with Director of the Christchurch Central Development Unit, Warwick Isaacs in supporting him to achieve the objectives of the Christchurch Central Development Unit.

“Where a complex building in the Central City is being designed we will continue to highly recommend to our customers that applicants request a pre-application meeting, so that we can help them towards submitting a technically complete application.”

Department of Building and Housing report recommendations and responses:

Workflow software

a) Replace GEMS software with a system which supports and enables the business and assists with workflow management and automation.
Council response: A package solution, known as Pathways, which is used extensively by Councils in Australia and New Zealand, has been selected. Work is underway with the supplier on the configuration, integration and migration of data required to replace the existing GEMS software. The target date for the first release is September 2012.

In January this year the Council went live with Build Express – this is a cloud based project document management system that enables and quickens the transfer of consent documents and communication between applicants, consulting engineers and Council officers. It allows 24 hours visibility for our customers on where their consent is at. It is ideally suited to large volume customers.

b) Implement a management reporting system which tracks meaningful measures from the customer perspective as well as statutory processing times.
Council response: New Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to specifically track earthquake related consents have been put in place. To support this we have reassessed our reporting services and improvements are being made with dedicated personnel delivering new reports on the new targets.

c) Review other support systems for interoperability issues and efficiency.
Council response: The focus here is on the new field technology used for building inspections, Build Express and the new Pathways. This work is ongoing.

d) Roll out tablet PCs to support the electronic collection of inspection records.
Council response: This has gone well with a significant reduction in hard copy paper coming back to the office. One of the main benefits has been the ability to email inspection records to owners, their project managers and contracted companies rather than their need to go to the building site to view the hard-copy record there.

e) Develop an electronic tracking system for code compliance certificate applications.
Council response: This is a project that requires moving onto new technology and some process change to achieve better tracking. This work is underway right now.

Organisation structure

f) Undertake a review of the organisational structure and consider realignment to create accountability and oversight across the end to end process.
Council response: This has been achieved with the joining together of all building technical personnel into the Building Operations Unit. New performance targets have been set and we are working on process changes within the new structure to achieve these.

g) Create resource flexibility to enable resources to be able to be moved between areas of high demand within the Building Consent Authority.
Council response: This is a critical focus within the new Building Operations Units.

h) Reorganise technical resources to work in process streams (see item below re categorising consents).
Council response: This is being put in place. New teams aligned to types of services are being formed – we are working on the new team structures right now. These teams will have new targets – such as the 14 day target for processing building consents within the Central City.

i) Establish a team to focus on the issue of historic code compliance certificate applications to free up staff to concentrate on issuing new certificates.
Council response: The Council has dedicated officers working on the historic code compliance applications. There are also people assigned to the new earthquake works related applications and 100 per cent of these are being processed within the 20 days.

Process efficiency gains

j) Categorise consent applications into streams including volume residential (includes PMOs and group home builders) commercial, minor consents and stand alone applicants and apply different processes for each processing stream.
Council response: The new team structures will reflect the streaming of consent applications. We already do this in some types of works and we’re extending this across all types.

k) Institute “free” pre-application meetings for commercial work to improve the quality of applications and increase the use of external peer reviews.
Council response: Council has resolved that there be no charge for the first half-an-hour of pre-application advice for Regulatory Services. This would be for a twelve month trial period. Councillors considered this change would send an important signal that the Council was open for business and that the rebuild was important to Christchurch.

l) Improve consent application quality to reduce processing and rework time.
Council response: This is a key issue and the pre-application meetings will help to resolve this. The Council has undertaken and will continue a public information campaign about pre-application meetings, particularly through the Go Ahead branded campaign. Our new Build Express service for insurance company project management offices is also now being rolled out to large volume group building companies. This is helping to improve consent application quality.

m) Implement a technical vet of hard copy applications before acceptance.
Council response: While the Council agrees with this recommendation we have been successful in promoting faster electronic consent applications. Ninety-five per cent of applications are now electronic.

n) Adopt the National BCA Competency Assessment System and use to target training and development and move to a system of self allocation of work.
Council response: This is a major strategy now for the new Building Operations Unit within Council. We are well along the road in transferring our technical staff onto the National Competency framework. Self allocation is a process change that will occur with the realignment of teams now underway.

o) Review the 100 per cent audit of inspection records.
Council response: The Council will review this area to address the issue raised in the report.

p) Implement systems in the inspection process which require the collection of supporting documentation throughout the process rather than at the Code Compliance Certificate stage.
Council response: The tablet devices being used are assisting in this but we have more development required to get this in place. We expect significant progress over the next two months.

q) Train code compliance staff to require the provision of appropriate documentation.
Council response: Training is underway and in fact we have increased training resources for all the technical services that we deliver. A general increase in capability is required and put into action.

r) Undertake further analysis to identify the source of delays within processes.
Council response: We have assigned officers to reporting services; already better data is being used to give insight into processes and where the cycle time delays are taking place. We note the delay is not just in process but also because of too many hand-offs from team to team.

s) Undertake further analysis of the type and frequency of demand entering the system and identify failure demands with a view to reducing or eliminating.
Council response: This is being achieved with improvements to our reporting services.