The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS Incorporating the Scottish Association of Chief Building Control Officers and representing Local Authority Building Standards in Scotland The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

7 February 2007 BALANCED SCORECARD ONE YEAR ON: A DAY FOR REVIEW AND IDEAS FOR THE FUTURE BEFORE WE LOOK FORWARD LET US LOOK BACK The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

How do SABSM view the process? What, in their view, are the Balanced Scorecard Principles? The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Principles The purpose of the building standards system is to protect the public interest. To achieve protection of the PUBLIC INTEREST you MUST HAVE  a robust relationship with your PRIVATE CUSTOMER  robust INTERNAL BUSINESS systems  a culture of CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT and  sound FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Principles 1.Receiving a “fit for purpose” acknowledgement from an independent auditor to demonstrate, in a manner which is acceptable to our political leaders, that our service is doing what we believe it is doing. 2.An innovative, customer focused, robust process which does not have a one size fits all approach but is customised to each authority. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Principles 3.Despite this customised approach a robust audit process safeguards against creating an unequal playing field. 4.The building standards service, which has at its core, a public interest responsibility, must be capable of being audited where it can be successfully examined and judged as being “fit for purpose”. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Principles Having established the principles how has practice been rolled out? 1.Preparation of Balanced Scorecard document has been achieved BUT are they active, living documents upon which service provision is based and driven in ALL authorities? 2.Is there truly an effective corporate link within authorities between the building standards business management and the wider council business management. Without this the ability to influence change is severely hindered. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Essential Elements What should be in and what should be out? There is still a view that a balanced scorecard which does not reflect ALL of the local authority building standards responsibilities is severely flawed given that “other responsibilities” can impact on the ability of a local authority to fulfil their “verification duties”. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Essential Elements Understanding of Performance Targets and Outcomes 1.Staff involvement in the process 2.Customer involvement in the process 3.Member involvement in the process 4.Council/Corporate involvement in the process – the business planning links. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Balanced Scorecard Essential Elements The Business Planning / Continuous Improvement Process “The establishment of a robust business plan to spell out the management and working platform aims is essential if the commitment and ownership of all staff is to be achieved and against which a culture of continuous improvement may be evaluated”. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Business Planning Process Feedback suggests that there is increasing awareness by corporate policy units within local authorities of the balanced scorecard process for building standards BUT equally there is evidence to suggest that there is a need for more understanding of these links by all parties :- SBSA Auditors Corporate Managers, and Building Standards Managers The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process Why is the Balanced Scorecard the way forward? 1.A “fit for purpose” bill of health. 2.Provides a measured method of appraising the service. 3.Provide a precise and clear plan with objectives and goals. 4.Raises the level of service. 5.Acknowledgement from an independent auditor that our service is doing what we believe it is doing. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process - Learning Points 1.The audit is not on the whole service provided by the section. This means that any improvements stated in the report have not been appraised against the needs of the section as a whole. For instance, reduce training on non-performance related areas such as enforcement to increase performance on verification duties. It’s not really a service wide balanced scorecard, in the true sense - (it could but only the verification is audited by the SBSA) The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process- Learning Points 2.When framing a balanced scorecard there is the ability to list areas which can be easily met. As a result the fundamental problems of the service may not be addressed. Safeguards must be available to guard against this. Equally safeguards must be available to avoid the creation of an unequal playing field between verifiers. 3.There is a danger that verifiers who set and achieve less challenging targets will receive a higher mark than verifiers with higher aspirations which do not achieve their targets, regardless of the fact that the higher aspirational verifiers “out perform” or provide a “better service” than the verifiers with less challenging targets. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process - Learning Points 4.The Balanced Scorecard aims identified by the SBSA means that a maximum of three areas per perspective should be addressed through the audit process. Is this to allow an audit in two days to reduce the burden on the SBSA. This piecemeal approach will cause problems as it could be seen to be an ineffective objective and audit by ministers. 5.There requires to be an element of prescription in all perspectives to aid consistency of approach between authorities. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process- Learning Points 6.The final report has no action plan or road map if the outcomes produce a “cause for concern” or worse. In order for a Verifier to improve and ultimately achieve excellence, it is essential that the SBSA inform the Verifier of what weaknesses exist and what is expected. 7.The final report does not flow to give you a clear understanding of what the exact problems were. The audit report should highlight in some detail the strengths and weaknesses of an authority. 8.Requests for additional information during the audit meeting are understandable but no time is allowed to follow up these requests as the manager has to be available throughout. This makes the service look unprepared. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process- Some thoughts 1.A pre-audit visit should be made to the section in order to gather knowledge. This will reduce the questions that are to be addressed at the formal audit. 2.A presentation of the service should be carried out by the manager using power point or flip charts. This will reduce the time during the interview in explaining how the service operates how the evidence was gathered and its thinking behind the balanced scorecard topics. 3.The interview time for each topic should be reduced and more closely chaired to ensure that topic is covered within time and without jumping about from topic to topic. 4.Time must be given after each topic to gain the required evidence if appropriate. The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS

The Audit Process Questions? The Scottish Association of BUILDING STANDARDS MANAGERS