Building standards verification service - workforce strategy: closure report

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the report

This report summarises the delivery of the workforce strategy for the building standards verification service over the three-year period from October 2020. Detail on the projects and actions are provided to show the benefits of the strategy and the actions that have now been implemented.

Future work will continue to pursue the positive outcomes of the strategy.

1.2 Background

The aim of the strategy was to create a competent and sustainable service for the future. The focus was to raise the profile and grow the profession by attracting more individuals to work in a building standards role and to create a high-performing and skilled workforce by raising the competence of individuals.

The strategy was published on 1 October 2020 and the approach comprised national and local commitments to deliver change for the building standards profession over a three-year period. The Workforce Strategy was one of the seven workstreams overseen by the Building Standards Futures Board which has the remit to develop and implement transformative change to strengthen how the building standards system is delivered.

The sole purpose of the workforce strategy was to benefit local authority verifiers. Delivering a first class and resilient building standards system was at the heart of the strategy commitments.

The main drivers for change related to the forecasted loss of expertise from the workforce due to retirement of long-serving staff and the loss of expertise through turnover and career moves out of a building standards role. An older demographic profile resulted in continuing losses of experienced staff and the difficulties in recruiting represented an ongoing and significant loss of capability and capacity across a workforce of around 570 staff in 2020.

A workforce data collection exercise was carried out in 2019 to provide an evidence base for the development of the strategy. The exercise was repeated on an annual basis to monitor the impact of actions over the period from 2020 to 2023. An analysis report covering 2020 to 2022 is available online^[1] which provides a three year trend analysis. The most recent data collection provided a snapshot of the workforce as at 31 July 2023 and shows the impact of the strategy in full. The data indicates that the workforce has grown from 559 in 2022 to 597 in 2023. The age profile of the workforce is changing with a steady increase in the 16-39 age range over the three years of the strategy; in 2020 the people in this age range represented 29% of the overall workforce with this now rising to 34%.

Actions were designed to be delivered in partnership between Scottish Government and Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS). The intention was to involve verifiers, and individuals drawn from across the profession, to inform decision-making and support delivery.

A Workforce Strategy Working Group with membership from Building Standards Division, LABSS, and latterly the Building Standards Hub, was established in 2020. The Working Group met on a monthly basis for the duration of the three-year delivery period and bi-annual Delivery Status Reports were issued to all verifiers to provide updates on progress.