Appendix 1: Changes in Pilot Scope
Over the course of the evaluation of the pilot, significant changes were made to the scope of the project. This section provides a short overview of these changes.
- The initial scope for this evaluation was to test the feasibility of remote inspections for low-risk plumbing and drainlaying work. Following initial discussions with BCA staff it became clear that remote inspections had been a commonly used tool for many years. As such evaluating the feasibility of remote inspections didn’t seem sensible – they were widely used and as such must be feasible.
- From the outset of the Pilot, key members of the Governance Group were strongly in favour of a focus on self-certification for plumbers and drainlayers. However, as the pilot didn’t involve self-certification this evaluation is unable to draw any conclusions about self-certification for these occupation groups. However, as noted at the time, remote inspections and digital compliance are seen by many stakeholders as ‘stepping stones’ towards self-certification. While not the focus of this evaluation, the issue of self-certification would be discussed with stakeholders as appropriate.
- The Governance Group for the evaluation was presented with a reframed evaluation plan, focused on determining the reliability of remote inspections. The reframed evaluation would require considerable commitment of resources from BCAs to robustly assess the reliability of remote inspections.
- The Governance Group reconvened to discuss the proposal, as questions had been raised about both the utility of the focus on reliability of remote inspections, and the ability for BCAs to commit sufficient resources. BCAs determine their own processes, are known to be relatively risk averse, and given many were using remote inspections they were already sufficiently confident in the reliability of inspections.
- Following the second substantial shift in scope, the Governance Group settled on a focus on the viability of remote inspection tools (namely Artisan) for creating digital records.