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Balanced Scorecards

Building Standards in Scotland

On the 21st June 2004, Scottish Ministers agreed to the establishment of the Scottish Building Standards Agency (SBSA). The SBSA took over the function of the Building Standards Division of the Scottish Executive.

The Deputy Minister for Communities gave the SBSA responsibility for auditing verifiers (at present the Local Authority) during the 6 year period of appointment as verifiers. These audits are against a series of measures agreed with individual authorities and the SBSA and are set out in the form of a Balanced Scorecard.

The Balanced Scorecard concept is widely used in organisations of different types and industry sectors around the world. It is a means to establish a performance management framework that delivers and demonstrates continuous improvement for a Service.

A Scorecard is intended to give focus to performance information – measuring what matters to give a balanced view of performance. It helps focus on a small number of measurable outcomes that provide an overview as to how a Service is performing by identifying critical success factors and prioritising management activity.

How the Balanced Scorecard is used in Building Standards

The Balanced Scorecard is a business action plan for how the Building Standards Service within Aberdeenshire will be run each year. In many ways it is the Building Standards Service Plan. Improvement actions are identified and an implementation Action Plan for these improvements is established.

There are five perspectives within the Building Standards Scorecard. These are:

  1. Public Interest
  2. Private Customer
  3. Internal Business
  4. Continuous Improvement, and
  5. Finance

The SBSA audit each verifier once in the 6 year period, or, as seen fit by the Agency. If a verifier is found to have weaknesses a re-audit will take place.

It should be noted that the Balanced Scorecard only covers the Verification role of Building Standards, i.e. the verification of Building Warrant applications and completion certificates. It takes no account of the add-ons such as enforcement and general advice/guidance.