Consultation

By:

1. The creation of a new transition pathway for a Certifying Plumber to register as Certifying Drainlayer.
2. The removal of some existing transition pathways.

The Board sort industry views on what it is proposing and feedback will be considered at it's December meeting to decide whether or not to proceed with the proposals. If the Board decides to proceed it will consult with the industry on the wording of Gazette notices giving effect to the proposals.

TIMELINE

• Consultation period opens: 20 October 2018
• Consultation period closes: 20 November 2018
• Consideration and decision: By the Board on 4 December 2018

At the Board’s 4 December 2019 Board meeting, it resolved to proceed with a proposal to create a new transition pathway for Certifying Plumbers to become Certifying Drainlayers.

The proposal allows a Certifying Plumber to become registered as a Certifying Drainlayer by:

• Successfully completing an approved course of study. The course will recognise that Certifying Plumbers are already trained in many aspects in common with the equivalent drainlaying requirements and focus on training them on the gaps in their knowledge.
  
  
• Successfully completing a professional conversation (independent assessment) by a subject matter expert (appointed by the Board). The professional conversation will enable the practical competence of the candidate to be assessed.

Subsequent to making that decision, the Board received further submissions both opposing its decision and proposing alternatives. 

The Board considered those further submissions and alternatives at its meeting of 13 February 2019

As a result of those submissions, the Board has resolved not to proceed with a gazette notice at this time.  Before deciding whether to proceed further with the creation of the transition pathway the Board wants to:

• Undertake a further gap analysis of the competency/skill gap between transitioning a Certifying Plumber to become a Certifying Drainlayer and between transitioning a Certifying Drainlayer to become a Certifying Plumber.
  
  
•  Undertake some further discussions with a small working group made up of Certifying Plumbers and Certifying Drainlayers.
  
  

When these two tasks are completed The Board will decide whether or not to continue with the creation of the transition pathway.

This is an important decision. The Board wants to ensure that the decision it makes is the correct one.

Thank you to all those who have taken the time to make submissions, including those who made the further submissions to its 13 February Board meeting.

The Board will continue to keep the industry informed as it works through this process. 

During the month-long consultation, the Board created a range of communications to inform a wide audience that the fees review was underway, and to help the industry engage effectively with the process.

Over the duration of the consultation, the Board's communications reached a total audience of 23,945 people. 7,792 people engaged in newsletter and website information dedicated to the fees review. 5,263 people read about the consultation in an email. 1,174 people dug deeper and engaged in the background information associated with the review. Of those that engaged in the consultation process, 87 submissions providing feedback were received by the Board to assist with their review of the fees.

The response from the industry to this latest consultation was excellent with the Board receiving a record number of submissions. A summary of the submissions can be found at this link.

The number and quality of the submissions received gave the Board a good indication of the views of the industry and was of great assistance to the Board's decision making.

Having considered the submissions, the Board has resolved to retain the two classes of registration-Tradesman and Certifying. The Board remain of the view, as backed by many of the submissions received, that having two classes of registration is an important part of protecting the health and safety of members of the public, preventing damage to property and promoting the competency of persons doing the work. Retaining the two classes helps to ensure that those who have not yet attained the Certifying level are adequately supervised until such time as they have both sufficient training and experience.

The consultation asked the following questions:

1. Do you agree with the Board recognising the new qualification, the New Zealand Certificate in Plumbing, Gasfitting, or Drainlaying?
   
   2. The Board received 61 individual responses to the consultation, 1 response from the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Federation, and 1 response from Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers.

• 86% of people responding supported recognising the new trade qualification, the New Zealand Certificate. 10% did not support the change. The remaining submitters did not answer this question.
  
  
• 76% of people responding supported changing the requirement for overseas trained practitioners to get their trade qualifications assessed by Skills, rather than NZQA. 20% did not support the change and the remaining submitters did not answer this question.
  
  
• The Board also asked for people to give their reasons if they did not support the proposed changes, and gave people an opportunity to comment on any other matters relating to the proposed changes they wished to raise. The Board has considered all the responses it received but there were no consistent themes in those comments.
  
  
• At its final meeting for the year the Board resolved to proceed with the proposed changes to the Gazette notices and a paper is now being prepared to go to the Minister seeking her approval to the proposed changes.