Latest E-Newsletter

 

 

 

February 2012

Those of you producing EPCs using propriety software should have had an update from the software supplier that incorporates SBEM v4.1.d.  If you are using iSBEM you need to download at the usual site www.ncm.bre.co.uk or follow the link here

Also on downloads, the new digital certificate if you need one is available in the Downloads area in CASA.

Please take 30 minutes to update your CPD records, including 2012 objectives.  If you are struggling to identify your CPD activity, there are still quite a few of you that have not demonstrated your knowledge of the 2010 Part L requirements, which we are also chasing on.  We will be conducting a CPD audit of 5% of you as per DCLG Scheme Operating Requirements.  The same requirements specify that we need to police our Code of Conduct that you are all signed up to, so we will also be contacting some of you to ask a few questions about that.  If you have used our customer satisfaction form with some of your clients, it would be helpful if you could send us copies of the responses as this is one way that we can actively police.

The aforementioned Scheme Operating Requirements are about to be re-issued for implementation in April.  From the draft that we have seen, there doesn't seem to be much that will affect individuals directly, but I will bring you up to speed when they are issued.  In the meantime, by way of a refresher on the current requirements:

We are required to audit one certificate per assessor per strand in each 6 month accounting period, (Jan - June; Jul - Dec).  If you lodge regularly in just one strand this won't seem too onerous.  If you lodge occasionally however and across all strands, it will seem as though every time you lodge, you are audited.  In some instances we are auditing every certificate lodged by an individual assessor. Please don't shoot the messenger, they are the scheme operating requirements that when we are audited, are applied very literally, as they are across all schemes.

This does mean for example, that if you lodge an EPC for the first time since 1st July, on 28th December and then another on 3rd January, with no more lodgements through to June, both EPCs will be audited.  If they were both lodged on 3rd January, only one would be audited, assuming they were both in the same strand, i.e. both Level 3 or both Level 4 or both Level 5.  DECs are a separate strand as well.  Somebody has just experienced this, and both buildings were on the same site!

Similarly, if you lodge 20 Level 3 EPCs in the 6 month period one of them will be audited, but if you lodge 19 Level 3 and one Level 4, then the Level 4 and one of the Level 3s will be audited.  It is that arbitrary and literal.

The Scheme Operating Requirements are available in full on the Assessor Area of the Energy Centre web pages, (www.cibseenergycentre.co.uk), so you can check these details for yourself, but I thought it would be helpful to provide commentary on some of the more salient points from time to time.  There is an expectation from the DCLG that we do this.

On a more upbeat note, as participants in the Green Deal pilot programme, we are being audited by UKAS on our systems for accrediting Green Deal Advisors.  Subject to a satisfactory outcome, we will be providing you with the details of the scheme.  The aim is to provide a straightforward APEL based top up for existing EPC assessors that wish to engage in this activity, although it seems probable that there will also be a national exam that all prospective green deal advisers will need to pass.  There will also be the option for anyone not currently EPC qualified to enter the scheme as a fresh starter.

We will also be letting you know what training CIBSE, as a Learned Society, will be providing to help people meet the requirements for becoming a Green Deal Advisor, although of course there are plenty of other providers available, many of whom have probably already sent you details by e-mail.

Finally, I suspect that there are still a lot of Air Conditioning Inspectors that haven't tested their capability to lodge a report with Landmark yet.  We expect there to be other software available in the market, but not necessarily before 6th April 2012. We will also keep you posted on new developments here, not necessarily waiting for the next newsletter opportunity.  In the meantime, if you are still lodging reports with us could I ask you to send only one report per e-mail and to put the full address in the subject line including the postcode.  This may be a little more work for you, but it makes our lodgement record keeping much easier, so that would be appreciated.