BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION

These National Occupational Standards (NOS) have been developed as a key component of the scheme to support the production of Home Condition Reports (HCRs) by competent Home Inspectors. The HCR is an essential part of the Home Information Pack (HIP), which will be mandatory when legislation to reform the home buying and selling process in England and Wales is enacted and implemented.

1. What are National Occupational Standards?

NOS describe the skills and knowledge required to undertake a particular job to the level determined by the sector for which they are intended. In other words, they describe best practice and competence.

NOS are NOT training courses (although they provide a basis for training), nor are they qualifications. They usually form the basis of either a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) or a Vocationally Related Qualification (VRQ).

Only qualifications based on NOS are eligible for inclusion within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in England and Wales. Qualifications in the NQF have status and validity. They are eligible for public funding through the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in England and Education and Learning Wales (ELWa) in Wales.

NOS are developed to criteria laid down by the National Standards Board. To obtain approval, NOS must represent the needs of employment in the sector and the job function for which they are designed.

Standards Setting Bodies such as the Property Services National Training Organisation (PSNTO), now Property Housing Cleaning and Facilities Management Skills (PHCFMS), are guardians of NOS. They have a responsibility to oversee the sector’s development, maintenance and review of the Standards.

NOS are produced with public funding so are in the public domain. They may be downloaded free of charge from the PHCFMS website. A small charge is made for supply of NOS on CD and/or in hard copy to cover production and distribution costs.

2. Do the NOS apply across the UK?

NOS are developed to cover the four countries of the United Kingdom, but also reflect differences between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

NOS for Home Inspectors are no different. Although the need for their development was driven by legislation proposals covering England and Wales only, to satisfy regulatory body criteria consultation did take place in Edinburgh and Belfast. This may provide for future use, if and when similar legislation is introduced in either, or both, Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

3. How were the NOS developed?

The Home Inspector Certification Board Steering Committee (HICBSC) established a Working Group to oversee the development of the NOS and subsequently the qualification (see section 7 below). This Working Group was carefully chosen and included representatives of a wide cross-section of employers and professional bodies such as the Association of Building Engineers (ABE), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the Institute of Building Maintenance and Management (IMBM), the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The Standards were developed under the guidance of PHCFMS in its role as Standards Setting Body for the sector, working in conjunction with Surveyors and Valuers Accreditation (SAVA) Ltd, now Property Industry Research (PIR) Ltd. SAVA/PIR was in turn grant funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

Standards consultants, Christie Associates, were selected by competitive tender. They led workshops of people with current experience of inspecting property, who identified the job functions and standards of best practice of a Home Inspector. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) provided advice as regulatory bodies.

4. Defining the Home Inspector’s functions

As the role of Home Inspector was to be a completely new one, it was important initially to define the likely job functions involved:

• the Home Inspector will have a duty of care both to the seller and the buyer

• the Home Inspector’s client will be the seller or their representative (possibly an estate agent, lawyer or specialist provider of HIPs)

• HCRs will be produced to a predetermined format. They will require all key elements of each home to be rated against clear criteria

• HCRs will be made available electronically and data banked with a unique reference number

• energy ratings will be included in line with a European directive which comes into force in 2006

• valuations will not be included, although mortgage lenders may, where appropriate, use HCRs as the basis for lending decisions

• there will be clear requirements in reporting the condition of services

• certain parts of a property which are not regarded as key will be excluded from the HCR (for example, swimming pools and garden sheds)

• Home Inspectors may not have the specialist technical construction knowledge to be competent to report on every type of property construction. The NOS require Home Inspectors to recognise the limits of their own competence and refer work outside their area of construction technology expertise to appropriate Home Inspectors.

5. How are the NOS made up?

In common with all NOS, those for Home Inspectors break the job down into its component parts which are called Units.

Units are sub-divided into two or more Elements. An Element relates to an activity a Home Inspector is competent to do.

Each Element includes:

• performance criteria which describe what competent performance requires

• related knowledge and understanding which the Home Inspector must have

• scope or range definitions of the situations the Home Inspector must be competent to deal with.

In order to demonstrate competence in a particular Element and/or across a whole Unit, candidates must show they can meet all performance criteria across the scope or range of situations and have all the required knowledge and understanding.

There is no reference to specific acts of parliament or regulations in the NOS as these change from time to time.

Different Units, and Elements in them, do not have the same weight. For example, for Unit 4, Element 1 ‘Inspect property for condition’, trainee Home Inspectors will need to develop considerable knowledge and experience of property structure, construction and materials performance, whilst Unit 2, Element 3 ‘Contribute to the security of property’ is vitally important, but will not require the same amount of learning.

6. At what level is a qualification based on the NOS for Home Inspectors likely to be?

Qualifications based on the NOS for Home Inspectors are likely to be at Level 4 in the NQF, alongside a pass degree, HND or NVQ for managers, in accordance with the following level descriptors:

Level 1
Competence which involves the application of knowledge and skills in the performance of a range of carried work activities, most of which may be routine or predictable.

Level 2
Competence which involves the application of knowledge and skills in a significant range of varied work activities, performed in a variety of contexts. At this level there must be activities that are complex or non-routine and some individual responsibility and autonomy. Collaboration with others, perhaps through membership of a work group or team, may often be required.

Level 3
Competence which involves the application of knowledge and skills in a broad range of varied work activities performed in a wide variety of contexts, most of which are complex and non-routine. There is considerable responsibility and autonomy and control or guidance of others is often required.

Level 4
Competence which involves the application of knowledge and skills in a broad range of complex technical or professional work activities performed in a wide variety of contexts and with a substantial degree of personal responsibility and autonomy. Responsibility for the work of others and the allocation of resources is often present.

Level 5
Competence which involves the application of skills and a significant range of fundamental principles across a wide and often unpredictable variety of contexts. Very substantial personal autonomy and often significant responsibility for the work of others and for the allocation of substantial resources feature strongly, as do personal accountabilities for analysis and diagnosis, design, planning, execution and evaluation.

7. Uses of NOS

The NOS for Home Inspectors were developed primarily in order to form the basis of a qualification at Level 4, initially a VRQ with the expectation that this would later become an NVQ. In this connection the Awarding Body for the Built Environment (ABBE) are currently researching and trialling the proposed VRQ.
In addition however, the NOS may also be used for:

• planning personal development, including continuing professional development (CPD)

• developing job descriptions or person specifications

• recruiting people with the right qualities and qualifications

• as a basis for staff performance appraisals

• to demonstrate to insurers that a consistent and measurable service is being delivered

• as a benchmark for delivering high quality service

• to ensure that Home Inspectors are operating to a consistent and high standard.

Education and Training providers may find the NOS useful for:

• designing courses, programmes or training materials, including those for CPD

• developing qualifications which may be academic and/or vocational

• benchmarking existing and future courses and programmes

• assessing the competence of individuals.