The UK Roads Liaison Group (UKRLG) Asset Management Board, with support from key stakeholders, has produced a revised Highway Inspector Competence Framework (HICF).
This will in turn lead to changes to the UKRLG Code of Practice Well-managed Highway Infrastructure and the Institute of Highway Engineer’s guidance document Well Managed Highway Liability Risk to incorporate reference to the framework, and the previously released Asset Management Competence Framework.
Inspection calls
Highway inspections are a core aspect of asset management and maintenance, and inspectors are on the front line not just with the public but also in court defending the council's policies, processes and decisions.
Their work represents the decision point at which highways teams determine whether something qualifies as a defect and when this defect must be acted upon.
The new UKRLG framework for the inspector’s role provides a benchmark to establish the core competencies of the role, raises its importance and through optional competencies provides role progression, including a pathway to becoming a highway engineer.
Naturally it also supports highway authorities in aligning the inspector role with the latest code of practice’s risk-based approach and provides a framework to support training and the evidence needed to demonstrate each specific competence.
Working in partnership with the Department for Transport, the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE), the Midlands Highway Alliance and the Midlands Service Improvement Group (MSIG), the UKRLG commissioned Atkins to help develop the framework.
A formal certification scheme is available under the Highway Inspectors Board, administered by the IHE. Training providers can be accredited by the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE).
Highways understands there are already four training providers accredited under the IHE scheme to deliver training in accordance with the framework, while others have said they will be ready by the end of this year.
The IHE said around 4,000 people had passed the highway inspectors training scheme since 2010.
Candidates who successfully complete a course run by an accredited body are eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Highway Inspectors for a period of five years.
Where the role hits the road
- Understand the law in relation to highway authority highway networks
- Escalate/de-escalate the urgency level of repairs based on risk.
Under the optional scope, a highway inspector may have the ability to:
- Update highways inventory records after works have been carried out
- Understand the core principles of asset management
- Create small patching programmes for approval by maintenance engineers.
The UKRLG said: ‘The framework is offered as guidance and is created to support highway authorities without being prescriptive. The highway inspector role in some highway authorities may be structured in such a way that can only embody the core competencies while in some other may also use the optional.’
However, as a result of the framework, and the Asset Management Competence Framework, which Highways reported on earlier this year, key changes (as laid out in draft on the UKRLG website) are set to be made to Well-managed Highway Infrastructure and Well Managed Highway Liability Risk.
These include the following draft passages in the code of practice:
With regards the asset management framework; its ‘adoption should enable highway authorities to manage both their physical and their intellectual assets effectively and efficiently’.
With regards the inspectors framework: ‘The framework is available on the UKRLG website, and is intended to be used by professional bodies in helping to support the development of appropriate qualifications/training for highway inspectors, helping to professionalise this role.’
Updates to the Well Managed Highway Liability Risk document is set to include the following draft passages with regards the inspectors framework:
‘Highway Authorities should be able to demonstrate that their safety inspection team have been assessed against these competence requirements. Registration with the Highway Inspectors Board can contribute positively to risk management and defence of compensation or liability cases. For more details on the scheme, visit the IHE website.
‘Where authorities adopt their own or alternative approach to training, they should engage with their risk, legal and insurance departments to ensure that the chosen approach to training and assessment of highway inspection competence is sufficiently robust for local corporate requirements, as this might need to be justified in any legal action taken against an authority.’
Review
Paul Boss, vice chair of the UK Asset Management Board and chair of the MSIG’s Asset Management Task Group, said he understood the IHE’s liability risk document will be updated shortly but there was no contract in place to update the code of practice.
‘The new framework could have some conflicts with the current code of practice so we put in a summary of the changes required [on the UKRLG website] and as soon as a contract is in place the code will be updated,’ he said.
The framework document states that in adopting the risk-based approach some authorities may manage risks through the use of network hierarchy supported by investigatory levels, while others may wish to move ‘to a dimensionless approach, where the inspector will undertake a risk assessment of the network at ground level’.
It adds: ‘Highway inspectors should be able to achieve all levels of proficiency within their role regardless of which approach is used. On this point, it should be noted that neither approach is deemed better than the other – rather each provides a different way of achieving the same aim. In all cases, it is expected that an ability to effectively assess risks will be a core competence for highway inspectors.’
However, Mr Boss said that in his opinion only a dimensionless policy was truly a risk-based approach.
‘We have a lot of authorities that have gone part way to a risk-based approach. There are varying timelines for inspections and putting the defects right. There is still some way to go for a truly risk-based approach,' he said.
‘While dimension policies have worked and have defended claims for a long time, to have a true risk- based approach you have to move to dimensionless.
‘Some authorities are already operating dimensionless policies. That does not mean it can’t have a risk assessment with some guidelines dimensions in it. What I mean is where you used to have a 40mm or 20mm etc trigger now you can say if it’s below a certain point then it’s not a defect, if it’s above that then a risk assessment is required to determine if it is an actionable defect.
‘As long as it follows the procedure within that risk assessment, the inspector can decide whether or not that is a defect. The insurance industry is on board with this. An insurance officer said to me if an inspector follows the policy of a dimensionless approach and they have actually done the risk assessment in accordance with the policy, even if they have made the wrong decision, that can be defended.’
He added that on the back of the new inspection framework, changes need to be made to asset management system requirements.
‘The risk assessment needs to be built into asset management systems – particularly if you are using the dimensionless approach. It needs to go into your software providers and systems. Everyone needs this so put the pressure on providers to make sure they have it in their software systems along with record keeping.’
