It is the responsibility of the Scheme Manager to check the credentials of and recommend the appointment of the audit team and ensure the team fulfils the requirements of training and experience as dictated by the road/highway authority’s RSA procedures.
If the audit is of a developer-led scheme additional liaison will be required with the HAAO as to the acceptability of the proposed team prior to confirming the appointment.
National standards contain detailed criteria for audit team knowledge and experience which has been incorporated into SoRSA membership requirements and the assessment of awards of Certificates of Competency. However, it was stated in HD 19/15 that the skills and training requirements are not mandatory and individual Project Sponsors are recommended to adopt a flexible approach recognising that auditors come from a wide range of technical backgrounds. This flexibility and scheme-specific experience is reinforced in GG119. Individual auditors are appointed on a scheme by scheme basis and there is no blanket authorisation even for those that are awarded a Certificate of Competency.
A Certificate of Competency is a mandatory requirement for at least one team member for audits on the trunk road network but may not identify appropriate experience for local schemes.
Assessment of auditor credentials should be achieved via submission of a specific CV tailored to the particular scheme that shows auditor’s current CPD and relevant recent audit and collision investigation/road safety engineering experience over at least the last two years. A Safety Audit CV Template can be found here.
Whilst it is necessary that high standards of knowledge and experience are maintained, it is important that local authorities define their own requirements for audit qualification and experience to allow for progression of suitable professionals through the various levels of team members to deliver the scale and types of audit required locally.
Authorities may wish to consider including in local procedures a relaxation of the number of auditors who hold a full professionally recognised audit certification, or even reducing the experience level of auditors to be more relevant to local schemes. It is recommended however that at least one member of the audit team holds the basic knowledge and training requirements of the national standard. This can be achieved by using occasional external expertise supplemented by local staff to develop an internal skills base.
As part of the formal appointment of the audit team, all the material mentioned in the Audit Brief needs to be provided to the audit team. – including a blank layout plan suitable for marking up the locations of any safety problems.
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