The wait is almost
over.
It has been 16 months since
Fire Protection Association Australia (FPA Australia) was advised
by the then NSW Secretary of the Department of Finance, Services,
and Innovation that he intended to recognise the Fire Protection
Accreditation Scheme (FPAS) under the Government's co-regulatory
accreditation framework.
Since then, we have worked
hard to bring FPAS to the point where recognition was
possible.
On 1 July, 2020, we expect
that the NSW Secretary of the Department of Customer Service will
approve of the FPA Australia (FPAA) as an accreditation authority
with respect to the accreditation of persons under section 59 of
the Building and Development
Certifiers Act 2018.
This approval will be given
in writing, and the announcement will soon thereafter be published
in the NSW Government Gazette.
Recognition will be granted
for:
- Fire Systems
Design (FSD) work carried out under clauses 136AA and 146B;
and
- Fire Safety
Assessment (FSA) work carried out under Part 9, Divisions 5 and
7,
of the Environmental Planning and
Assessment Regulation 2000.
The approval will be the
culmination of months of work since the role of 'competent fire
safety practitioner' was first implemented in October,
2017.
Since then, FPA Australia has
not only tailored its FSD accreditation to meet the needs of the
Government, but has created - from scratch - a complete
accreditation class for FSA.
From 1 July, 2020, it is
expected that anyone endorsing plans and specifications (apart from
C8 or C14 certifiers), or carrying out annual fire safety
assessment work, will have to hold accreditation with FPA Australia
in order to continue doing the work.
As at 5pm on 30 June, this
means that:
-
129 practitioners are accredited to carry out design - 83 in
detection, 81 for hydrants and hose reels, and 70 designing
sprinklers; and
-
559 practitioners are accredited to perform fire safety
assessment work.
In fact, over 1,000 people
have submitted applications to be a fire safety
assessor.
These accreditations are transitional - practitioners will have to
become fully qualified within four years - however, we will
continue to be able to accept applicants for transitional
accreditation until 1 June, 2021.
FPA Australia is proud of the
hard work of our Accreditation and Licensing team to get the
industry to the point where recognition was possible.
It has been challenging, but
we are proud to see so many applicants making it through the
process, and look forward to many more gaining accreditation over
the next 12 months!
We would like to thank our
staff who have dedicated themselves to the cause and made their way
through a mountain of work to get us to this point.
For more information about
the recognition of FPAS or the application process, please contact
us at fpas@fpaa.com.au
or (03) 8892 3131.