Dris proposal for national licensing of the plumbing and gasfitting occupations

Implementation

1.22Implementation of national licensing

National licensing will be implemented for the first wave occupations, including plumbing and gasfitting, following agreement to the reforms by the Standing Council for Federal Financial Relations (SCFFR). Its introduction will necessitate a number of structural and administrative changes to existing licensing arrangements.

A transition strategy is being developed, which includes the preparation of revised operational guidelines for the regulatory agencies involved, communications about the reform to regulatory staff, licensees and the wider public and agreed processes by which existing licensees (current or otherwise) and those in training for a licence are deemed across to the new system.

The National Occupational Licensing Authority (NOLA) was established in 2012 as the central body responsible for administration and policy and will be responsible for the implementation of national licensing.

Under the Occupational Licensing National Law Act 2010 (the National Law), NOLA will delegate its responsibility for the operation of licensing services to nominated regulators in each state or territory that has adopted the National Law.

To assist with the implementation phase, NOLA is establishing Occupational Licensing Advisory Committees (OLACs) and regulator working groups for each licensed occupation. The OLACs will be made up of representatives from industry, unions and skills councils, as well as regulators and consumer groups.

It should be noted that national licensing will not encompass the standards and behaviour (conduct) of licensees once they have obtained a licence. These matters, together with compliance and enforcement, will remain the responsibility of states and territories.

NOLA will work with jurisdictions to achieve a smooth transition to national licensing. This will involve:

Coordination and assistance with the development of consistent transitional provisions for jurisdictional legislation. Transitional arrangements will cover such issues as:

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  deeming current licence holders into national licensing
  
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  deeming administrative transactions, disciplinary/court processes and actions initiated before national licensing began
  
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  transitioning suspended and disqualified licensees
  
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  eligibility for those who initiated or completed training for a licence equivalent to a national licence before national licensing began
  
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  restoration of expired licences
  
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  eligibility for those in training for a restricted licence that will no longer exist under national licensing
  
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  other implementation considerations such as the availability of relevant licensee data held by jurisdictional regulators in preparation for the commencement date, which might otherwise be restricted by jurisdictional privacy laws.
  

Development of clear delegation instruments for jurisdictional regulators. Service agreements will be used to establish consistent licence requirements and service delivery standards for national licensing arrangements across jurisdictions.

Development of clear operational procedures for jurisdictional regulator staff to ensure that the system is implemented consistently across jurisdictions and occupations.

Development of standardised tools, forms and licence formats for use by jurisdictional regulators.

Provision of training and ongoing support for jurisdictional regulator staff on new requirements, national business rules and business processes.

Implementation of the national licensing register across each of the relevant jurisdictional regulators as their systems become compliant with national licensing and they can interface with the national register. The national licensing register will include prescribed information about licensees and former licensees for the licensed occupations. Where it can be justified NOLA aims to minimise the overall net cost of implementation by providing assistance and products in situations where otherwise there might be a duplication of effort by each jurisdiction. For example, it is recognised that each regulator has the challenge of data harmonisation before their data can be loaded into the national licensing register, and there will be areas of commonality where assistance from NOLA can potentially save time, effort and cost.

Development of a range of communication tools to provide information to licensees and other stakeholders of changes which may affect them once the new system is implemented. These tools include direct communications (letters/emails), meetings with licensees and/or industry groups, website content and social media, fact sheets, brochures and a public information campaign.

1.23Key steps in implementation

To address potential concerns of existing licensees at a time of change, the following arrangements have been developed surrounding how licensees will be notified of their national licence; the time frames to apply to the issue and use of those licences; and what they can expect from the new national licence numbering system:

Notification of national licence(s)

Prior to the commencement of national licensing for plumbing and gasfitting occupations, licensees will be contacted with advice on the impending changes and will be asked to provide information concerning their primary jurisdiction. Subsequently jurisdictional regulators will advise licensees by letter of the national licence they will hold following commencement of the system. It should be noted that current state and territory licences will be considered national licences when national licensing commences.

Issuing of new national licence documentation

It is proposed that new national licence documents will be provided to licensees at the time of renewal (rather than on commencement of national licensing). However, some jurisdictions may have the capacity to issue new licence documents to all licensees on the commencement date of national licensing for that occupation. Licensees will be advised by their jurisdictional regulator as to when a national licence document will be made available.

A new national licence numbering scheme is proposed where a unique national licence number would be assigned to each licensee that transitions to national licensing and to each new licensee after the system commences. The national system would identify each entity once only in the licensing database. It is also proposed that an individual, persons in a partnership or company should be able to hold multiple occupational licence categories under this single national licence number.

The proposed national licensing register would have the capacity to search for a licensee’s new national licence number and all previously generated licence numbers.

It is proposed that there will be an agreed transitional period, yet to be determined, during which licensees can use either a jurisdictional or national licence number. After this time all licensees would be required to use their national licence number for identification purposes. The manner of how a licensee can advertise will be covered under existing jurisdictional conduct requirements.

Format of licence documentation

A combination of cards and certificates are currently issued by the jurisdictions. It was observed that the quality of cards and certificates varies greatly between jurisdictions. Commonly for property licensees only a certificate is produced. Cards for the other occupations varied greatly, ranging from laminated cardboard to high-quality cards produced to a similar standard to a driver’s licence with photographic identification.

The National Law allows for an approved form of a national licence. One option proposed is that NOLA or its delegates (existing jurisdictional regulators) would issue:

a licence card (similar to a driver’s licence in size and content) for identification purposes when engaging with members of the public, employers or regulators

a licence certificate to corporate entities.

Currently most jurisdictions, for some of the occupations, can issue a licence card with a photo. For example, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory issue licence cards with photos for the plumbing occupations only. South Australia and Tasmania issue them to all the trade occupations. However, under national licensing NOLA would set the minimum requirements for standard national licence documents and jurisdictions would be required to issue national licences that comply with the requirements.

Note that the inclusion of photo identification on an individual’s licence card would probably increase the cost of a licence where it is not currently provided by state-based regulators. It is possible that the cost of a photo licence could be minimised with the economy of scale of all participating jurisdictions.