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Construction

In the absence of a dedicated quality and risk management standard for this group of professionals, we have used our own 'Professions Series' as the framework for developing such a standard. It provides a practical framework that organisations can use to help achieve best practice and has been developed taking into consideration the Codes of Practice of the various professional and authoritative bodies within this sector.

In creating our quality assurance questionnaire, we set out to be as holistic as possible in our approach to risk management.  To this end we drew on a wide variety of sources for the content including the ISO 9001 Quality Standard, RIBA’s ISO 9001 Tool Kit, the RICS Red Book, the Investors in People Standard, along with relevant Codes of Conduct, regulatory and legislative requirements, authoritative guidance, and of course our own experience of claims and notifications.

Our primary quality assurance-based risk management service for construction organisations, either insured or seeking insurance, is the self-assessment process.  This process uses a quality assurance focussed questionnaire to:

• provide a rigorous benchmark against which firms can assess their risk management controls;
• raise awareness across a broad spectrum of operational, regulatory and business risks;
• assist firms to fulfil their compliance obligations;
• enable underwriters to view individual firm’s risk profiles and delve deeper into areas of strengths and weaknesses of practice management and to make better informed underwriting decisions;
• facilitate comparisons of risk profiles within selected groups;
• enable underwriters to tailor coverage and risk management support solutions accordingly.

The self-assessment process is completed in two stages using QRisk; QBE’s innovative web-based interactive software designed to help our policyholders to assess and manage their risks more easily.

1. Completion of the Questionnaire in QRisk

There are three levels of questionnaire as follows:

• Risk Management Essentials Questionnaire (RMEQ) - to establish necessary information on essential risk management controls, often used to assess risk prior to policy inception;
• Standard QA Questionnaire - a more extensive set of questions but still focussed on the essential risk management controls representing a high PI risk if found to be lacking;
• Comprehensive QA Questionnaire - a broad-ranging set of questions that provides a review of best practice approaches as advocated by a wide variety of sources.  This extends the high PI risk questions covered in the Standard QAQ, to include those of medium and lower risk.

Your underwriter will invite you to complete one of the above although higher levels may be completed as an option. Reports on the questions and your answers, where completed, can be downloaded at any stage for sharing within your practice, and for input from others where needed.

2.   Review Recommendations

For any requirements in the questionnaire that are not fulfilled, or only partially fulfilled, QRisk will generate automatic recommendations which are prioritised to 3 levels according to the likelihood of causing PI claims.   QRisk enables you to provide feedback and submit any changes implemented as a result of the recommendations, from which your risk profile will be automatically updated.  A Recommendations Report and updates can be downloaded at any stage.

Once you have provided us with feedback on any recommendations, you will be eligible to claim CPD credits as our QA process is accredited under the RIBA CPD provider’s scheme.  Estimated times for CPD purposes are:

• Standard (Short Form) QAQ and feedback process – 3 hours CPD
• Comprehensive QAQ and feedback process – 6 hours CPD

For Architects, QBE’s distance learning tool falls under the core curriculum area of Internal Management.   Questionnaires for Engineers, Surveyors and Design & Construct firms are also accredited on the RIBA CPD Scheme so these professions should refer to their individual CPD schemes for details of how CPD credits might be applied.  

Please note that only the comprehensive version of the questionnaire qualifies for CPD as RIBA preferred to reserve this benefit for those adopting the holistic approach to risk management. This applies to the questionnaires for Architects, Engineers, Design & Construction and Surveyors.

Using QRisk is completely free of charge to policy holders and some potential clients.   Participants will benefit from a comprehensive and impartial review of their business and operational controls whilst a health check against similar criteria by an independent consultant could cost a four figure sum.

We hope you find QRisk straightforward, informative, and above all, an effective way to help you manage risk within your business.  You will be given the opportunity to provide feedback on QRisk following completion of your questionnaire and we would encourage you to send us your thoughts to contribute towards its continual improvement.

What about Compliance?

Apart from negligence claims, failure to manage governance, risk and compliance effectively can result in lost clients, disciplinary action, prosecution (with potential for fines and/or imprisonment), financial impact, personal injury or even death and loss of reputation with all that this entails.  Whilst the guidance in our Questionnaires cites any related Acts, Regulations, Codes etc., they are not intended to be just compliance tools, but rather to provide a quality assurance framework under which a broad range of risk management issues, including compliance, can be addressed.

Additional Services

In addition to the self-assessment process available through QRisk, other support services are available.   This may be in response to QBE Underwritings’ own requirements, for instance, following one or more claims, or at the request of a broker or policy holder and a business case can be demonstrated.  The following on-site and bespoke services may attract consultancy fees on longer-running projects, although under certain circumstances fees may be subsidised by QBE.

Site Audit: This provides a more in-depth investigation than is capable through the self-assessment process. Site audits involve examination of a complete cross-section of the firm’s files in detail and all practice management policies and procedures. Particular emphasis is placed on reviewing complaints and claims histories and the measures instigated to prevent recurrence of the problems encountered. To prepare for a site audit or review, please download our Construction - Audit Preparatory Checklist and Site Audit Information Sheet.

Quality Standards Implementation Service:  This is applicable to organisations of all types and sizes utilising both generic QA standards (e.g. ISO 9001) and industry specific Standards, Regulations or Codes.  The process includes assistance with documentation, implementation, training, and preparation for third party assessment.

Training Services: Focussing on risk management, quality assurance and management systems, our training packages can be delivered as public courses or to individual practices whereby the emphasis can be tailored to suit particular claims issues and risk management issues within the firm.

Bespoke Consultancy Services:  These are available to clients with unique requirements for which a service can be specially developed.  This might include for instance, risk reviews with individual personnel, root cause analysis, or detailed claims reviews, and will draw on a mixture of risk management, quality assurance and analytical expertise.