Regulatory Competence Management

 

The ability of a Regulatory Body to fulfil its responsibilities depends largely on the competence of its staff. In order to develop and maintain the necessary competence and skills of its staff, the regulatory body needs to establish a specific process for competence management based on a gap analysis (Paragraph 4.13 of GSR Part 1 (Rev. 1)). Such process should include the development of a specific training programme depending on the competence and skills considered necessary. The Safety Report entitled “Managing Regulatory Body Competence” (Safety Report No.79) provides guidance on analysing and managing the competence of regulatory staff and on how to develop a training and development programme. .

This part describes a basis for assessing competence needs for both the near and the longer term. The quadrant model allows the Regulatory Body to map existing competences and compare them with required one while the Systematic Assessment of Regulatory Competence Needs (SARCoN) tool will help in conducting the gap analysis.

The safety report also gives advice on methods of acquiring or matching competence to the needs of an organization identifying five categories of acquiring competence:

1. Establishing training and development programmes

• Knowledge framework for education and training
• Education and training in the IAEA to support capacity building and competence management

2. Participation in knowledge networks

• Knowledge networks are established to promote the pooling, analysis and sharing of nuclear technical, safety and security knowledge and experiences at national, regional and international levels.
• The IAEA also established steering committees whose mission is "To advise the IAEA on how to best assist Member States to develop suitable competence management systems for their regulatory bodies".
  

3. Reorganization and replacement

• The analysis of competence needed may show some competence gaps at an individual or sub divisional level but no significant gaps at the level of the whole organization. Revising the division of responsibilities and tasks within the organization or placing members of the staff in new positions may provide a method to address competence gaps.

4. Recruitment

• The recruitment strategy within a regulatory body will depend on a number of factors. These factors are likely to change with time and hence the regulatory body will need to review the strategy periodically to establish whether it is still appropriate and viable. If new or relatively new graduates or people from disciplines unrelated to nuclear facilities and activities are recruited, more extensive training programmes will be required to establish appropriate competences in scientific and technological areas.
• It is inevitable that all new staff will need training even if they have the technical competences needed by the organization. This is because it is necessary to instill in such recruits the culture of the regulatory body and establish in them some of the competences described in the competence model they may lack.

5. Use of external support

• It may though be practicable for the regulatory body to use external support in some cases.
• When using external support, it is important that the regulatory body have competences to enable it to be an "intelligent customer" to control the work done for it. It needs to have sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge and experience.