Understanding service and user requirements for assets

Fitness for Purpose Assessments complement councils’ asset condition audits by assessing, scoring and ranking factors other than physical condition.

Since 2017 we have co-designed our fitness for purpose assessment methodology with asset managers, infrastructure planners and service managers from more than 20 councils. Our assessments are conducted from the perspective of the service providers or users who have an intimate understanding of their requirements for facilities. They are fully customisable and address a wide range of aspects such as location, size, configuration and fit out, access to parking and public transport, and suitability for users with physical or cognitive disabilities.

Questions answered by our Fitness for Purpose Assessments include:

• How well does the asset support service delivery and the needs of the community?

• What specific improvements are required to ensure the asset will continue to meet service needs into the future?

• Should Council invest in the maintenance and renewal of the asset, is a major upgrade required, or is the asset surplus to requirements?

• Which assets should be prioritised for works and when are those works required?

For community planners

In our experience, Fitness for Purpose Assessments are one of the most useful exercises a council can undertake to understand of how well (or how poorly) existing community facilities are performing. They enable planners to engage directly with community services providers, users and asset managers to explore future options for facilities and agree on priorities.

One of our clients described the assessments as a “win - win - win”; they provide services with a means to articulate their facility needs, asset managers with a prioritised list of improvements, and community infrastructure planners with evidence-based projects for the Community Infrastructure Plan.

For asset managers

The Local Government Act 2020 requires council’s Asset Plans to “..be developed in accordance with deliberative engagement practices”. One of their key purposes is to “..align decisions around assets to community needs, service levels and standards”. Our fitness for purpose assessments provide a means to consider the needs, demands and expectations of communities and ensure that assets support sustainable long-term service delivery.

When incorporated into an Asset Plan or Community Infrastructure Plan, the results of fitness for purpose assessments help identify future service delivery needs and the capacity of assets to meet those needs in the long term.

Whether conducted through our CASIMO web app, Microsoft Excel, or deployed through council’s own software applications, the results of our fitness for purpose assessments can be easily compared with asset condition audits and integrated into council’s asset information system.