A new nationally consistent approach for Asset Management Planning has been developed to help rural and remote councils with low populations and limited resources to embrace effective asset management. Asset Management for Small, Rural or Remote Communities (AM4SRRC),was released in June.
The Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government (ACELG) proudly launched the Asset Management for Small, Rural and Remote Communities Practice Note at its recent Board meeting. ACELG is providing two copies of the new Practice Note to all councils in Australia that have a population of less than 5,000 residents.
Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia Chief Executive Officer Chris Champion said it has been developed and has been reviewed extensively to ensure that it meets its objectives and importantly will satisfy the National Frameworks for a “Core” Asset Management Plan.
The program has all the elements required for a full plan but is less complicated.
It is suitable, as the name suggests, for small councils that may have limited or out of date information about their infrastructure.
IPWEA has published its latest Practice Note targeting AM4SRRC which:
- is a simplified version of the nationally consistent full NAMS.PLUS Asset
Management approach (www.ipwea.org.au/namsplus) - assists small, rural or remote organisations to write their own 10 year asset management plans and provides expenditure projections for their long term financial plan
- is designed for small, rural or remote communities who are in a steady operating state (limited annual growth and/or operating change) and have limited technical resources and limited or out of date asset register data.
It is also suitable for larger councils, and for service/asset categories such as parks and buildings where the majority of costs relate to operating expenses and major repairs of existing assets and services.
The guidelines are based on the IPWEA’s International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM) and follow the format set out in Appendix A of the IIMM.
This valuable new resource also includes a model to assess the organisation’s maturity in meeting the ‘core’ asset management competencies set out in the national frameworks.
The AM4SRRC Practice Note includes detailed guidelines covering asset management planning, asset management policy and strategy, levels of service, infrastructure risk management planning, long term financial planning, financial sustainability indicators and instructions on preparing infrastructure risk management plans and asset management plans using the AM4SRRC templates.
Password access to the AM4SRRC web site is included for public asset owning organisations such as councils to provide users with templates for:
- information needs for the AM4SRRC asset management plan (checklist to complete)
- asset management plan template (word document)
- infrastructure risk management plan (word document)
- infrastructure risk register (spreadsheet)
- asset register (spreadsheet)
- expenditure template developing expenditure projections and graphs for the AM Plan template (spreadsheet)
- asset management policy
- asset management strategy with an improvement plan
- sample asset management, infrastructure risk management plans and sample core maturity assessment report prepared using the AM4SRRC templates (PDF).
Detailed How To Guides are also provided for the following key tasks checking and verifying the expenditure template; preparing an asset management strategy; compiling an asset register; and assessing ‘core’ asset management maturity.
A two day training course to assist users develop an asset management plan using the AM4SRRC templates and the AM4SRRC Practice Note 4 is being made available separately through IPWEA. Day one develops levels of service and infrastructure risk analysis and day two covers the practice of preparing an asset management plan using the AM4SRRC templates. Attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop computer and complete their ‘first cut’ asset management plan on day two.
For further details visit the website at www.ipwea.org.au/AM4SRRC
