BSS Field Assessments are a means of helping you deliver examinations fully consistent with the BSS Examination Checking Procedures (ECP) and general examination guidance every time.
Field Assessments are one of the BSS Office's quality assurance measures, and are an opportunity for both you and the BSS Office Team to assess your performance and identify any improvement needs.
There are no pass or fail outcomes, but on completion of each of the first three Elements the Assessor will discuss with you identified strengths and weaknesses. The Assessor will report the outcomes to the BSS Office within three working days of your assessment.
When the results from field assessments are correlated they also form a benchmark against which the level of competence and performance of all examiners can be assessed and any need for further support from the BSS Office identified.
Examiners can expect to be field assessed at least once every five years and newly qualified examiners will be assessed before they have conducted twenty examinations or within twelve months of starting.
Field assessments are arranged at a time and place as convenient as practicable for you and your consultant BSS Quality Assurance Assessor.
The Assessor will provide the venue and a suitable assessment boat within a reasonable travelling distance, and to advise you of the actions you need to take and what everyone can expect from the process. The onus is on you to be well prepared and to help make a success of your field assessment.
Note that ‘Full Field Assessments’ involve the complete examination of a boat and are intended to provide a more full re-assurance of examiner performance, perhaps after an examiner has been away from examining for a year or so or if the BSS Management Committee has asked for one to be completed following a proven complaints case. The guidance on these web pages concern the normal Field Assessments and not Full Field Assessments.