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Posted By Hilary Marchant
Does anyone have any views, experience, or useful information about this accreditation scheme (Contractors H & S Scheme) set up by the London Borough of Merton?
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Posted By Jim-F
we have recently joined CHAS, this is a client driven excercise but it certainly would seem its better to be in than out.
Councils and organisations all over the country are going to be relying on this accreditation and if you dont have it then you will simply not be considered for works on their lists.
The way we joined was through our Audit scores from Achilles, so if you have been audited this way it is much quicker, depending on your scores of course.
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Posted By Alan Hewett
Hello Hilary,
Many Local Authorities use the CHAS database to assist as part of the selection procedure for contractors. It is also begining to be used by wider groups as well such as the NHS, Education establishments etc.
If you would like to know more information have a look at www.chas.gov.uk
Hope this helps,
Alan
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Posted By MungoDundas
Hi,
CHAS seemed very thorough., however seems to be a bit of an
overlap with........
http://www.constructionline.co.uk
which tries to verify health & safety in its audit criteria.
That said, if different clients use different approval schemes,
one just has to subscribe to all the different schemes.
Certainly beats trying to complete audit forms for every tom, dick & harry.
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Posted By Paul Oliver
As long as you remain accredited with CHAS, you need not complete the health and safety questionnaire when registering with CONSTRUCTIONLINE. You need only send a copy of your current certificate.
Paul
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Posted By Paul Oliver
That should read "you need only send a copy of your current CHAS certificate"
Paul
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Posted By Salus
When you join CHAS you are sent a H & S questionarre to complete.
This is then assessed by CHAS from a list of H & S requirements
A contractor could enter false info, (yes we have a H & S policy, yes we have risk assessemts)pay their money they are then on the CHAS list.
Employing a contractor from the CHAS database does not ensure competency.
Same with construction line.
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Posted By Ron Hunter
Whilst Salus is entitled to his/her opinion, I find that posting somewhat ill-informed. The pre-qualification process (Stage 1 Assessment) is intended to save repeated assessment (by numerous clients) for inclusion on a preferred list. This is more involved than the Yes/No approach suggested!
None of these systems prove competence to do the job, further diligence is required by the client at the tender stage and when the work is actually undertaken (Associated Octel anyone?).
Salus, unless the contractor chooses to fast-track himself onto the scheme, CHAS does not cost the contractor anything. Rather, involvement in the Scheme may save him expenses incurred as a result of poor h&s management and perhaps earn him extra income from additional work via CHAS members.
I don't work for CHAS, but I do support the aims and principles it aspires to, which are intended to benefit clients and contractors.
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Posted By Nick Higginson
I think Ron makes a valid point there. Client organisations cannot simply rely on CHAS as their only method of assessing suitability of contractors.
It is a "one size fits all" system and is only useful as an initial filter.
Regards
Nick
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Posted By Salus
Ill informed, The cost of a contractors assessment is £100 + VAT if you employ 5 or more persons, or £55 + VAT less than 5 employees.
So not only does the client wade through the CHAS paperwork, but "further diligence is required by sending off their own questionarre to the contrator.which were "my views"on my initial posting.
CHAS only "assess" for H & S, nothing else, it is known that this saves on re-inventing the wheel when submitting a H & S questionarre, but most H & S questionarres have the same questions in them. Once a contractor has sent one off it is not a huge task to send off others, but a client would be prudent to verify the replies.
And if we have a one size fits all regime,what would happen if a employee sustained a head injury because the company had given their employee the only size hard hat they purchased and not assessed whether the hat was suitable for the employee and compatable to the work being carried out.
So is the only existence of CHAS to reduce repeated paperwork?
Are there any clients out there who think that by getting a contractor from the CHAS database they do not need to take additional reasonable measures to assess the competency of a future contractor.
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Posted By Ron Hunter
Salus, If you read my response above, you'll see that I (and the CHAS Scheme) actually address the issues you continue to express as a problem. You might care to read the CHAS Manual and peruse the "stage 2" assessment forms available on the website.
And once again, the contractor DOES NOT PAY for assessment by a CHAS member!
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Posted By Nick Higginson
Ron
Agree with most of what you say, and don't profess to be an expert in CHAS but I have a slight problem with the system.
I know of at least 2 companies that devised forms purely for CHAS, and never, ever used them. What kind of verification can there be if assessors accept forms without any practical examples?
That is not to say the companies were at fault, they were being asked for documents they would never have. Ever heard of an organisation with 9 employees doing PPE assessments?
Regards
Nick
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Posted By John Murphy
Unfortunately there are one or two persons involved in this thread who are not entirely informed about CHAS and the way it operates. If you really want to know about our scheme and the way it operates and the problems we face – please ask me – I mange the scheme and there’s not a lot about it that I do not know. Importantly, those who know me also know that I am open and honest about the strengths AND WEAKNESSES of our scheme.
One of the prices CHAS pays for being transparent about what it does is that we can be subjected to uninformed criticism. We accept this, but remember, CHAS is the only scheme of its type where its standards are out in the public domain, this puts us in the firing line I dare say.
Importantly, we are not naïve enough to believe that there are not companies out there who attempt to deceive us, some of them may just get away with, but not all and not often and not for long. It can be worse when it comes to fraudulent applications and regular visitors to this forum may recall a safety “professional” who posted a message not so long back boasting how he had got a company through a CHAS assessment as complaint but that it was one he would not use because they did not work safely. We have to contend with that too. Fortunately he left the country.
Visit www.chas.gov.uk for the facts or contact me to know more.
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Posted By Geoff Burt
I criticised the CHAS scheme several years ago and John sprang to its defence - do you remember that John?
Since then I have helped two clients through this system and whilst they had to be dragged screaming though it, both can now see the benefits and both now have H&S management systems to be proud of.
It doesn't suit everybody but what does?
Geoff
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