Do we have any CHAS assessors who are on this forum ?

If so I would be very grateful to have a few minutes of your time.

Please note I am not after help with an assessment just some general questions regarding your role.

Thank you in advance

This may be of interest:

http://www.chas.gov.uk/CHASAssessors.aspx

I have recently put together three seperate CHAS applications for three of the groups companies, we all sing from the same hymn sheet so to speak and where dealt with by three different CHAS assessors.

The first one sailed through with no problems;
The other two have been flagged as having to provide further information.

As these three companies all operate from the same policies and procedures within the construction sector i found this bemusing.

would one of our CHAS assessors like to comment please.

Whilst we await a measures response from the CHAS assessors (btw I have found the CHAS scheme and their assessors to be very good and value for money), consider the following true situation.

One of our contractors subbies - a well known national office/facilities fit out company is registered with CHAS, Construction line, Safe Contractor, Achillies, Altius, Link-Up and one or two more details of which escape me.

During a routine site meeting last week the contractors subbie informed me that on a new contract they were pursuing there was a requirement to pass yet another Contractor Asssessment rigmarole. This time it was called a "Eurosafe Assessment".

As most of these assessment schemes including Eurosafe are within the joined up thinking of the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) initative whose core purpose is to cut down on bureaucracy and duplication I can only conclude that this is yet another lucrative money spinner for those within.

My question is this - if a contractor has passed an assessment by a SSIP member organisation e.g. CHAS why, or is necessary to add more cost and effort to attain accrediation by other SSIP member by submitting more dublicated documents?

Has anyone else come across this creeping menace?

Jon

A lot of the problems lie with the client who insists on a particular scheme & is still not aware of the SSIP, therefore any prospective contractor has to try & tick this particular box.

I recently turned down some work to assist with this process when I was asked "which is the easiest one to apply for & obtain" + shall we then go for all of them (19, I think last time I looked!)

#7,#8 & #9

My understanding of the SSIP objective is that 'H&S compliance assessments' are portable within SSIP member schemes but you still subscribe to each scheme. In other words you join the scheme(s) required of your client etc. but only need to be assessed once.

Andy

I once when working as a consultant, sent in a CHAS Application for one of my clients, it didn't pass first time and they wanted more information, namely requesting a Working at Height Assessment......For a carpet laying company.

The words Scheme, Making and Money spring to mind. You still have to assess them yourself anyway, check RAMS and Insurance so I have never quite understood the point!

Hi John

Been away on holiday, back on the hamster wheel now.

Just to clarify, the point I was making is that my understanding is that the subject company's H&S is assessed once by an SSIP member assessor and that assessment outcome is transferable across all SSIP member schemes. Therefore only one assessment per year but the company still needs to subscribe to the SSIP member scheme(s) required by their client(s) and regardless of how many schemes they subscribe to there is only one H&S compliance assessment (annually as you say).

These schemes (except CHAS which is run by LB Merton) are businesses, businesses that make money by marketing a list of 'assessed' contractors to clients that want some peace of mind and assurance; the fact there are so many would suggest a healthy market. Whether that is right or wrong is a different matter.

Andy P