I help out with a charity which provides "across the board" help with adults who suffer from learning disabilities - this includes Activities at Day Centres, Shared Lives and Choices. Local Authorities require the charity to have health and safety accreditation - in the past this has been through CHAS. I have just come back from a meeting with a local authority where the under-mentioned statement was made: "Health and Safety Accreditation: As discussed CHAS is no longer a required Accreditation in relation to contracts, however we are recommending that organisations have HSE recognised accreditation. This is available through CHAS, Exor or SSiP. They may be others, but I am aware that our Health and Safety Business Partners have confirmed that these accredited schemes demonstrate an acceptable level of H&S management." I'm presuming that where the LA previously would only accept CHAS they are now opening up the field due to competition rules. But my question is this: In the world I help out with (see above) which Accreditation Scheme should I consider which is HSE recognised and appropriate to my charity? Rich Rich

Hi Stern - brilliant thanks for the prompt reply. Rich

There are 29 so called "accreditation" outfits. Some are under the SSIP umbrella -others not. It is a fertile income stream for them. A monster out of control. The HSE is complicit in this nonsense that costs companies £thousands every year just to be assessed by an office junior still wet behind the ears as regards safety management and competence. As Peter has said, clients may favour a particular "Accreditor"; tough luck if you have subscribed to any of the others - they want you "accredited" by their choice and hey ho, a shed load of money is required for a fresh application. There is no guarantee that you will pass their tick box or document deliver up requirements. Some will ask you for your training material and then sell it on to their "Partner" consultants. A monster indeed and one that needs slaying! Jon

"HSE has been increasingly aware of the challenges faced by organisations in assessing competence and being required to use various pre-qualification schemes by clients. The use of such schemes is not a legal requirement under health and safety law and HSE does not endorse or provide accreditation for any particular scheme - although of course competence to manage risk from an activity is an important part of health and safety law. HSE has though welcomed the work of the Safety Schemes in Procurement Forum (SSIP Forum) who have established an approach that enables member schemes to recognise the pre-qualification schemes operated by other member bodies. CHAS and Exor are among the founding members of the SSIP Forum. SSIP is designed to reduce bureaucracy rather than encourage organisations to adopt additional schemes. You can find more information about the schemes under the SSIP umbrella from the website www.ssip.org.uk . A general explanation of how pre-qualification schemes work across the public sector is available from IOSH: http://www.iosh.co.uk/Me...network/Our-Groups/Publi c-Services-group/PS-Procurement/Pre-qualification-schemes.aspx For general information on training and management standards for the care sector you might find it useful to refer to the Skills for Care website: www.skillsforcare.org.uk"

Acclaim part of Constructiononline use qualified H&S People to assess the applications. To start they use TechIOSH level, then as the application goes forward it then goes to the GradIOSH and CMIOSH level persons. I know have done the course and review the documents.

I have come to this post this evening following an enquiry from a new client - a charity - where they are responding to a tender document requiring them to be CHAS registered and to be honest I am gobsmacked to learn that CHAS and similar organisations set up to evaluate the competency of contractors is being used as an evaluation tool for charities in a completely different field. \ It sounds like laziness on the part of the tendering group to do their own due diligence assessment of tender submissions. Other thoughts on this topic - is CHAS (Or Safecontractor or PICS etc etc) suitable for evaluating the safety management of charity organisations?? What other methods are available?

"recommending" - so not a contractual requirement? "HSE recognised" - what does that mean exactly? (HSE are currently promoting SSiP, but only in a construction context The LA were wrong to insist on "CHAS only" previously - that would be an anti-competitive and unfair stipulation. If you need to register or gain accreditation, choose the SSIP partner scheme which best suits your business and business needs. As others say, several schemes do have a bias towards construction.

If that you mean Achilles... mmm they were asked to join SSIP and refused... The rail exclusive use of this system is in my view un-competitive behaviour..

Constructionline is not a H&S assessment scheme.

I have been in exactly the same situation, working in a social care environment that tender's for publicly funded activities. It's a standard request to be CHAS accredited but frankly I've found it a cashcow. The scheme isn't recognised by BSI as comperable to 18001 simply because it isn't of the same standard. It holds no formal audit process and doesn't expect evidence of continual improvement.Re-accreditation requires a submission of policies annually and a cheque. Hardly evidence of an organisation that seeks to become better. From my experience Exor and CHAS are simply means to avoid filling in additional sections in public service tenders. Many times if you tick the 'I've got CHAS' box it means you skip 4 pages. If you're organisation can cope with that I'd suggest doing it. If it's a mandatory requirement to get past the PPQ stage then you'll have no choice. If we had the choice I'd cancel it tomorrow.

ok if no one else will I will (excuse the Keyboard it's a German one)....I am a long standing assessor for one of the schemes and I am sure there are lots of others here too... There have been lots of gripes on here about this subject...it just takes the safety aspects out of the Hands of the procurement guys...or would you like them to be answering These questions? Just one anecdotal note about Achilles, I believe they were asked to join SSIP and refused. So to answer the post directly there is only one scheme that I am aware of that only sends assessments to assessors that are experienced and qualified in the healthcare field - that is CHAS. Matin#1 post sort of summs it all up really...

I was asked yesterday to sort my client's CHAS review for them. I noticed that CHAS are now asking contractors to consider whether they should be registering as Principal Contractors due to the CDM 2015 changes. Fair point methinks but part of me asks if the fee is higher ? I mean no malice at all, just making an observation..