Contractor approval schemes| Article Index |
|---|
| Contractor approvals |
| What is CHAS Registration? |
| What Does CHAS Assess? |
| What Are The Benefits Of Belonging To CHAS? |
| How Do I Become CHAS Registered? |
| All Pages |
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"Thank you for your latest evidence, I must compliment you on its quality".
Our chartered health & safety consultants can assist you in any approvals process, not just CHAS but also EXOR, Constructionline, Britsafe, Safety Contractor, National Britannia, Link-up, Index, Human Focus and many others.
Background
Although many see registration on the CHAS assessment process as easy and straightforward, this is usually far from the truth. The CHAS website states: "Four out of five small and medium sized contractors will fail their first assessment - an indication of general poor compliance in SME's." (May 2008)
Our experienced safety consultants work with clients before they make a CHAS application. As clearly stated on the front page of the application form, those with a responsibility for Health & Safety should complete the form. We have huge experience in making successful CHAS applications on behalf of our clients and our consultants have attended CHAS Assessor training.
We can complete your entire application form and supporting documents, or just advise and support you with it - how much we do is entirely up to you.
By using our services and support you can reduce the burden and streamline your entire application. We can also advise you on any additional training requirements you may need. All of our services are offered on a fixed-price basis.
What is CHAS Registration?
CHAS stands for the Contractors' Health and Safety Assessment Scheme. This is a Government-run (not for profit) scheme administered by the London Borough of Merton. CHASÂ has been developed and refined over a number of years by local government health & safety and procurement professionals, with the support of the Health & Safety Executive. Although the scheme has been developed by government bodies, it is available for use by any public and private sector organisation as an aid when short listing contractors, suppliers and consultants who apply to work for them. The CHAS scheme provides information and assurances about the health & safety systems and competence of the organisations who have been CHAS assessed or are registered as CHAS accredited.
To become registered with CHAS, organisations have to submit an application to CHAS and then have a CHAS assessment carried out on their CHAS Application. By doing so their potential clients know that they meet minimum acceptable standards of health and safety compliance. Clients from both the public and private sectors use the CHAS Assessment Scheme to make assessments of contractors in this way. Once the CHAS application has been approved for an organisation, their details are uploaded to the CHAS database where client members of the CHAS Assessment Scheme can review an organisations details and CHAS application form to check that they are in fact CHAS registered. One of the benefits to contractors, is that by making a successful CHAS application, they can demonstrate to a wide number of potential clients that they achieve or exceed the minimum standards laid down by the CHAS Assessment scheme.
Furthermore with the implementation of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM), there are stricter requirements on Clients and Principal Contractors to ensure that they only employ ‘Competent Contractors’. The CHAS Assessment Scheme has been named in the CDM Regulations by the Health and Safety Executive as being one of the assessment schemes that can be used when demonstrating your competence as an organisation.
What Does CHAS Assess?
The CHAS assessment does not assess health and safety competence for specific types of work but concentrates on fundamental health and safety management and compliance issues as they apply to the work you undertake. The table below shows the main areas that will be assessed as part of your CHAS application, though in all cases documented evidence and examples have to be provided with your completed CHAS Application Form include:
- Health & Safety Arrangements
- Safety Policy Statement
- Work Equipment Procedures
- Health & Safety Training
- Employee Consultation Arrangements
- First Aid Provision
- Fire Emergency Procedures & Fire Risk Assessments
- Display Screen Equipment Assessments
- Manual Handling Assessments
- Electrical Safety & PAT Testing
- Risk Assessments & COSHH Assessments
- Asbestos Awareness Training & Management
- Health Surveillance Arrangements
- Accident Reporting Procedures
- Work Equipment Inspections & Maintenance
- Personal Protective Equipment PPE
- Access to Competent H&S & Construction Advice
- Contractor Management & Competence Assessment
- Workplace Safety Inspections
- Fire Risk Assessments
- Monitoring Audit & Review Procedures
Full details of the CHAS assessment standards can found on the following web page: www.chas.gov.uk/chas/Downloads/AssessmentStandards.doc
What Are The Benefits Of Belonging To CHAS?
Membership of the CHAS Assessment Scheme can assist contractors by:
- Demonstrating a level of compliance with health and safety law (to assess competence);
- Avoiding duplication of effort by reducing the need to submit multiple H&S Questionnaires to clients;
- Overcoming inconsistency in assessments with some contractors being assessed as compliant by one employer but not others;
- Providing opportunities to secure New and Larger Commercial Contracts;
- Enabling them to be considered for contracts that they would previously not have even been shortlisted for;
- Enabling the health and safety elements of Constructionline to be complied with.
Being a member of the CHAS Assessment Scheme should also reduce the number and frequency with which you have to fill in and send off Health and Safety Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQ), as the CHAS Assessment Scheme is becoming a standard pre-requisite for virtually all local authorities and government departments. This means that one application will potentially pre-qualify you to work for many different clients across the whole of the UK, this should save you having to make multiple applications and assessments when tendering for work.
The CHAS Assessment Scheme is currently used by over 300 client members, whilst over 17,000 contractors have been assessed by CHAS.
How Do I Become CHAS Registered?
To become registered on the CHAS Assessment Scheme, you need to download a copy of the relevant CHAS application form from the CHAS website.
Once you have your CHAS application form you need to answer all of the various questions, provide evidence to support your answers and submit a wide range of documentation, including training certificates, your health and safety policy document, risk assessments, COSHH assessments, method statements, fire risk assessments, manual handling assessments and other documentation.
In addition to this you also have to provide CHAS with details of your historic health and safety performance and details of where you obtain your Competent Health and Safety Advice, Information and Support from.
