SafeContractor membership?

[SJD]

I've just been "invited" to join SafeContractor by a letting agent I do a certain amount of work for. It would seem membership will be mandatory to continue to do work for them (from Jan 2017).

Unfortunately the "membership" requires handing over several hundred pounds (annually), plus having a safety audit (which as far as I can see is done remotely by email/web/phone, no actual visit). Not sure if the audit is annual or not?

I kind of resent being invited to pay for something I don't need, and am considering not taking it up, as I don't particularly need the letting work. Most of my work (say 90%) is direct for domestic customers, and none of them would ever ask for something like this.

On the other hand, might the safety audit actually be helpful? Could it highlight things I'd not thought of? Has anyone recently been through this, and found it useful? Or is it really just another excuse to part people from their cash?

I found a couple of quite old threads on this, I'd be interested if anyone has any recent experience?

 

[stevey1983]

I joined them earlier this year, just lots of paperwork, risk assessments, method statement etc tou have to show them. You build a online portfolio of all this for the different types of jobs. I joined as do alot of comercial and industrial. If you dont really need the work then just write back to your client who is making you join with your new rate which reflects the cost of membership and your time doing all the paperwork to join

 

[SJD]

I joined them earlier this year, just lots of paperwork, risk assessments, method statement etc tou have to show them. You build a online portfolio of all this for the different types of jobs. I joined as do alot of comercial and industrial. If you dont really need the work then just write back to your client who is making you join with your new rate which reflects the cost of membership and your time doing all the paperwork to join

I certainly would have to increase costs for this customer, to cover the fees and time.

Is there any requirement to have completed various safety courses? Apart from the various electrical courses (17th, 2395, etc.) I've not done any courses in the last maybe 10 years. I don't want to find I'm being required to do things like Ladder safety, or Asbestos awareness, or similar courses before I get the accreditation, that would increase costs a lot more, both fees and time.

 

[stevey1983]

I will give u a list of paperwork i had to submit tomorrow when on the laptop if you want. Alot of it comes down to what you do, eg if your using scaffold towers you will need to show them your pasma, if you use sissor lifts your ipaf etc. Most of it is different risk assessment, method statments, cdm's for the different type of jobs you do

 

[SJD]

I will give u a list of paperwork i had to submit tomorrow when on the laptop if you want. Alot of it comes down to what you do, eg if your using scaffold towers you will need to show them your pasma, if you use sissor lifts your ipaf etc. Most of it is different risk assessment, method statments, cdm's for the different type of jobs you do

Yes please for the paperwork list. I'm a bit concerned that the exercise is going to take a fair bit of time, and it is hard to see up front (before paying the membership fee) exactly what will be required - perhaps that is deliberate, as once I've paid, I'd be locked in to doing it all.

 

[stevey1983]

The information you need to show evidence/supporting documents will vary depending on the job types you do, these were mine:

Health & Safety Policy
Competent Health & Safety Advice
Health & Safety Training
Accident Reporting & Enforcement Action
Sub-contracting / Sub-consulting Procedures
Risk Assessment
Cooperation & Coordination
Welfare Provision
General Records
Insurance Details
Access Control Systems & Building Security
Agriculture
Construction - Doors & Windows
Electrical
Fire Safety Systems & Services
Telecommunications

say for example Electrical, again gets broken down into more categories, and some of the questions are:

Are you able to provide a copy of your permit to work process?
Are you able to provide examples of completed Post Work Inspection / Test Records?
Are you able to provide examples of relevant electrical qualifications e.g. City & Guilds Level 3 or equivalent?
Are you able to provide your live testing procedures?
Are you able to provide examples of completed Post Work Inspection / Test Records?
Are you able to provide a job specific method statement for a Domestic Electrical project undertaken in the last 12 months?
Are you able to provide a job specific method statement for an Electrical Wiring Installation (Commercial / Industrial) project undertaken in the last 12 months?


It is time consuming, but most of it is information you should have already, its just proving that all your paperwork is being done right for each job. i didn't find it too bad as i do a lot of hospital work and they are hot on all the paperwork side of things, you have to do rams for everything even the smallest of jobs.

Hope the above is some help, if you have anymore questions i will do my best to help

 

[SJD]

Hope the above is some help, if you have anymore questions i will do my best to help

Thanks, it is very helpful to see this.

Some of what you list gets covered by my annual ELECSA audit, but I don't necessarily have it all written down or in the format they would want. For example, there is always some testing to do on the site visit with ELECSA, and typically there are some Zs and PFC measurements, but I don't have to show ELECSA my own document about live testing.

I'm probably inclining towards not joining the scheme, and leaving the agent to find someone else.

 

[Octopus]

Interesting thread. Never heard of this scheme.

OP - how much business do you get from this letting agent - is it much?

 

[SJD]

Interesting thread. Never heard of this scheme.

OP - how much business do you get from this letting agent - is it much?

I'd never heard of it either, till my "invite" to join! In my last company year (till end-Mar 2016) around £5k invoiced (labour & materials).

 

[Octopus]

I'd never heard of it either, till my "invite" to join! In my last company year (till end-Mar 2016) around £5k invoiced (labour & materials).

Can you spilt out materials to get an idea of the time income?

 

[SJD]

Can you spilt out materials to get an idea of the time income?

Very roughly, £3k labour.

I could easily spend (say) a week of time jumping through the hoops to get the accreditation, add in the membership fee as well, and I'd have spent (say) £1.5k for the sake of £3k of income. So I'd have to put my rates up for this customer by 50% to recover the outlay.

The thing is, there is no long-term guarantee of keeping the business, and could make the outlay only to find the agent switches to someone else.

The more I think about it, the more I think I'll just decline, and just explain it doesn't fit my business plans.

 

[Octopus]

Based on my turnover that's well under 10% so easy to replace

 

[SJD]

Based on my turnover that's well under 10% so easy to replace

Yes, it is well under 10% of mine as well, and I think this is what I will be doing.

 

[UNG]

Looks like a scheme where the contractor pays for the customers due diligence, what money making scheme will they think of next.

Pity there isn't a scheme for customers to register with that checks and assesses their ability and time taken to pay invoices

 

[Andy78]

I thought chas was the established scheme for this type of thing in the construction industry ? Or is it a free for all just like the CPS schemes ?

 

[stevey1983]

Its a bit like part p, lots of different bodies doing same thing, some better known than others.

 

[leo79]

If it's just the SSIP accreditation you need then you can go through Altius, this is what we did and it's £130pa.
Although we did end up paying a H&S consultant £200 to sort out all the paperwork because I just kept going round in circles.