What Is Chas – Constructors Health And Safety Scheme

Being CHAS registered in the UK gains mainly construction companies access to council & local authority work This short guide is an edited version of the official wording. If you are thinking about becoming CHAS qualified then searching Google will help you find your local supplier to help you with the registration.

Principles and Purpose

Each month thousands of contractors and consultants (suppliers) apply for work with public and private sector organisations (buyers). To win work, they must meet the buyer’s health and safety standards.

Assessing suppliers health and safety competence is usually a lengthy and time consuming process. Suppliers can sometimes meet one buyer’s Health and Safety standards but not another. Being CHAS approved reduces duplication as suppliers compliance is accepted by all CHAS buyers.

CHAS assesses applicants:

Health and safety policy statement;

Their organisation for health and safety;

Their specific health and safety arrangements to a standard acceptable to our buyers and to others.

Buyers Membership includes the public sectors: health trusts, emergency services and government departments and large private companies who have a supply chain, for example Royal Mail Group, Kier and Mitie Group. Ultimately the CHAS operators complete the initial H&S application process for buyers, saving time and resources for all involved in the process.

Suppliers CHAS isn’t just for construction companies, it assesses health and safety for all types of suppliers, from care services to demolition contractors, designers and consultants. The aim of the scheme is to save time and resources by avoiding unnecessary duplication in the first stage of competence assessment; the CDM Core criteria.

Background

CHAS started with two main aims.

To improve health and safety standards across Great Britain.

To reduce duplicated safety applications for both suppliers and buyers.

These days there are more than 400 public and private sector buyer organisations, such as councils, housing associations, NHS trusts, including a growing number of large private companies who employ sub-contractors.

CHAS Benefits:

Participating in the CHAS scheme helps both suppliers and buyers.

Suppliers show compliance with important parts of health and safety law (the core criteria described in the CDM regulations).

On achieving compliance a supplier is approved to work for all of CHAS’ buyers.(Some Buyers may require “Accredited” Status)

Inconsistencies are reduced where some suppliers may be judged compliant by one buyer but not another.

CHAS gives guidance on any weaknesses in a supplier’s safety management, including how they can improve.

CHAS and Constructionline

Constructionline is the Government’s national register for suppliers. In the same way CHAS offers a tool for use in the health and safety element of pre-qualification, Constructionline provide the pre-qualification tool for use in financial standing, technical references and other areas. The CHAS management group supports the principles of a single register and so works jointly with Constructionline.

Both CHAS and Constructionline have their own independence and identity but the schemes are linked.

The Stages of Assessing Competency

There are three stages in the assessment process from the time a supplier applies for a CHAS assessment, through to working for a buyer:

The CHAS assessment: if a supplier passes this assessment they have shown they can adequately manage health and safety.

The employer (buyer) checks a supplier has the ability, experience and resources to carry out the specific work they have applied to do. The buyer will look at things like method statements, specific risk assessments, references, examples of previous similar work, training and available resources.

Monitoring the supplier when they are doing the work. Buyers will check suppliers are managing the work safely, carrying out the method statements properly, have enough resources, liaising properly, managing the site effectively and providing enough supervision.

The level of assessment at stages 2 and 3 are normally proportionate to the level of risk they carry. Buyers have a responsibility to monitor suppliers, making sure they are working safely, in order to protect staff and everyone who may be affected by the work.

Accessing the CHAS Database

Buyers have access to the CHAS database, suppliers do not have access, other than their own personal pages if accredited. Suppliers cannot access information that relates to other suppliers.

CHAS is registered under the Data Protection Act, but there is no personal information kept in the database. However, under normal circumstances the scheme manager will gladly tell suppliers about details contained in their entry.

Buyer Membership Levels

Buyer membership is free, providing buyers with three levels of access:

Member level: full read and write access

Subscriber level: read only but can add private comments and suppliers to their own supplier list

Read only: allows searches only.

Want to find out more about CHAS, then visit Andrew Ely’s site on how to choose the best chas accreditation for your needs.