Introduction to CHAS

Over the years local authority health and safety and procurement professionals, with the support of the Health and Safety Executive, have developed the Contractor Health and Safety assessment scheme (CHAS). The scheme is available for use by any public and private sector organizations to use when shortlisting contractors, suppliers and consultants (companies) who apply to work for them. It provides information about the health and safety part of their application.

Companies apply to join the scheme so everyone knows they meet acceptable standards of health and safety compliance. Clients from both the public and private sectors are users of the scheme and our database.

The Scheme Principles

Every month there are thousands of companies applying to for select lists managed by public sector organizations (such as councils, housing associations, NHS trusts and fire services) and other companies. To get on a list applicants must meet their client standards for placement in areas such as technical ability, equalities, insurance cover, environment and health and safety. Assessing contractors is usually a lengthy process, particularly when it comes to health and safety.

Many companies apply to more than one of these organizations, this means duplication of effort for both them and the assessors. Companies can sometimes pass health and safety assessments and be successful at getting on one list but fail to get on another. This leads to understandable frustration for them. Our scheme works on a logic that a company who has successfully achieved compliance with one organization is acceptable to all.

Since our scheme started, four out of five small and medium sized contractors will fail their first assessment an indication of general poor compliance in SME's. Our assessment makes sure applicants have compliance with basic health and safety law and they have demonstrated they can adequately manage health and safety. A fundamental principle of our scheme is to help any company to improve their safety management should they fail. We give guidance on any areas of weakness and provide the encouragement and opportunity for improvement and we find, companies usually reapply and achieve compliance. The fail rate at reassessment decreases to about one in five. This system means member organizations provide significant help to small local businesses to improve their standards of health and safety compliance and management

Benefits of our Scheme

Participating in the CHAS scheme helps both companies and employers;

It makes sure a company is compliant with important parts of health and safety law.
It means members do not have to repeat the effort of assessing health and safety compliance of applications for companies who have already been assessed to our standards.
Companies do not have to undergo health and safety assessments every time they apply to one of our clients for work - clients will know they have been successfully assessed before.
It will get rid of inconsistency where some contractors may be judged compliant by one employer but not others.

It is important to note we are not an approved or select list of contractors, and should not be used it in that way.

Employers' Duties

There are many reasons why our clients make CHAS part of their process for choosing contractors. Moral reasons include a desire to set a good example by working safely. The fact that the scheme saves companies money means there are sound business reasons too. These include best value, meeting procurement regulations and a duty to provide value for money and efficiency savings.

Employers also have legal duties. Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 says all companies that employ five or more people must have a written statement of their health and safety policy. Regulations make employers responsible for assessing the health and safety standards of any company they use to carry out work on their behalf. This is designed to protect the employer's staff and everyone else who is affected by their work.

Employers also have a duty to monitor companies to make sure they are working safely. Of course, the level of assessment and any monitoring should match the level of risk.

Companies with less than five employees

The CHAS scheme has set standards for companies who employ less than five people. By reaching these standards a company can demonstrate an understanding of their health and safety responsibilities, even without a written statement. We require companies to sign a declaration that they will tell us if they increase the number of their employees' to more than four people.

Purpose of the procedure

Our scheme is not an assessment system that will make sure all companies are fully complying with every aspect of health and safety law. Our purpose is to provide assessment criteria that safety professionals can use for the health and safety element of a prequalification application. The scheme assesses a company's:

health and safety policy statement;
organization for health and safety; and
specific health and safety arrangements to a standard acceptable to our client users.

Selecting a company who has demonstrated compliance with these standards helps a client make sure that they comply with health and safety law. A client organization assessing a company can add their own criteria that will then exceed our standard. However, the database entry reflects only our standard unless a comment is added to explain how the contractor exceeded it.

The Process

A contractor trying to join a CHAS member's select list (pre-qualify) will go through the following procedure. We record each step in our database (accessible via the internet) so that a member can check on the status of the application at any stage.

Normally the member sends an applicant a letter explaining the CHAS scheme, telling them what information they will need to provide. The letter will include two questionnaires for the applicant to fill in (one is for applicants employing less than five people).

Checking our database

when we receive a completed questionnaire, we check the database to see if the contractor is already being assessed. If they are, we tell them to complete their original application (so everyone avoids repeating effort). If the applicant is not in the database, we enter their details.

if the company is in the database as compliant, but it has been more than two years since the assessment, the company will need to be reassessed.

If the company applying is recorded in the CHAS database as a "failed to resubmit" (after failing their first application) we will probably tell them to complete their original application. However, if it is more than three months since they failed to resubmit, it can be treated as a new application. For us to go ahead with the application the company must tell us they will treat the application more seriously on this occasion.

If the applicant is in the database as having failed their assessment, we will look at what changes the company has made since that assessment . We will then decide if they can reapply to the scheme or not.

The Result

If the contractor applying to CHAS passes the assessment we record this in our database as compliant and tell them of this.

If the contractor fails the CHAS assessment we write to them saying where we found weaknesses. We will give a reasonable period of time for them to improve before reapplying.

If the contractor fails to reapply within the agreed timescale, we change their status on our database to "failed to resubmit". The company is warned this will happen in the initial failure letter sent to them.

In extreme cases, where the application is so poor that we feel the contractor cannot or will not meet the required standards, we enter them into the database as a Fail. We write to them explained we have done this and that they should get "competent advice" (as required by the Management Regulations 1999).

The Assessment

By reviewing a company's health and safety culture, CHAS assessors make sure they meet standards set by the 1974 Health and Safety at Work etc Act. (And the new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations to be introduced in 2007. Assessors will check they are following guidance issued by both the Health and Safety Executive and the Health and Safety Commission.

It is important companies (especially small ones) do not find the application process intimidating. Where possible, our assessors are encouraged to discuss issues arising from the assessment with the company concerned.

It is also important a company is given positive feedback on their application where it has not been successful. They can then take corrective action and make a successful reapplication.

We recognise the procedure for applying is initially time-consuming, the long-term benefits in avoiding duplication of effort are clear for both the clients and the company applying.

The stages of assessing competency

There are (at least) two stages in the assessment process from the time a company pre-qualifies through to working for a client.

The first stage is the CHAS assessment process described above. If a company passes this assessment they have shown us that they can adequately manage health and safety.

The second stage is when the employer checks a company has the ability to carry out the specific work they have applied for. Employers do this by looking at things like method statements, specific risk assessments, references, examples of previous similar work, training and available resources.

There is a third stage which is monitoring the company when they are doing the work. Among other things, employer's check they 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 assessments at stages 2 and 3 are normally proportionate to the level of risk they carry.

Assessment Subjects

Our 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 they have told us they do. The table below shows the areas we look at in the assessment.

Not all areas of the assessment will apply to all companies: some will depend on the kind of work they do.

General Policy Statement	Organisation for Health & Safety	Work Equipment	Health & Safety Training	Consultation Arrangements	First Aid
Fire and Emergency Procedures	Display Screen Equipment	Manual Handling of Loads	COSHH	Risk Assessment	Asbestos
Health Surveillance	Accident Reporting	Work Equipment	Personal Protective Equipment	Electrical Safety	Contractor Management
Workplace and Inspections		Fire Risk Assessment		Monitoring, Audit and Review

Management of the scheme

The Association of London Government Health and Safety Forum have licensed Merton Council as the CHAS administrator to promote and run the scheme on their behalf. A National Management Board were established in 2002 to check the scheme is managed and developed in line with its' constitution (a copy of the constitution can be got from our website). Members of the management board represent the national membership and include the GMB and UCATT trade unions and safety and procurement professionals. Members have clearly defined aims and objectives that demonstrate the professional way we run the scheme.

We do not make any changes to any part of the scheme unless the management board has approved it. The Board meet every six months to discuss business and proposals for improvement or changes. We display the notes of meetings on the public page of the CHAS website. If commercially sensitive issues are discussed at the meeting the notes are distributed through regional representatives using email.

Client membership Levels

There are two user levels for our client users:

Member. (Full read and write access to the database) This is a client who assesses contractors using our standards. As a member they have access to the database and can add new applicants and amend existing entries.
Subscriber. (Read only access). This level of access is for client users who regularly want to use information contained in the database. They do not assess companies but can add comments to the database

CHAS and Constructionline

Constructionline is the Government's national register for contractors, consultants and suppliers (whilst its name suggests it is construction biased, it does register non-construction companies too). 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.

Following agreement by the Department of Trade and Industry, CHAS and Constructionline formed a "mutual working agreement". This sets out how we will work together to provide an improved service for our clients. You can get details of that agreement by contacting us through this website.

Both CHAS and Constructionline have their own independence and identity but our databases are linked.

Annual Membership Fee

From the start of the scheme and up to the April 1st 2007 CHAS was and is self-financing mainly through client users having to pay an annual subscription fee.

From the 1st April 2007 we move to free access for client users. There are certain criteria to be met for free acess and these can be obtained from the schemes manager through the web site.

Support and Endorsement for CHAS

At the launch of the scheme The Local Government Association and Trades Union Congress endorsed the scheme while the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) announced their support for it.

Getting assessed

If you apply to a local authority for placement on their approved list the assessment may be free. (The time taken to start and complete an assessment might be longer than a direct application to CHAS because of the clients limited professional resources available for assessments). However, if you wish to apply direct to CHAS (or you are told to do so by a client), a fee is payable. The fees depends on whether you are a CDM duty holder or the number of people you employ. The current fee structure can be found at http://www.chas.gov.uk/contractorsfaq.asp#cost

If you fail your assessment you will receive a written summary of any weaknesses noted by the assessor. You will then have time in which to amend or review and then reapply. (A �60 + vat , will be payable if the reassessment is judged to take more than 30 minutes work. Please note the assessor does not receive any of this fee).