CHAS Scheme - Members faq

No. The database stores information on a wide range of contractors and consultants.
It addresses all categories of work from asbestos removal to window cleaning and from catering to residential care.We currently have 124 work categories to select from in the database.

No it does not. CHAS compliance means the applicant has demonstrated adequate compliance with current legislation and sound management of H&S
It does not make any assessment that they have all relevant safety systems for the work they undertake - other assessments techniques must be used to determine competence including taking up references, site monitoring, interviews, assessing method statement, specific training and skills, etc. CHAS does provide specific guidance for users on this subject.

No it will not. However, we have developed standards for assessing competence of contractors and this is available to members from the database.
This is covered in more detail in later FAQ's.

Every year many millions of pounds are wasted by contractors making multiple applications to public bodies and others as part of pre-qualification for approved or select list. In the same way that Constructionline offer financial vetting of contractors negating the need for multiple assessments of financial standing, so CHAS offers the same service for H&S.

The CHAS Scheme Manager is employed by and operates from Merton Council. He is answerable to a National Management Group that consists of safety and procurement professionals from 12 regions covering the UK.
There are representatives from the Trades Unions (UCATT and GMB), Trades Associations and a legal adviser. The group work within its own constitution a copy of which can be obtained from the CHAS scheme Manager

The Intellectual Property Rights of this scheme rest in three places.

The copyright for the scheme process and documentation rest with the London Boroughs H&S Forum

The database belongs to the London Borough of Merton.

The copyright for the information contained in the database rests with the member who entered the information or added to it.

The scheme is open to the public and private sector. The membership extends to health trusts, councils, emergency services, the voluntary sector, housing associations, government departments and large private companies who use sub-contractors including Alfred McAlpine, Royal Mail Group and British Aerospace. If you are interested in joining the scheme and think you may be eligible Contact the CHAS scheme Administrator.

No. We recognise that some prospective members do not have the skills or resources necessary to undertake contractor assessments so we offer subscriber level membership (can search the database only).

The time taken to complete an assessment depends on a number of factors.
For example, how much experience the assessor has in doing assessments (not just CHAS ones), the quality of the application, how much guidance a member is prepared to give a failed applicant, etc.
Experience shows an initial assessment can take anywhere between 20 and 90 minutes.

Yes it can but you should remember that your selection process must be fair, clear and auditable when drawing up the short-list.
Your questionnaire used in the process would need to reflect CHAS standards, and also build on them to elicit information relating to H&S competence (stage 2).
All applicants must be treated in the same way. At this point you would need to make an assessment of an applicant's ability to undertake the work applied for, i.e. their competence. If a contractor had been recently assessed as CHAS (stage 1) compliant (say in the last 9 months) you need only assess the second stage competence element.
If the application had failed a CHAS assessment or not been CHAS assessed, you need to complete a CHAS (stage 1) assessment.
If they are assessed as compliant you can then move to a stage 2 assessment with them. If they fail, there is no point in doing stage 2 (they have not demonstrated compliance and/or adequate management). They are not short-listed for this reason and you have saved time and work.

A CHAS (stage 1) assessment is a check that a contractor or consultant complies with H&S legislation as it affects their undertaking, and that they have documented their management of it.
As an example, in accident reporting we would reasonably expect the applicant to refer to RIDDOR 95 rather than RIDDOR 85, we would expect them to be able to produce accident statistics for the last three years and provide some evidence that accidents are reported and investigated. This gives an indication of compliance and good management.

This is an assessment of the company's ability to demonstrate compliance with H&S legislation aimed specifically at their undertakings (for example working at height) and evidence that their management systems are put into practice effectively. This can be done in a number of ways - in some high-risk activities you might consider site visits, interviews, etc. You may assess safety method statements and/or risk assessments specific to the activities involved in their work, their training records and programme and the skills and qualifications of their staff who would run the contract. You may also look at site inspection reports, their internal audit processes and so on.
Remember the level of assessment should be proportional to the level of risk.

Yes it can. See the question about term contracts as an example. A member drawing up their short list may wish to include competence checks. The CHAS scheme does provide guidance on what checks should be completed at stage 2. Where a contractor has been assessed to the higher (stage 2) standard, the member can log it on the database as a general comment to explain briefly, the outcome of the stage 2 assessment

There are three main reasons for this.
1. . Where an approved list is in place, there may be many hundreds of contractors on it. If just 25% of them are invited to tender for work over the life of the approved list, the other 75% represent a huge waste of time and resources.
2. It might be unwise to place any reliance on a competence assessment that is more than a year old, particularly as staff turnover is high in most contracting firms. Some of these contractors would be assessed as compliant but not invited to tender for years.
3. A contractor may apply for multiple categories of work - we have one company with about 30! Assessing competence in just three or four categories would be resource intensive with a chance the applicant is intending to apply for work categories in which they have no real experience.

Yes they can but only as a form of "comment".
A contractor or consultant listed as compliant on the database has achieved some clearly defined CHAS (or stage 1) standards in the assessment. The standards for a second stage are not defined (we are working on this as part of our development plan for 2002-2003). Therefore someone using that information has no reference as to what was checked, and no guarantee of consistency at present.

This is the assessment of a contractor when they undertake the work on site in a safe manner taking account of all reasonable standards including site safety, welfare co-operation and so on.
Each individual employer will decide when the monitoring checks are done, if they are done, how they are undertaken and by whom.
If during this monitoring a member identifies persistent poor safety performance that leads to suspension or removal from an approved list or the determination of a contract, we could note this on the database.