Bondeck

Keeping us safer or a licence to print money?

Anything that makes us work in a safer way is welcome but with a so many schemes including CHAS, CQMS, SMAS, Safecontractor, Link-Up etc etc it feels like you can’t turn a corner these days without bumping into yet another safety accreditation scheme and new ones seem to appear daily.  Why? Because these schemes are big business, particularly if your sales force manages to sell into a major developer or client. Every contractor without an in-house accreditation system has a favourite scheme, most of which are identical in all but name and each claiming to be the last word in accreditation schemes.

Having passed CQMS and SMAS Bondeck and our sister company Bond Brick are awaiting the results of our CHAS assessments. In these days of reduced staff and belt tightening we can’t be the only company that questions the need to answer the same questions and produce an identical forest of paperwork for each of these assessments.

We have also noticed that many of the schemes are now introducing an “enhanced status” level within their scheme (for a price of course). Safety schemes have become a micro industry in themselves and sub-contractors are also spinning off work to consultants to assist them with their accreditation.

This duplication is a waste of time and money and at last something is being done about it. The new Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) umbrella scheme, despite the acronym sounding like a new social benefit scheme, should do away with the need to duplicate accreditation by providing an ISO9000 style qualification. Once attained, accreditation to SSIP (through one of its accreditated auditing bodies) will be recognised by all contractors. In other words, passing one scheme will be good enough for everyone (in theory).

The scheme is in its infancy but John Murphy of CHAS is chairing the new forum and the HSE is lending its support.  Let’s hope that things move quickly. After all, the fact that so many schemes need to be passed may, in some cases, be taking resources away from actually monitoring ongoing safety performance.