Understanding CHAS Certification
Awarding tender contracts to the right company is an important part of ensuring a project is delivered on time and on budget. Qualifications, experience and capacity play a big part in finding the right team, however many obstacles can get in the way of making sure the process runs smoothly. For example, ensuring that you have competent qualified Industrial Roofers is an absolute must.
One of the more typical issues revolves around the principles of health and safety. Ensuring an alignment between the client and the contractor can be like jumping through hoops, but with CHAS certification now becoming better understood, this complication could be a thing of the past.
Cut Time, Cut Costs
Assessing that a supplier’s health and safety competence is in line with the HSE used to be a lengthy and complicated task. What’s more, while suppliers may find their standards are compatible with one buyer, they might not be as fortunate with the next.
In the past this led to less than desirable practices, such as buyers staying with who they knew simply to keep things straightforward. However, buyers in the CHAS system can now use all approved suppliers, safe in the knowledge that their standards are compliant.
How Do CHAS Assess Suppliers?
CHAS conducts rigorous evaluations of all suppliers’ health and safety policy statements, their health and safety organisation and their specific HS arrangements. If they are deemed acceptable to CHAS’s standards, they will be approved.
Who Certifies the Certifier?
CHAS is a member of the HSE maintained Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) forum, and an independent auditor accredits CHAS annually.
Does the System Favour Buyers?
While only buyers have access to the CHAS database, CHAS approved engineers can only see their own information. This is because CHAS is Data Protection Act registered and if competitor providers of tensile fabric structures could see each other’s details, issues would arise. However, this does not unduly favour the buyer as CHAS promotes business no matter which side of the project the company takes.
However, in the interest of promoting the service and all the benefits it entails, CHAS is currently a free service to buyers. The organisation offers three levels of membership – a Read Only level, Subscriber level and Member level. Each level offers different ranks of involvement in the service depending on the buyer’s needs.
