 | |  | | | Philip White, construction chief inspector with the Health and Safety Executive, said the organisation was giving its full support to the SSIP Forum | |
Do away with duplication
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| 11 Jan 2010
When contractors want to tender for work on major projects in the construction sector, or even simply to join an approved list, they invariably have to demonstrate their health and safety competence by completing pre-qualification assessments writes Keith Wilson.
There can be no argument about the value of this process in principle, but there is a problem – for different projects, contractors are likely to have to complete different pre-qualification forms, even though those forms all essentially require the same information.
In the words of Gerry Mulholland, Health, Safety and Environment Leader at Laing O’Rourke Technologies, contractors are finding themselves, time after time, “doing the same thing, differently.”
Maybe that doesn’t sound like a huge problem but, according to a survey carried out by the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), 68 % of its members belong to pre-qualification schemes. So far so good, but the bad news is that on average, each of those members belongs to 2.6 schemes and the largest businesses with turnovers in the range £5 million to £20 million belong, on average, to six schemes.
That means a lot of time and money is being wasted on satisfying very similar requirements several times over. In fact, it has been estimated that the cost of this duplicated effort to the construction industry as a whole runs into hundreds of millions of pounds. This cost goes straight to the bottom line and much of it falls on SMEs (small and medium enterprises), the category into which the majority of electrical contractors fall.
Mutual recognitionWhat this means in practice is that, because of the costs associated with tender pre-qualification, smaller companies in particular find that they cannot afford to bid for projects that they would otherwise find attractive. This is clearly bad for those businesses, and it is also bad for the specifiers who might buy their services, since competition is reduced.
These issues, which benefit no one, are however being addressed. In May 2009, the Safety Schemes in Procurement Competence Forum (SSIP Forum) held a press and website launch, announcing that its principal objective was “to act as an umbrella organisation to facilitate mutual recognition between health and safety pre-qualification schemes wherever it is practicable to do so.”
In simple terms, if your company has been successfully accredited as meeting the requirements of one health and safety pre-qualification scheme operated by an SSIP Forum member, this accreditation will be recognised as meeting the requirements of the schemes operated by other members. The need for duplicated effort to satisfy the requirements of the various schemes individually is, therefore, eliminated.
To lay the foundations for mutual recognition between their various schemes, the members of the SSIP Forum have adopted the core criteria described in the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) to the Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM 2007). This code of practice, together with the associated guidance provided by the Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC), provides a very clear indication of the requirements associated with Stage 1 pre-qualification for major contractors and clients.
The scheme does not and cannot relate to Stage 2 assessment and qualification, as this is project specific. Nevertheless, by reducing the effort and time needed for Stage 1 pre-qualification, it allows both the contractors bidding on projects and their clients to devote more attention to Stage 2 tasks, thereby helping to ensure that the contractors have appropriate experience, that their staff are properly trained and that they have sufficient resources to meet the needs of the project.
Of course, the SSIP Forum can only be of real value with the support of leading operators of pre-qualification schemes. Undoubtedly it has this support. The Contractors Health and Safety Scheme (CHAS), the National House Building Council (NHBC), Exor Management Services and Constructionline are founding members of the Forum. Subsequently, they have been joined by Safety Management Advisory Services (SMAS), Altius Vendor Assessment, Facilities Services Group (FSG) and Eurosafe UK.
Organisations that have submitted an application to join the Forum and, at the time of writing, are currently awaiting independent assessment are British Constructional Steelworks Association (BSCA), Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association (HVCA), the Association for Project Safety (SPS), and British Standards Institute (BSI) – the UK’s national standards body. In addition, several other scheme operators are also considering joining SSIP.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a permanent non-voting role as a co-opted member of the Forum, and it uses this role to ensure that an annual independent audit is carried out of the processes employed in each the member schemes. The Forum is also receiving enthusiastic support from other important official bodies, including the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (formerly the BERR).
Specifier support?Official support and support from pre-qualification scheme operators is clearly excellent, but what about the other part of the equation – acceptance by specifiers and purchasers? Will they be willing to agree that if, for example, they have specified CHAS accreditation, then this specification can equally well be met by, say, SMAS accreditation without the need for further paperwork to be completed?
The Forum reports that acceptance is starting to take off, with an increasing number of specifiers and purchasers simply asking for “compliant registration via an SSIP member” rather than designating an individual scheme. The Forum does, however, accept that it still has some way to go in educating buyers, and it is currently contacting all local authorities and housing associations to publicise its work. The next step in its promotional programme is to target specifiers and purchasers in industry.
It has already been mentioned that the ECA is taking an interest in the issues that the SSIP Forum has been set up to address and it is, in fact, a strong supporter. Paul Reeve, head of safety and the environment at the ECA, points out that the ECA offers its members free CHAS assessment, which means that they have an easy route to becoming accredited under an SSIP-compliant scheme.
“The SSIP Forum is an excellent idea, with the potential to deliver genuine benefits and cost savings,” said Reeve, “and it’s fair to say that a number of our members are just starting to enjoy some of those benefits. It is, however, early days and we believe that the benefits will really take off over the next twelve months.”
“More work is certainly needed to promote the SSIP Forum, but all parties are committed and enthusiastic, so there’s no doubt that the work will be done and, ultimately, all electrical contractors will reap the rewards of these efforts.”
The final wordThe final word on this forward thinking scheme, which for once is designed to reduce bureaucracy, must go to Lord McKenzie of Luton, minister for health and safety at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Addressing the SSIP Forum’s official launch event held six months after the original press and website launch, he said, “I am pleased to give the government’s full support to the SSIP Forum. The work done in making procurement more efficient by reducing duplication and increasing access to tender opportunities is working well. And at the same time, I am delighted that health and safety standards continue to improve. The government would like to see industry giving its full support and backing to this initiative.” | |
 | | | The official launch of the SSIP Forum took place at the Royal Festival Hall | |
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