Paul Reeve explores the benefits of adopting umbrella initiative Safety
Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) which works to encourage construction
buyers to follow good and best practice when employing contractors
The construPaul Reeve explores the benefits of adopting umbrella initiative Safety
Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) which works to encourage construction
buyers to follow good and best practice when employing contractors
The construction industry is still
one of the highest risk industries in
the UK, therefore competency and
health and safety matters should be one of
the key deciding factors for public and
private sector bodies when selecting a
supplier. Safety Schemes in Procurement
(SSIP), the umbrella body of health and
safety accreditation schemes, has long
aimed to recognise a variety of health and
safety procurement schemes, but it faces a
challenge. Major contractors and buyers in
both the public and private sectors, have
long standing brand allegiances with
major schemes and some show a
reluctance in scoping the market or
breaking away from their own in-house
initiatives.
One scheme
Currently, there are over 60,000 contractors
signed up to one of the 25 SSIP member
schemes and therefore meet stage one of
CDM2007 health and safety criteria
(Appendix 4 of the AcoP). SSIP works to
encourage construction buyers to follow
good and best practice when employing
contractors. Essentially, schemes that sit
under the SSIP umbrella, such as the
Contractors Health and Safety Assessment
Scheme (CHAS) and Safe Contractor, agree
to recognise each other's certificates,
providing cost and time savings for both
suppliers and buyers. This means
contractors need only join one scheme
instead of several, and buyers can select
from a wider pool of assessed contractors.
SSIPs aims are to ensure contractors can
pre-qualify for tendering for work from
different buyers without having to pay to
join multiple health and safety schemes or
duplicate paperwork. It also aims to save
buyers time and money by carrying out
stage one of the health and safety assessment
process so that they don't have to and can
instead focus their efforts on stage 2
assessments, of the pre-qualification
questionnaire (PQQ). All the schemes
under SSIP not only assess against
CDM2007 contractor criteria - their
assessment processes are also independently
audited before they can become an SSIP
member.
Utilising an independently audited
umbrella scheme, which covers a number of
different accreditation schemes, seems the
obvious choice, but one challenge for SSIP is
that most local authorities have long
standing allegiances to current prequalification
practices. While it is
understandable, especially in such an
uncertain economic climate, that many
authorities choose to stay with what's
familiar to them, it can make the cost of
business prohibitive for contractors who are
suitably assessed, but to a different scheme.
This familiarity can also lead to
complacency. Findings from a recent survey
of over 105 construction buyers revealed
that when choosing a contractor, only 29 per
cent of buyers rate health and safety
accreditation as their number one priority. If
some authorities don't see it as a priority,
they won't see any merit in diversifying their
pool of contractors.
Road to improvement
Cardiff City Council was among the first to
see the benefits and adopt SSIP when it was
launched around two years ago. This has
eased the often burdensome procurement
process for its suppliers, while opening up its
contracts to a broader range of contractors,
helping them to run more competitive
tender processes and potentially engage with
more innovative and efficient SME
suppliers.
According to the council, the logic of
adopting SSIP as their standard was
straightforward. They didn't think it was fair
for suppliers to have to pay to join several
different schemes when the elements
assessed are all to the same standard.
Steve Robinson, operational manager for
procurement at Cardiff City Council,
comments: "Local authorities in particular
have an obligation to use their own
procurement rules to promote initiatives
such as SSIP as it can help level the playing
field for contractors. We now have a greater
confidence that the contractors we choose
have been assessed regularly and that their
current status is available, reducing the risk
of using contractors that don't meet the
council's requirements."
It will take time for buyers to fully adopt
SSIP's philosophy of 'mutual recognition'.
The number of contractors already signed
up reflects the existing demand from the
supply chain to drive out unnecessary
bureaucracy when showing health and
safety competence. Buyers have an
opportunity to respond to this demand and
improve their own health and safety prequalification
processes by recognising SSIP.
Not only will this benefit the suppliers, it
will also benefit the buyers who want to
reduce their own PQQ costs, and who can
lead the industry to reduce procurement
costs and eliminate bureaucracy.
Paul Reeve is chairman of SSIP and head
of business policy and practice at the
Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA)
