SafeContractor: what it is and when it counts

SafeContractor (run by Alcumus) is a health and safety assessment scheme and a member of SSIP, the umbrella body whose member schemes mutually recognise each other's assessments. In public-sector tendering that membership is the point: a current SafeContractor assessment satisfies a "CHAS or equivalent SSIP scheme" requirement, and vice versa.

Where you'll meet it

SafeContractor grew up in facilities management and the private sector — large estates and retail chains often require their contractors to hold it specifically. Public buyers rarely name SafeContractor alone; they name CHAS or SSIP generically. So the practical question is usually the other way round: you already hold SafeContractor for a commercial client, and a council tender asks for CHAS. The answer is that mutual recognition covers you — name your scheme, cite SSIP membership, give your registration and expiry, and check you appear on the SSIP portal, because that register is what the evaluator will look at.

What the assessment covers

The core is the SSIP criteria: health and safety policy, risk assessments and method statements, training and competence records, accident reporting, insurance and legal compliance. Assessment is desktop-based through an online portal, banded by employee count, with proportionate expectations for very small firms. Alcumus also sells sector modules and broader compliance packages on top; as with every scheme, buy extras only when a contract in hand demands them.

Cost and time

Fees are banded by company size and change from time to time — the SafeContractor site is the only current price list. A small firm should plan for a few hundred pounds a year. Turnaround follows your paperwork: if policies, RAMS and insurance certificates are current and organised, assessment commonly completes in days to a few weeks; if they are not, writing them is the real project, and the same pack will feed every selection questionnaire you complete afterwards.

SafeContractor, CHAS or another SSIP scheme?

If you hold any one of them and it is current, hold your ground — there is rarely a reason to pay for a second SSIP member scheme, and no public buyer can lawfully insist on a specific member scheme for the health and safety element (see CHAS vs SSIP for how to answer that question in a bid). Choose on price for your size band, turnaround when you need it fast, and whichever scheme your biggest existing client already recognises.