HVCA joins Safety Schemes in Procurement Forum
The Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association is now a member of the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) Forum, thanks to the rigour of its independent member inspection and assessment regime. Members of the scheme have achieved compliance with the core criteria for health-and-safety competence in the Approved Code of Practice to the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007. The scheme was originally established by four of the UKs leading operators of approved contractor schemes.
Bob Towse, head of the HVCA’s technical and safety department, explains, ‘SSIP Forum members have agreed to recognise one another’s schemes — so that, when firms have prequalified under one scheme, they automatically prequalify under another SSIP scheme and are “deemed to satisfy” the health-and-safety requirements of all SSIP schemes.’
The HVCA has been concerned for some time about the proliferation of discrete health-and-safety accreditation schemes and the lack of mutual recognition between them. Bob Towse comments, ‘In our view, the formation and growth of the SSIP Forum represents very significant progress in this regard.’
Membership enables HVCA member companies to automatically satisfy the health-and-safety tender requirements of the increasing number of clients which are limiting their use of approved-contractor schemes to those operated by members of the SSIP Forum.
