Easier route to accreditation

Following extensive research and consultation with Alcumus’ contractor base of over 30,000 members, the company has overhauled the accreditation route to its award-winning SafeContractor assessment scheme. This overhaul gives contractors an innovative and pioneering range of choices as to how they achieve this sought-after accreditation.  

Safety at work is a high-priority, boardroom agenda item for UK PLC, which can be a difficult task for companies that work with contractors, and in turn, places increased pressure on contractors to assure clients that they operate compliantly. Alcumus SafeContractor addresses this by helping contractors become fully accredited and ensuring there is effective health and safety compliance within their business. Once accredited, contractors are listed on an approved database, which can be accessed by businesses to ensure they hire compliant subcontractors, providing assurance that they are meeting regulatory requirements.

Gemma Archibald, SafeContractor Director, explains the importance of accreditation support for UK contractors: “Corporate risk management and compliance are constantly evolving and are in the news all the time for good reason. We need to stay ahead of the game and add value to our service offering and so, after consulting our membership, we are now replacing the current single route to SafeContractor accreditation with four distinct routes, all carefully designed in terms of speed and levels of support from our team of expert auditors. This means that if a contractor needs to be fully accredited quickly they can achieve full accreditation in just a few working days, subject to submitting compliant paperwork beforehand and successfully completing the full process.”

In addition to the support offered to contractors, the scheme helps UK businesses to meet their regulatory requirements and provides increased supply chain visibility when hiring subcontractors, which is essential in ensuring health and safety regulations are practiced across the organisation. Gemma continues: “Businesses are under increased pressure to reduce risks and ensure they are operating safely and legally, so it is vital that they trust any contractors they bring onto their sites. The implications of getting health and safety wrong can be catastrophic. By relying on contractors that have gained accreditation, businesses can be assured that the contractors they are using are safe, compliant and up-to-date with the very latest legislation.”