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SafeContractor

Scott Seedell

Any of you guys registered with SafeContractor?

We registered some time ago after one of our main clients insisted on it and they're an absolute nightmare - nothing more than a legalised protection racket. They send us notifications a month or two before our 'subscription' ends and provide the necessary invoice for us to pay (which keeps going up every year without justification). Once they've relieved us of a grand or so, the actual process takes a few weeks of them inspecting random documentation of ours (insurance, RAMS, accident statistics, H&S policy, etc, etc) and each time someone seemingly with little H&S qualifications or understanding, and certainly no knowledge of electrical work, manages to find something wrong that needs correcting. I'm sure this is just to justify their existence and does absolutely nothing to reduce any accidents on site. The 'expert' assigned to our renewal every year differs each time, along with what they deem to be acceptable or not.

We already use a well known nationwide H&S adviser, who are brilliant and on hand any time to look into anything we need updating, general advice or represent us if anything did happen regarding accidents or legal protection etc (it hasn't yet). On top of this we're NICEIC Approved Contractors and have all of our electrical procedures and site work reviewed annually. Obviously they're also available whenever we need help - though some advice, particularly on the technical side is questionable and usually verbatim from their guides! The point is, what do SafeContractor actually do? They aren't an advisory service in the slightest and it seems their sole purpose is to carry out an onerous tick box exercise to ensure we fit 'their' criteria and charge us healthily for the privilege. 

On top of this absolute rip-off where we get nothing at all apart from the ability to continue trading with our clients that have registered with them, we missed a payment once (I think the recurring payment card had expired) and they had the sheer audacity to write to our clients and tell them we were no longer safe to work on their sites. Funnily enough, this was immediately resolved once the payment was taken - which demonstrates they exist purely in order to extract as much cash as possible and aren't the slightest bit interested in reducing accidents. I'm even puzzled as to how they even obtain details for who our clients are (perhaps they've extracted the details from our renewal documentation) but they certainly don't have our permission to contact anyone on our behalf. Can you imagine the NICEIC obtaining a list of our clients and notifying them if our subscription had ended??

So in a nutshell it's "Continue to pay us money every year and on time, regardless of any increases we unilaterally choose to apply without justification, or we'll contact your clients and state you aren't safe to work on their sites, despite the other professional organisations you're a member of overwhelmingly saying that you are. Please don't contact us for advice relating to H&S, because this isn't what we're here for."

If this was some statutory body that had legal authority over H&S law then I could partially understand it, though this lot are just a private entity that have self-appointed themselves to determining who is acceptable for carrying out contracting work. Does anyone else have any dealings with this racket and are wishing they never got involved at all? I'm even beginning to question the legality of it (GDPR springs to mind). If enough people have the same experience then perhaps we can collectively do something about it.

  • I've never heard of them. Sounds like another parasitic organsiation creaming a slice off the top and giving nothing in return - the industry is full of em. If I were you I would re-evalute whether or not it is worth continuing to do buseniss with this client who insists upon your membership of this organisation. You may well find it more profitable to drop both them and safecontractor altogether and let some other poor soul have the grief.

  • in reply to whjohnson

    Failing that, if the client insists on membership, I would be looking to pass the costs on to them (either as a separate invoice line, or by increasing costs).

  • Came across them many years ago, and although cant find the name on their website, Im sure that the SafeContractor scheme was originally a "Division" of a well known UK Insurance giant, perhaps they sold that off as their details look as if they are global now.

    Reality is their "Concept/USP" is they try and onboard clients who may not have the money, staff or expertise to do all thats required for ensuring health, safety, environmental and now GDPR policies and procedures are robust, and obviously charge their clients for that.

    These clients will then insist that all their own contractors and subcontractors are endorsed by SafeContractor, hence you have to pay your fee annually and their audit and checks should then ensure are in alignment with what policies and procedures their client member and your client is asking for and expecting.

    We had to do it to stay working with one client, and as KeyLevel indicated we just passed that cost onto the client across the various work packages, reality was we had enough business from that client that our SafeContractor fee could be covered, that said if we didnt do enough work, then we would have stopped working for that client or explained to them reward from them business turnover wise, wasnt worth the new overhead of SafeContractor.

    Personally I never felt they added value, of course they were pedantic and always found change a few words on a document each year and that was it.

    If I were you and you have a good relationship with your client, explain it to them and see if you can work around.

    Cheers GTB 

  • We were with construction line , they got very very poor cut with lines in our health and safety policy back and forth etc so try next year went with safe contractor , and because we were already with construction line was welcomed with open arms on the 1st year , 2nd year omg !, what an absolute pain , they wanted us to have contact with electricians in empty houses every 15 minutes and some other total over the top requirements, so left them and went with smas .

    have been with them for 3 or so years , but not as well recognised as the other two but are far cheaper at £600 or so .

    we do insurance work 24/7 and that’s what they want so we have to tow the line , otherwise we simply wouldn’t bother .

    in all 3 schemes  , you only get contact about 3/4 weeks before your invoice is due for payment .

  • We are registered with them - and ConstructionLine, and CHAS, and BuilderProfile.  They are all schemes under the Safety Schemes in Procurement umbrella.  They idea is that if you are in a scheme then you don't need to complete pre-qualification questionnaires for every client as they take your scheme membership as demonstrations of H&S competence.  That might be good if there weren't dozens of SSIP schemes all doing things a little bit differently, thus causing us to repeat the assessment work multiple times anyway.

    Main Contractors and major fitout contractors seem very hot on scheme membership and if you aren't in one then you probably can't work for them.  Public bodies likewise.  That may or may not affect you in your work, and I'm not saying the schemes are good or valuable - lots are a PITA, but we find they are a necessary evil.

  • in reply to jbrameld
    jbrameld said:
    a necessary evil.

    The problem is in a lot of places/companies there is a lack of enough QS (Quality Supervisor) to check the work being done by sometimes under qualified/experienced/competent person.  As an example search the internet for shocking installs by Octopus Energy.  (Other companies are also available)

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