PPC110 | Member benefit

Kerry Howe, Director of CQMS, explains the CQMS health and safety accreditation, and helps you understand how it works for your business.

Are you aware of a new member benefit – a free SSIP assessment completed by CQMS?

We know that many BPCA Members require a SSIP health and safety assessment to satisfy client’s pre-qualification requirements.

With assessment fees for some schemes escalating and reaching into the hundreds of pounds, this new relationship with CQMS represents a significant benefit for BPCA Members.

It all sounds great, and we’re very excited about it, but you probably have some questions. 

SSIP acronym ɛs-ɛs-aɪ-piː Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) is an umbrella organisation that pulls together multiple occupational health and safety schemes with the aim of reducing costs and duplication for both suppliers and buyers.

Spot the difference

What’s the difference between SSIP assessments provided by different schemes?

This frequently comes up and the answer is – nothing! An SSIP assessment from one member scheme is the same as an SSIP assessment from another member scheme. Let’s use an analogy.

Think of the assessment in the same way as a tin of Heinz baked beans. There are lots of shops where you can buy a tin of beans, and the product is exactly the same regardless of where you buy it from.

The price will be different though, and some shops may have offers to tempt you into buying other items, but if you just need the tin of beans you can choose any shop to get them from – you would probably use the one selling them at the lowest price!

All SSIP member schemes have to ensure that the standards of our assessments and the competence of our assessors comply with the SSIP Rules and Bylaws, and schemes are audited annually to ensure these standards are met.

This is a condition of our membership of SSIP and allows mutual recognition of assessments between SSIP member schemes, so you only have to undergo one assessment to SSIP standards each year.

It is worth noting that many SSIP schemes offer products, modules and services in addition to the SSIP (health and safety) assessment, such as assessment of the company’s environmental, quality, anti-bribery compliance or an assessment to the Common Assessment Standard etc.

These are outside of the scope of SSIP and therefore not covered by the ‘deemed to satisfy’ (cross-recognition) process, so the products often cannot be directly ‘mapped’ against those offered by other schemes.

The content of the assessment

The assessment is undertaken to the SSIP Core Criteria standard.

We have produced a useful guidance document, held in the H&S module on our portal, which explains the requirements of each section and typical examples of suitable evidence to demonstrate how to meet the necessary standard for each of the 12 mandatory assessment areas.

The assessment criteria are applied to your organisation in a sensible and proportionate way, taking into account your company size and the activities you carry out. 

You will not be expected to provide evidence for items which are not applicable to what you do or are not required by law.

How to obtain certification with CQMS

1. Register to join CQMS – go to cqms-ltd.co.uk/cqms-safety-scheme and click ‘Apply Now’. At the bottom of the form under ‘How did you hear about CQMS?’ select ‘Other’ and enter ‘BPCA member’.

2. CQMS will verify your membership with BPCA then create your profile on our portal, set up the modules ready for your completion and enable your access to the system.

3. When you receive your login details via email, log in to the CQMS portal and go to the ‘Modules to do’ tab. The modules to complete will be listed down the left hand side of the screen.

4. Simply click to open the module, answer the questions and upload your supporting evidence. You can save your progress at any time and come back to the assessment later. When all areas have been completed, click to ‘submit’ the module.

5. The CQMS team will receive a notification of your submission and assign it to one of our assessors.

6. The assessor will review your responses and evidence against the SSIP Core Criteria standard and determine if the required standards have been met.

7. If any areas require further information or evidence, the CQMS assessor will provide clear and concise feedback on additional information and ask you to log in, amend your submission and resubmit. A further assessment is then undertaken by the assessor.

8. Once all areas are assessed as compliant with the SSIP Core Criteria, the assessment is complete and you will receive your CQMS Safety-Scheme certificate. CQMS will then ensure an entry is made onto the SSIP Portal which enables your compliance to be verified by client buyers and other SSIP member schemes.

“You won’t need to undergo any further assessment against the SSIP core criteria, as all SSIP member schemes should accept our assessment under the ‘deemed to satisfy’ criteria.”

The benefits for BPCA members

What to do if your clients still require you to be registered with another SSIP member scheme

You can register with another SSIP member scheme to meet your client’s requirements using your CQMS certificate via the mutual recognition route. 

You won’t need to undergo any further assessment against the SSIP core criteria, as all SSIP member schemes should accept our assessment under the ‘deemed to satisfy’ criteria.

You may be required to complete other modules which are outside of health and safety, eg environment, quality, anti-bribery, with your client’s preferred scheme to be compliant with your client’s requirements. 

These additional modules are not covered by the cross-recognition (‘deemed to satisfy’) agreement as they are not included within the SSIP Core Criteria, but you can be assessed against these separately if it is needed.

Help and support

If you can’t find the information you are looking for in the guidance document in the module, you can access assistance from CQMS via email or phone. 

For assistance using our portal the administration team will be pleased to help or, if your query relates to the technical content of the questions and you need help understanding how to meet the requirements, you can speak directly to a member of the assessment team.

The CQMS assessment team is always happy to support members undergoing assessment. We strive to provide excellent value and outstanding customer service.

Furthermore all support and guidance for suppliers through the process is included at no cost to BPCA members, which includes the reassessments of your modules if you don’t pass first time. 

We frequently receive excellent feedback from suppliers thanking us for the invaluable support given to them during their assessment, and we see it as a cornerstone of our service.

There are also template documents available from the CQMS portal which you can download and complete to help you to provide suitable evidence.

We cannot provide advice or consultancy during the assessment process as this would be a conflict of interest, however as a BPCA member you can access this from the BPCA membership team.

They are very familiar with the SSIP Core Criteria requirements and will be able to give you specific and targeted help through the process.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions please get in touch. We would love to speak to you.
safety-scheme@cqms-ltd.com
01476 594410