Trueform Scaffolding have achieved SMAS Worksafe accreditation!
What is SMAS Worksafe?
SMAS stands for Safety Management Advisory Service, a dedicated health and safety assessment company.
As a small scaffolding company we get many requests to fill in “prequalification questionnaires” (PQQs). PQQs are sets of questions that suppliers send out before they can start working with a company. They can be long and often ask similar questions. Having lots of PQQs to fill in creates a mountain of paperwork that can take a lot of time to respond to.
SMAS is a registered member of Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP). The SSIP Forum aims to reduce the volume of unnecessary paperwork that companies have to complete, therefore reducing their costs.
How does it work?
Because we hold an SMAS health and safety certificate we can now show that we meet SSIP ‘core criteria’ without having to complete extra assessments, thus reducing the amount of admin we have. We will also be recognised by the other Member Schemes so we can reach a wider base of potential customers.
Why choose SMAS?
The Scaffolding Association picked SMAS Worksafe as it’s SSIP scheme of choice in May this year. Because we are members of the Scaffolding Association we decided that SMAS would be the best scheme for us to apply for.
Julian Sanders at VR Design & Safety Ltd is our independent health and safety advisor. Julian helped guide us through the application process. First we carried out a worksafe assessment through the SMAS portal. Then we submitted the required evidence for review. The process was easy to follow and an SMAS assessor was on hand to help us if needed.
All SMAS Assessors are qualified health and safety professionals who have been through SSIP Assessor Training. An SSIP Auditor also audits them annually.
We were reassured that as a specialist health and safety assessment company SMAS don’t carry out health and safety training or consultancy. Because of this we were happy that there would not be a conflict of interest during the assessment process.
As a result of our assessment we are now accredited with SMAS until August 2020.
Monique Noon, Director at Trueform Scaffolding said “I’m really pleased we have achieved SMAS Worksafe accreditation. This is great news for our existing customers and prospective clients. We can now show that we work to recognised industry standards for health and safety”.
For more information about SMAS Worksafe you can visit their website www.smasltd.com
To find out more about Trueform Scaffolding go to https://trueformscaffolding.co.uk