Day: September 13, 2026

Full Lean IMS is the turnkey option: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 in one integrated system, with SSIP assistance in the same piece of work.

It is for firms that already know the next twelve months will ask for more than a single certificate. A large project in the area, a framework, a principal contractor who wants quality, environment and H&S in one pack, or a buyer who has stopped accepting “we are going for ISO later”.

How the full pack works

We build one system, not three manuals stapled together.

That means:

• One scope, written so an assessor can see what is in
• Shared processes for how you win, plan, deliver, check, and improve work
• Quality, environmental, and OH&S controls sitting on those processes, not in side folders
• Documented information you will actually use
• Internal audit and management review that look at the whole system
• SSIP-ready H&S evidence (CHAS, SafeContractor, or equivalent) so the site gate and the certificate route are not two different projects
• Preparation for a UKAS-accredited certification body to run Stage 1 and Stage 2

Accendo prepares. We are not the certification body. Certification is independent, which is the point if you care about tenders that get read properly.

You also get the usual implementation shape: system written around how you already work, pre-assessment thinking, procedures and a policy manual where they are needed, templates if they help, audits and compliance checks, and remote support through the assessment.

Full Lean IMS starts from £5,750 plus VAT. “From” is a guide starting price. We confirm the figure when the organisation is not a straightforward SME.

Why integrate instead of collecting badges

Three separate systems are how SMEs end up with a full-time folder. One IMS is how you keep it lean.

ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 share the same high-level structure on purpose. Leadership, context, risk, competence, documented information, operations, checking, improvement. If you write that once, the standard-specific controls (defects, aspects, hazards) hang off it. If you write it three times, you will not keep it current.

SSIP sits beside that as the practical site-access assessment. Doing it in the same engagement means the H&S evidence is not rewritten for a different audience six weeks later.

When the full pack is the honest buy

When the project coming to town will ask for more than one standard. When you are tired of answering PQQs with a mix of old certificates and promises. When a call or a health check has already shown that single-standard work will only delay the next ask.

If you only need 9001, buy 9001. If you only need to get on site, buy SSIP. The menu exists so you do not have to take the full pack to be taken seriously.

What you are not buying

Not a certificate. Not a non-UKAS shortcut. Not a day-rate retainer (retainers and other work stay on enquiry). Not every combination of eight options in one dropdown.

You are buying one lean integrated system, ready for a proper UKAS assessment, plus help through SSIP.

Choose From £5,750, Full Lean IMS on the ISO and HSEQ services page. If you want to test the idea first, the 30-minute call is still the cheapest way to find out you do not need this yet.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

ISO 14001 is the environmental management standard. Clients ask for it when the job has waste, plant, fuel, water, ecology, or a planning condition, and when they want to see that you control those things on purpose.

They do not ask for a university paper on the planet. They ask whether you know your significant aspects, your legal duties, and what you do on site when something goes wrong.

How ISO 14001 implementation works with Accendo

Same shape as our ISO 9001 work, pointed at environment.

We build a lean 14001 system around what you actually do:

• Aspects and impacts that match the work (plant, waste, welfare, fuel, dust, water, not a generic office list)
• Compliance obligations you can name and keep current
• Operational controls people on site will follow
• Emergency readiness that fits your jobs, not a chemical plant
• Checking, audit, and management review that look at environmental performance, not just a folder

Remote, written around your processes, ready for an independent UKAS-accredited certification body. Accendo prepares. We do not certify.

ISO 14001 implementation starts from £2,950 plus VAT. The final figure follows the organisation. A yard with a few vans is not a demolition contractor.

When 14001 becomes the live ask

A big local project is one trigger. Public clients, infrastructure, and industrial plots increasingly want environmental control in the same breath as quality. Waste plans, spill kit stories, and “we recycle” slides are not a system.

The other trigger is a principal contractor who already holds 14001 and is tired of subcontractors who cannot show anything behind the RAMS paragraph.

If you already run ISO 9001 well, 14001 should sit on the same bones, not in a second manual with a different author. If you need quality, environment, and H&S together, look at the full Lean IMS instead of stacking two separate projects.

Lean still applies

Minimum viable 14001 means: significant aspects, real controls, evidence you can find. It does not mean a biodiversity strategy for a two-van outfit, and it does not mean copying a national contractor’s aspects register.

If an assessor cannot walk from your aspects list to last month’s work, the system is decoration.

What you are not buying

Not a certificate from us. Not an environmental permit. Not a carbon consultancy. A management system that will stand a proper assessment, and that your people can keep alive without a full-time administrator.

Choose From £2,950, ISO 14001 implementation on the ISO and HSEQ services page. Unsure whether the client means 14001 or just a waste note? Start with a call.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

ISO 9001 is the quality management standard most public clients and principal contractors mean when they say “have you got ISO?”

It is also the one worth having when a large project arrives locally. A new road, a hospital, a freeport plot, a barracks programme, a housing run: the firms that can show a lived quality system get further down the PQQ than the firms that send a policy dated 2019.

You do not need a full-time administrator. You need a system that matches how you already win, plan, deliver, and put work right.

How ISO 9001 implementation works with Accendo

This is implementation support, not a certificate in the post.

We work remotely with you to build a lean ISO 9001 system around your real processes:

• What you sell and where you work (scope that an assessor can read, not a slogan)
• How work is won, planned, delivered, checked, and handed over
• Competence, suppliers, and the records you actually need
• Internal audit and management review that produce decisions
• Evidence a UKAS-accredited certification body can sample

We write what has to be written. We cut what does not. You run the system. When you are ready, you choose an independent certification body for Stage 1 and Stage 2. Accendo is not that body. We get you ready for a proper UKAS audit.

ISO 9001 implementation starts from £2,950 plus VAT. “From” is there because a two-person trade and a multi-site contractor are not the same job. We confirm the figure before you buy if the shape of the business is not obvious.

What “lean” means here

Lean means minimum viable, not hollow. You meet the standard. You do not invent a second rulebook “just in case”.

That is the opposite of buying a 90-procedure manual and hoping an assessor is impressed. Assessors follow work. Buyers who have been burned follow work. The paperwork should be the thin description of that work.

Why 9001 first

When a big scheme is announced in your area, quality is still the first management-system filter for most construction and contracting SMEs. Environment and H&S matter (and some clients will ask on day one). A lot of lists still start with ISO 9001.

If you already know you will need 14001 and 45001 as well, the full Lean IMS is the better buy. If the live ask is quality, start here.

What you are not buying

You are not buying a certificate from Accendo. You are not buying a non-UKAS shortcut. You are not buying a system that only works in the week of the audit.

You are buying a proportionate ISO 9001 system, written around how you work, that can stand a competent assessment.

Choose From £2,950, ISO 9001 implementation on the ISO and HSEQ services page. If you only need to know whether 9001 is the right move, start with the 30-minute or one-hour call.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

You already have a system. It got you a certificate two years ago, or it was written for a client who has since moved on. Now a larger job is coming and you are not sure the folder would survive a competent look.

That is the IMS health check.

How the health check works

This is a structured review of the integrated management system you already run (or claim to run) against ISO 9001, and 14001 / 45001 if they are in scope.

You share the live system: manuals, processes, last internal audit, last management review, recent nonconformities, the certificate if you have one. We sample it the way a Stage 1 mind would sample it, then we tell you the truth.

You get:

• What still holds up
• What has gone quiet since the last assessment
• What would fail a UKAS-accredited body, or a fussy principal contractor, next time
• A short, ordered list of fixes, not a new manual

It is not implementation. We are not rewriting the system unless you later buy that work. It is a diagnosis you can act on.

The IMS health check is £595 plus VAT.

Health check versus gap analysis versus “we tidied the folder”

A lot of firms do a spring clean before a surveillance visit and call it a review. That is housekeeping.

A health check asks whether the system still matches the work. If your scope says “civil engineering” and you now spend half the year on maintenance, that is a finding. If internal audit exists only as a calendar reminder, that is a finding. If the environmental aspects were written for an office and you run plant, that is a finding.

Better to hear it from us than from the assessor, or from the buyer who asked for evidence and did not like the silence.

Why do this when a project is coming

Large local schemes (roads, energy, industrial, defence, public buildings) tend to flush out stale certificates. Buyers ask for the PDF, then they ask how the system works on this type of job. A health check is how you find out whether you can answer that before you are on the clock.

If the system is sound, you stop spending money. If it is not, you know whether you need a tidy, a single-standard refresh, or a full lean IMS.

What we are not

We are not the certification body. A clean health check is not a certificate and not a guarantee of Stage 2. It is an honest read of readiness.

Choose IMS health check on the ISO and HSEQ services page. If you do not have a system yet, start with a call or with implementation. Do not buy a health check of a folder that does not exist.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

You have the work, or you are close. Then the pack arrives.

Method statements, a CPP, training matrix, COSHH, environmental notes, a quality plan, insurance, induction records, and a deadline that assumes you already had a department for this. That is the moment the HSEQ compliance check is for.

How the check works

This is a compliance review of the pack you have been asked to return, not a full ISO implementation.

You send the client’s list and what you can already put against it. We work through the gaps in plain language:

• What they asked for versus what you actually do on site
• Which documents are missing, stale, or written for a different type of job
• What a proportionate response looks like for an SME, not a tier-one template dump
• What needs a conversation with the principal contractor, because the ask is generic and your work is not

You get a clear list of what to fix, what to ignore, and what to send back. Remote. Built around your live job, not a generic audit programme.

The HSEQ compliance check is £395 plus VAT.

HSEQ is the language of the job, not the certificate

Principal contractors talk HSEQ because that is how they run the site: health, safety, environment, quality, in one pack. ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 sit underneath that language if you hold them. Many SMEs do not hold them yet, and still need to answer the pack this Friday.

The check is for that Friday. If the honest longer answer is a lean IMS, we will say so. We will not pretend a certificate appears in the same week as the RAMS.

Big project, local firm

When a major scheme starts near you, smaller firms get pulled in for trade packages, plant, TM, and finishing. The work is familiar. The paperwork is written for a contractor ten times your size.

A good HSEQ response is still your work, described accurately, with evidence you can find. It is not a 200-page manual you will never open again.

What we are not

We are not the principal contractor. We are not the certification body. We do not “approve” your pack in their system. We get you ready to submit something that matches the work and will stand a competent read.

If you want a wider look at the system behind the pack, that is the IMS health check. If you need the system built, that is implementation.

Choose HSEQ compliance check on the ISO and HSEQ services page.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

For a lot of UK contractors, the first locked gate is not ISO. It is SSIP.

CHAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline, or an equivalent: principal contractors use these schemes to decide who is allowed on the job. When a big project comes to town, the firms that already hold a current SSIP assessment get the email. The firms that start the application the week the tender drops sit in a queue.

How the SSIP readiness check works

This is a focused piece of work, not a full management system.

You send what you have (policies, risk assessments, training records, insurance, the last application if you have one). We review it against what the common SSIP members actually ask, and we tell you what will bounce.

Typically we:

• Check the core H&S documents against a CHAS / SafeContractor style question set
• Spot the usual gaps: training currency, RAMS that do not match the work, missing reviews, a policy that still names a director who left
• Tell you what to fix before you press submit
• Stay with you through the application if that is what you bought the check for

It is remote. It is built for SMEs who do the work themselves and do not keep a compliance team.

The SSIP readiness check is £275 plus VAT.

SSIP is not ISO, and that is fine

SSIP is a health and safety assessment used across UK construction. ISO 45001 is a management system standard. They overlap. They are not the same product.

Plenty of good firms need SSIP this month and ISO later, when a client or a framework asks for a certificate from a UKAS-accredited body. Doing both at once is possible (that is the full Lean IMS route). Doing SSIP first is often the faster way onto the site.

We will not upsell you a three-standard system because a principal contractor asked for CHAS.

When a local scheme starts moving

Road programmes, industrial plots, hospital works, defence estate upgrades: the supply chain conversation starts with “are you SSIP?” more often than it starts with clause 4 of ISO 9001.

If you can already show a current assessment, you are in the conversation. If you cannot, the quality of your joinery or plant does not get heard.

What we are not

We are not the SSIP member scheme. We do not issue the badge. We get your evidence ready so the scheme (or the buyer using it) can assess you without a messy bounce.

If you later want ISO 9001 or 45001 behind the same work, that is a different option on the same page.

Choose SSIP readiness check on the ISO and HSEQ services page.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

The half-hour call is for a first steer. The one-hour consultancy call is for when you already know the question is real, and you need to walk through it properly.

A client has named a standard. A PQQ has a management-systems section. A big project is coming to your area and you want to be on the list, not scrambling in week six. An hour is enough to see the shape of the work.

How the hour works

You book it, we meet remotely, and you can share what you have: the client’s wording, last year’s policies, a CHAS login, a folder of procedures that may or may not still be true.

In the hour we typically:

• Read the actual ask, not the office rumour
• Map what you already run day to day against ISO 9001, 14001, 45001, or SSIP
• Flag the gaps that would fail a competent check, and the paperwork you can ignore
• Sketch a proportionate route (check, single standard, or full lean IMS)
• Leave you with a scoped next step and a guide price

You do not get a 40-page report from a one-hour call. You get a clear picture of what “good enough for this buyer” looks like in your business.

Why this sits between a chat and a health check

A 30-minute call answers “do I even need this?” An IMS health check samples the system you already claim to run. Implementation builds the system.

The hour is the scoping conversation in the middle. It is the right buy when you have more than a rumour and less than a finished pack, and you do not want to pay for a written review until the route is obvious.

Local work, real filters

When a large scheme is announced near you, the first filter is rarely a full three-standard certificate. It is often “send your SSIP, your H&S policy, and evidence of a quality system.” Main contractors on roads, energy, defence, and industrial plots all ask a version of that.

An hour spent on their wording beats a week spent guessing which template to download.

Price and what you walk away with

The one-hour consultancy call is £95 plus VAT. Fixed. Remote.

You walk away knowing which of the other seven options, if any, is the honest next step. If the honest next step is “leave it until the tender is real”, that is a successful hour.

Book 1-hour consultancy call on the ISO and HSEQ services page.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.

A big job lands in your town. A main contractor wants you on the list. Someone in the office says you will need ISO 9001. Before you buy a system, or a folder full of templates, spend half an hour working out what is actually being asked.

That is what the 30-minute consultancy call is for.

How the call works

You book it from the Accendo services page, pick a time, and we talk. Remote, no site visit, no homework pack in advance.

In thirty minutes we usually cover:

• What triggered the call (tender, PQQ, a client email, or a project you can see coming)
• What they actually asked for (ISO 9001, SSIP, a health and safety policy, or just “your management system”)
• What you already have that counts
• Whether you need a certificate, a check, or just a clearer story for the next meeting
• The sensible next step, and what it would cost

You leave with a recommendation, not a brochure. If the right answer is “not yet”, we will say so.

When a project comes to town

ISO 9001 is often worth having when a large scheme arrives locally: a road dualling, a hospital, a freeport plot, a barracks upgrade, a housing run. Principal contractors and public clients use quality systems as a filter. They are not asking whether you wrote a novel. They are asking whether you can show how work is planned, checked, and put right.

The mistake is treating every rumour of a project as a reason to buy the full pack the same week. Sometimes you need SSIP first because that is what gets you on the site. Sometimes a one-hour scoping call is enough. Sometimes you do need ISO 9001, and it is better to know that before the PQQ window closes.

Half an hour is how we sort the rumour from the requirement.

What it is not

It is not an audit. It is not a gap analysis. It is not certification. Accendo is the consultancy. An independent UKAS-accredited certification body does the certificate, if you later decide you need one.

It is also not a sales trap. The call is a fixed £60 plus VAT. If we agree you should stop there, we stop.

Who it suits

Owners and managers of construction and contracting SMEs who have just been asked a question they cannot yet answer cleanly. Also useful if you already hold something and are not sure it will survive the next buyer check.

Book it

Choose 30-minute consultancy call (£60 plus VAT) on the ISO and HSEQ services page. If thirty minutes is clearly too short, the one-hour call is there for the same reason, with more room to walk through documents.

Accendo Consultants: lean ISO, UKAS-credible, built for how you work.