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.
