How to pass a CHAS assessment in 2026

You've been told you need CHAS before you can start on site. Here is what that actually means, what they will ask you for, what it costs, and the handful of mistakes that get most small firms bounced.

What CHAS is (and what SSIP means)

CHAS is one of several SSIP schemes — Safety Schemes in Procurement. SSIP is the umbrella. Every member scheme (CHAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline, SMAS Worksafe and others) assesses you against the same core criteria, and they recognise each other's certificates ("deem to satisfy"). So if a client asks for "CHAS or equivalent", any SSIP certificate normally counts. If they say "CHAS" and mean it, get CHAS.

Three levels in 2026: Standard (the one most subcontractors need), Advanced and Elite (add environmental, quality, financial and modern-slavery evidence — usually only if a large client demands it).

What they assess — the 12 things that apply to a trade contractor

SSIP publishes the criteria. For a contractor who isn't a designer or principal contractor, these are the ones that matter:

1. Health and safety policy — signed by the boss, dated within the last 12 months.
2. Arrangements — how you actually manage H&S day to day: who does what, how you plan work, drugs and alcohol, wellbeing.
3. Competent advice — a named competent person (in-house or a consultant) with real training and experience.
4. Training and information — evidence that everyone, including labour-only subbies, has had appropriate H&S training.
5. Individual qualifications — cards and certificates for the work you do (CSCS, CPCS, IPAF, PASMA, asbestos awareness, first aid).
6. Monitoring, audit and review — proof you check your own performance: site inspections, toolbox talks, reviews.
7. Workforce involvement — how you consult your people (toolbox talks with signatures count).
8. Accident reporting — your RIDDOR record for 3 years and any HSE enforcement for 5 years.
9. Subcontracting — how you pick and check subbies.
10. Risk assessment leading to a safe system of work — your RAMS: trade-specific risk assessments, method statements, and a construction phase plan where you're the principal contractor.
11. Co-operation and co-ordination — how you work with the main contractor and other trades.
12. Welfare — toilets, washing, drinking water, somewhere to eat.

The actual document list for CHAS Standard

Fewer than five employees? The legal duty to put your H&S policy in writing starts at five. CHAS will still want to see how you identify hazards and do risk assessments — SSIP's own words: you "should be able to describe how they identify hazards and complete risk assessments." In practice, having it written down is what gets you through quickly.

Price and time

• CHAS Standard: from £429 + VAT per year (Advanced from £659, Elite from £909). Verify on chas.co.uk — these move.
• Turnaround: typically around 10 working days, with a paid fast-track around 48 hours.
• It renews annually. Diary it — lapsed certificates are how firms get stopped at the gate a year later.

The five reasons small firms fail

1. Generic risk assessments that don't match the trades you declared. If you tick "roofing" and send a risk assessment for "general building", it comes back.
2. Out-of-date RAMS. Undated, or dated two years ago, or a method statement for a job you no longer do.
3. Unsigned or undated policy, or one clearly written for a 200-person company.
4. Training records that don't cover the RAMS. Working-at-height RAMS with nobody trained for working at height.
5. Insurance evidence missing the details — no policy numbers, no limits, no expiry.

Everything on that list is a documents problem, not a safety problem. Your site is probably fine. Your paperwork is what's being assessed.

The short version

CHAS Standard is a paperwork test against a published list. Get the twelve criteria above into one folder — policy, RAMS per trade, training matrix, insurance, COSHH — dated, signed, and matching each other — and the assessment is routine.

PBS Policies produces every document on this list, branded to your company, from one entry of your details — £600 a year, unlimited documents, and a competent-person approval step so nothing goes out unsigned. It sits alongside your CHAS fee, and it's what you'll be asked for again next year.

Sources: SSIP core criteria (ssip.org.uk), CHAS document guidance and pricing as published by an accredited consultancy (policypros.co.uk), both read 27 September 2026. Prices and criteria change — check the scheme's own site before relying on a figure.