ceda delighted with uptake of new cedaSAFE Accreditation
ceda delighted with uptake of new cedaSAFE Accreditation
ceda are delighted to announce that the uptake of the new cedaSAFE Health and Safety Accreditation Scheme, launched last month, has been hugely impressive.
Sixteen Partners and Members successfully passed the assessment in June and have been issued with their accreditation certificates. These include businesses of all sizes as the scheme is designed to offer a cost effective solution for all companies.
Those companies receiving their accreditation since launch are;
KCM Catering Equipment Ltd
Tailor Made Catering Equipment Services Ltd
Archer Catering Systems Ltd
Apeiron Catering Ltd
YCE Catering Equipment Ltd
AGGORA – Bunzl UK Ltd
CHR Food Service Equipment
Catering Design Group Ltd
Crystaltech Services (UK) Ltd
Whitco Catering and Bakery Equipment Ltd
Marren Microwave Ltd
Hobart UK – ITW Ltd T/A Hobart UK
Barcare Supreme Ltd
Rational UK Ltd
Gastronorth Ltd
C&C Catering Equipment Ltd
Derek Maher, ceda Chairman and Managing Director of Crystaltech Services, which was one of the founder applicants, commented that “The formation of an industry safety accreditation in the form of cedaSAFE will raise the profile and credibility of the Catering Equipment profession and greatly reduce the volume of repetitive and unnecessary paperwork required to assess subcontractors. Manufactures that subcontract their service repairs will have their contractors audited by a competent service provider and ceda members who offer their service to a number of industry members will greatly benefit from having just one accreditation.
If an applicant already has an SSiP accreditation then they only have to complete a few simple questions in order to achieve the certificate at a very competitive £120 per annum. The accreditation has really started to gain momentum from both ceda members and Manufacturers that have signed up.”
Apeiron Catering Ltd’s Steve McEwen, explaining why he applied, stated that “Myself and fellow Director Will Oryino have been looking at different Health & Safety accreditations and decided to apply for cedaSAFE based on the content, requirement and the fact that it was relevant to our industry. With every tender there appears to be a different requirement as to which H&S standard the particular client wishes you to be accredited with.
As an industry body ceda has looked at the requirements for member companies and laid out the specification which made it relevant to us as we solely work in commercial kitchens.
The advantage of having this going forward is that to prospective clients we can prove that we have been externally audited to meet the criteria, we also feel that ceda will continually monitor as legislation changes and update which will be passed onto members to keep their accreditation relevant.
Overall we learned from the process, bolstered our knowledge and gained a worthy accreditation which we can see adds value to our business.”
cedaSAFE was devised after discussions with the Health and Safety Executive, who highlighted the need for a single assessment standard for the foodservice, catering and hospitality industry, in order to reduce the bureaucracy and costs associated with the various pre-qualification assessments on the market.
cedaSAFE is now both the most cost-effective and the most efficient accreditation to achieve, as it requires only the most essential information to be completed. However, it still achieves the same core criteria of other schemes currently available.
Companies can achieve accreditation to promote their business as operating to the highest levels of independently verified Health and Safety standards. They can also assess the suitability of any subcontractors used by insisting that they are cedaSAFE accredited.
Question
Question:
We are due to do some installs at nine airports over the next two months.
Do you know if there is a single form you can fill out that covers every airport as it’s becoming a bit of a pain filling out each individual set of Rams.
Heathrow are telling us we need to go to site for a meeting.
Replies:
- Unfortunately, no, each airport will have its own Airport security and they will have to apply to each one, we do work at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh and all are separate to each other.
- Annoyingly, there is not a single form – each Airport sets its own standard.
- I would think that with such high-profile sites it is pretty certain that RAMS will have to be site-specific.
A generic single form would not be accepted.
We have had experience of this with Luton airport both for an installation (airside) and multiple service engineer’s attendances (airside and landside).
Being called to site to sit through a site contractors Health & Safety brief is quite common – despite the inconvenience it’s rarely avoidable, if requested. In the interests of distributor/contractor relations it is also probably best to comply! - I can confidently say that no, there is no 1 single form you can fill in. It’s all down to the individual site requirements! Painful, I know. The best thing is to get each RAMS done and accepted – I always get them for the remainder of the year I am applying for.
- I have had experience at three airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton.
The last two use a P2W (permit to work) system and you need a separate log into both, Gatwick was the hardest to deal with and on one occasion it took me four weeks to get one permit approved. With both, you had to attend a training course with the relevant FM company to use the system and to understand their expectations on information being provided.
Heathrow was a nightmare and yes you had to attend site meetings. I had a couple of occasions where we had installs of one appliance in and one out. The client managed to do the donkey work on organising the work and I only had to provide rams.
On all sites the attending engineers will have to be vetted so that a contractors pass can be issued.
If the work is considered airside this can take longer for a pass to be issued.
If they have to take a delivery vehicle airside, more hoops to jump through.
One last thing, if the installs are into what is considered a construction site then CDM Regulations 2015 will apply, good luck with adhering to those.
Not sure that helps but airports are difficult ones until you get in the door, then it’s easy. - RAMS need to be site specific, your method statement might be generic across the scope of works that you will undertake on each site, but the access route, working conditions in each different environment will be different thus the hazards/ risk and how you intend to deal with them will be site specific and different on each instance.
I certainly expect that Heathrow would need a site visit as it’s a high security environment,
and with enormous implications if an incident occurs for both its operation and the public. - Each airport has its own requirements and there is no shortcut/easy solution.
- There isn’t any one form as airports are owned by different companies. It is correct that you have to jump through hoops to get access. This is by no means an easy achievement. We currently do work for Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heathrow and Gatwick and it is best that you first contact the Customer Support Centre at csc@gatwickairport.com
I have telephoned them and they have said if you email them they will give instructions, however , they can only advise on the airports that are owned by the same company. - I would strongly advise that the CEDA member embraces the opportunity to visit site as RAMS must capture site specific access constraints. If an accident occurred to an engineer or member of the public and an agreed delivery route / method of delivery hadn’t been identified the CEDA member would be exposed. Generic RAMS should never be accepted. Whilst the additional expense and time of the meeting may want to be avoided it will likely offer the member a solution to devising the most efficient, safe and approved method of getting goods to their final destination.