New UKAS accredited scheme for Fire Risk Assessors

[GeoffR]

Dear Firenet members
You will all be aware of the ever- increasing interest in fire risk assessment. SSAIB is pleased to announce the immediate launch of the SSAIB BAFE SP205 UKAS-accredited certification scheme for firms or individuals offering fire risk assessment services. Achievement of this certification will entitle the holder to display the SSAIB/UKAS certification mark(including the “crown and tick” logo).

SSAIB is an independent, not-for-profit certification body, supervised by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).

If you would like further information, please contact SSAIB via its website http://www.ssaib.org/contact/  or telephone 0191 296 3242
Kind regards
Geoff Rendall
Certification Manager
SSAIB

[colin todd]

Gosh Geoffrey, well done!!! You obviously have some expertise to obtain such an accolade. Are any of the other CBs UKAS accredited yet?? This is really ground breaking, as this is, as far as I know, the first UKAS accredited scheme in the UK for fire risk assessment companies.

You should post this in the fire safety section of the bulletin board too, as the fire risk assessment section is only visible to BB members.

[patb]

Hello Colin

To answer your question ....'YES'

NSI, which is also an independent, not for profit, certification body has been accredited by UKAS for the BAFE Fire Industry Scheme SP205 with respect to a scope of work for Life Safety Fire Risk Assessment. NSI has been working with a number of fire risk assessment organizations during the past three months and three have successfully completed their initial assessments and were awarded BAFE SP205 Approval & Certification today. One organization is a well establised company employing a number of fire risk assessors throughout the United Kingdom and another is a sole trader based in the west country; the third is the first SP205 certificated company in Scotland.

If you, other Fire Net Members and observers would like more information regarding the NSI/BAFE Fire Risk Assessment Scheme please contact the NSI FRA Scheme Managers who are as follows;

                               John Davidson............. john.davidson@nsi.org.uk .............. Mob 07917 630086

                               Pat Baldwin................. pat.baldwin@nsi.org.uk ................. Mob 07771 956071

[colin todd]

Gosh Patrick, well done!!! You obviously have some expertise to obtain such an accolade.  By the way it was not a rhetorical question. I genuinely did not know who had got it at this stage and who had not!

[Kelsall]

Well done to both CBs not an easy feat to get UKAS in to your premises never mind get accredited on the back of their visit. Lots of hard work has paid off and the industry will start to feel the benefit of accredited certification being available by several providers.

[colin todd]

Well said, Kel old chap. If football showed the same sportsmanship as you, the world would be a better place.  Is it a relic of your PE teaching days? Did you note that one CB already has 300% more certificated firms than another scheme we know. Will it too be accredited soon? Anyway, now is not the time for invidious comparisons. As you say, it is really exciting news for our industry and for the raising of the FRA bar. Hope this finds you well.

[Will Lloyd]

As I’m sure you are all aware ECA Certification Ltd were part of the pilot scheme for BAFE SP205
I am pleased to announce that ECA Certification Ltd has received its UKAS Accreditation for BAFE SP205
This brings the list of CB’s offering SP205 to Three

If you would like further information, please contact ECA Certification Ltd via email certification@eca.co.uk or telephone 0333 321 8220

Will Lloyd
BAFE Scheme  Manager
ECA Certification Ltd

[Tom W]

Congratulations to Dennis

http://www.fia.uk.com/en/Information/Details/index.cfm/Fire-Isk-becomes-first-Scottish-company-to-deliver-UKAS-accredited-fire-risk-assessments

Fire Isk becomes first Scottish company to deliver UKAS-accredited fire risk assessments

[William 29]

We have been informed this week that we are the 4th company in the UK to be awarded the BAFE SP205-1 certification via NSI. 
 
It was a taxing 2 days of on site building and office audits.  Overall I was very impressed with the whole process and it has raised several points in how we operate and how our systems can be enhanced and improved.  There were also observations on our FRA template which we have taken on board and will review in due course.

There were some healthy "debates" over interpretation of some of the Articles in the RRFSO, which has given me food for thought and will be fed back and discussed with others within the company.

I am just hoping that this has been a worthwhile process in terms of the business out there being aware of the 3rd party certification process be in SP205 or FRACS.  I haven’t heard much re the SP205 competency document that was being produced for the business sector?  Does anyone know where this is up to?  However what was interesting is that on the day we achieved certification we had a call from a large UK wide hotel chain that had searched the BAFE site for an SP205 company, so that was a positive start….time will tell.

If anyone is going through SP205 and would like further info about the process then inbox me.

[lancsfirepro]

Certificate just dropped through the door certifying us to BAFE SP205-1.  Anyone interested in this scheme should contact Pat Baldwin at NSI - I found the whole process straight forward and Pat is great to work with.

[colin todd]

Cracking scheme that BAFE SP 205.

[kurnal]

You signed up yet Colin? Or maybe you are going for FRACS?

[lancsfirepro]

Congrats on SP 205 Colin.

[colin todd]

Kurnal, the answer to your question is in the post of Lancs whatever (why is it when you do a reply you cannot see the names of the previous poster-apologies to Lancs man for not getting the exact name and thank you for your good wishes). We are certificated under the SP 205 scheme.

I advocate SP 205 to everyone. Available from 3 good and decent CBs (within which I am proud to call some of the guys good, long standing friends), all not for profit organisations with no shareholders pockets to be lined and no super salesman banging on about their schemes. Good luck to all three for the excellent work they are doing for our profession.

[Kelsall]

Your mates certificated you?