How to Get CHAS Accreditation: The Route That Doesn't Waste Money

If a main contractor has just told you "we need you CHAS'd before you set foot on site", the practical question isn't how to get CHAS accreditation — the sign-up form takes about twenty minutes. The question is which of the three CHAS memberships you're being asked for, and whether your paperwork will survive an assessor reading it. Get the first bit wrong and you'll either pay for modules nobody asked for, or pass and still fail the client's PQQ.

TL;DR

To get CHAS accreditation you register on the VeriforceONE portal, pick one of three membership levels — CHAS Standard (from £429/year), CHAS Advanced (from £659/year) or CHAS Elite (from £909/year), with prices scaling by employee count — upload your evidence, and an assessor reviews it electronically. CHAS states desktop assessments are usually approved within 10 days, with fast-tracked applications reviewed within 48 hours (terms apply). The decision that actually costs money is the tier: CHAS Standard covers SSIP health and safety, while CHAS Elite is the one that delivers the Common Assessment Standard for public-sector and large main-contractor work. If you already hold a valid certificate with another SSIP scheme, apply through Deem to Satisfy rather than repeating the whole health and safety assessment.

Which CHAS tier are you actually being asked for?

CHAS sells three contractor memberships, and the words your client uses tell you which one to buy. If the request says "SSIP" or "CHAS accredited", the entry-level assessment is normally enough. If it says "Common Assessment Standard" or "CAS", only the top tier gets you there.

The reason the top tier matters for public work is procurement policy, not marketing. Build UK's overview for public-sector clients quotes Procurement Policy Note 03/24 as saying that for works contracts, contracting authorities "should use the Common Assessment Standard in place of the standard SQ template" when pre-qualifying bidders (Build UK, July 2025; PPN 03/24 on GOV.UK). That's guidance aimed at buyers above the relevant thresholds — it does not mean every council job needs CAS, and CHAS itself has publicly corrected an earlier claim that SSIP certificates would no longer be accepted by public bodies.

Worked example: a 12-engineer M&E firm chasing a £5k maintenance contract

Say you run a 12-engineer electrical and mechanical firm and a facilities management main contractor has offered you a recurring commercial maintenance contract worth roughly £5,000 a year. Their onboarding email says: "Contractors must hold a current SSIP certificate (CHAS, SMAS, SafeContractor or equivalent)."

Read that literally and three things follow. First, you need SSIP-level health and safety only, so CHAS Standard is the tier in scope — the Elite package would add several hundred pounds a year for modules this client never asked to see. Second, because the client accepts "or equivalent", CHAS is not the only route: it's worth pricing the alternatives, since some schemes charge a flat fee regardless of headcount while CHAS bands by employee count, which matters more as you grow (see the cheapest SSIP scheme comparison). Third, if you already hold SMAS Worksafe or Acclaim from a previous client's demand, you shouldn't be paying for a second full assessment at all — that's what Deem to Satisfy is for.

On a £5k contract with, say, a 20% margin, £429 of accreditation eats a chunk of the first year's profit — and that's before the renewal comes round again in twelve months. The arithmetic is why the tier decision deserves ten minutes of reading the client's actual wording, not a phone call to whoever answers first.

How do you get CHAS accreditation, step by step?

CHAS breaks joining into six steps on its own how to join page. Here's the same process with the bits that actually take your evening flagged.

1. 1
   Confirm what the client wants, in writing. Screenshot or save the exact wording of the requirement. "SSIP", "CHAS accredited" and "Common Assessment Standard" are three different purchases. If it's ambiguous, email the buyer and ask which scheme and which level they check.
2. 2
   Count your employees — office and site. CHAS pricing scales with organisation size, so headcount sets your band. Have your Companies House number to hand too: entering it at registration auto-fills most of your company details.
3. 3
   Build the evidence folder before you open the portal. This is the real work. Gathering documents first turns the application into typing rather than a two-week hunt for an expired insurance certificate.
4. 4
   Register on VeriforceONE and choose your package. You'll need your company name and address, a primary contact, corporate email and phone, and your employee count. Then pick Standard, Advanced or Elite.
5. 5
   Complete the modules and submit. Depending on the tier you'll have up to 13 assessments to complete by uploading policies and records. CHAS notes you can work at your own pace, but verification only starts once everything is submitted — a half-finished application sits there doing nothing.
6. 6
   Answer assessor queries the same day. Reviews happen electronically (or via audit, or via Deem to Satisfy). If something is rejected, CHAS says its assessors tell you what to change so you can reapply — so the fastest applications are the ones where someone actually picks up the phone.

What documents do you need for a CHAS application?

CHAS says assessors independently review your health and safety policies, training records, insurance details, maintenance records, construction phase plans and COSHH procedures (CHAS health and safety assessment). In practice, the folder a small subcontractor needs looks like this:

• A health and safety policy that names your business and describes your actual arrangements — signed and dated, and reviewed within the last 12 months.
• Employers' liability and public liability insurance certificates, in date for the whole assessment window.
• Sample risk assessments and method statements (RAMS) for the trades you genuinely do, not a generic template pack.
• Training and competence records: trade qualifications, cards, first aid, asbestos awareness, plant tickets.
• Accident and incident records, including any RIDDOR reports and enforcement action.
• Your source of competent health and safety advice, and examples of advice given and acted on.
• Equipment and plant inspection or maintenance records.

Our CHAS documents checklist goes through each of these with the wording assessors look for.

One genuinely useful concession for the smallest firms: the same Build UK question set acknowledges that a company with fewer than five employees may not have written arrangements, and can instead describe how it manages the risk. Sole traders and two-man outfits often assume they need a 20-page document they don't.

How long does CHAS accreditation take?

The honest answer for most small firms is that CHAS's clock is not the constraint — yours is. Ten working days of assessor time is fixed; the fortnight you spend finding a signed policy is not.

Already hold another SSIP certificate? Use Deem to Satisfy first

CHAS is a founding SSIP member and operates Deem to Satisfy, the mutual recognition process between SSIP member schemes. If you hold a valid certificate with another member scheme, CHAS says you may be able to obtain CHAS certification without completing a full assessment again, with eligibility and any additional requirements depending on your existing certification and scope (CHAS SSIP certification page).

Two caveats worth knowing before you rely on it. Deem to Satisfy removes duplicated assessment, not the fee — you're still buying CHAS membership. And it covers the health and safety core criteria, not the extra modules in the higher tiers. We've written up the boundaries in SSIP mutual recognition explained and, more usefully, what mutual recognition does not cover.

What happens after you pass?

Once you're compliant, your profile is listed to CHAS clients and you can use the certificate in PQQs. Then the real admin starts: the certificate runs for a year, so the same evidence has to be refreshed and re-uploaded annually — and if a second client insists on a different scheme, you upload much of it again over there. For firms juggling CHAS plus Constructionline plus a client-specific PQQ, that's three renewal dates and three portals holding the same insurance certificate.

That residual admin — tracking renewal dates and re-proving the same facts to each scheme — is exactly what TradeComply handles, for £9.90 a month. A calendar reminder 60 days before each expiry does the simplest part of the job for nothing. If you're weighing CHAS against the alternatives first, start with our scheme comparison hub, the CHAS cost breakdown or the head-to-head on CHAS vs SafeContractor vs Constructionline.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to get CHAS accreditation?

CHAS publishes annual "from" prices of £429 for CHAS Standard, £659 for CHAS Advanced and £909 for CHAS Elite, and states that membership cost scales according to the size of your organisation (checked 19/08/2026). Because pricing is banded by employee count, a 12-person firm will pay more than the entry figure, so get your quote in the portal before budgeting.

Do I need CHAS Elite or is CHAS Standard enough?

CHAS Standard covers the SSIP health and safety assessment, which is what most main contractors mean when they ask for "an SSIP certificate". CHAS Elite is the package that delivers the Common Assessment Standard, which Build UK notes public-sector contracting authorities should use for works contracts under PPN 03/24. Match the tier to the exact wording in your client's requirement.

Can I get CHAS accreditation as a sole trader?

Yes — CHAS prices by employee count, so the smallest bands are aimed at very small businesses. The Build UK Common Assessment Standard question set also recognises that firms with fewer than five employees may not hold written arrangements and can describe their approach instead, which reduces the paperwork burden for one and two-person outfits.

How long does the CHAS assessment take to be approved?

CHAS states that assessments are usually approved within 10 days, and that fast-tracked applications are reviewed within 48 hours, subject to terms and conditions. Verification only begins once every module in your chosen package has been completed and submitted.

Does CHAS accreditation expire?

Yes. CHAS distinguishes between membership expiry (your annual payment date) and compliance expiry (your annual assessment renewal), and the Build UK question set confirms Common Assessment Standard certification is valid for one year from issue provided time-critical documents are kept up to date. Diarise both dates — they are not always the same day.