NASC Members Audit

January 2006

NASC Members Audit

In November 2005 NASC membership audit inspections reached their first anniversary and this landmark represents a good opportunity to review the auditing process.

Membership audits are nothing new for the NASC as desktop audits have been circulated to the membership on an annual basis for the last six years. Initially the response to these audits was mixed. Many companies were swift to recognise that the audit is designed to confirm that existing NASC members are performing to the requirements expected of prospective members. For these companies compliance was not an issue, and the required information was supplied promptly and efficiently.

Some companies however were reluctance to respond, and when the deadline for returning the completed audit passed these companies had to be chased. Eventually all the outstanding audits were returned, although this sometimes required a number of reminders.

As the years passed it became clear that the auditing process required tuning. At first the areas of interest were relatively general and question were confined to items which required straightforward answers. Recently however the audit form has been reprinted in a modern and professional format, and now the audit form can be downloaded from the NASC website. General questions are confined to areas such as company details, including addresses of branches, date of registration, CIS Certification, VAT registration, and CITB registration.

The audit goes onto examine more specific items such as the nature of the business, financial information, and insurances. Supporting information is required to back up the answers supplied to questions in these categories (e.g. audited company accounts, copies of insurance certificates etc).

Areas requiring the greatest attention however are those dealing with employment and training, and health and safety. These are central to NASC membership, and companies which fall short in response to questions asked about these areas are immediately exposed as failing to meet NASC requirements.

Direct employment is one of the lynch pins of NASC membership and member companies are required to ensure that a minimum of 75% of their workforce is directly employed. Similarly training is an area of vital importance to the confederation and member companies are required to ensure that their operatives are registered under the industry training scheme (CISRS). Details of scaffolders registration and training are a requirement of the auditing process.

Health and safety is carefully examined as part of the auditing process. Member companies are required to submit a copy of their health and safety policy for inspection, and close attention is given to health and safety management procedures.

The audit goes on to examine supplementary areas such as technical and design, security measures and more general items, and concludes by inviting members to provide references and submit suggestions and comments. Copies of all relevant supporting documentation are inspected at the time of the audit inspection.

Audit inspections have been verifying the information required in the NASC audit since November 2004 with around 35% of the membership receiving an external verification visit during the first year. Auditors have reported that on the whole the audit process has been welcomed and that the degree of competency among smaller/ medium sized companies is highly encouraging.

However non-conformance items have been identified in some instances although these are largely confined to CISRS registrations and direct employment. These are to be rectified within an agreed timescale and NASC auditors work closely with NASC staff to ensure that any outstanding matters are addressed. Companies that fail to comply are suspended from membership followed by expulsion.

Looking to the future it has been agreed that from January 2006 the former desktop audit will be dispensed with altogether as member companies will be sent a membership audit form for completion only in advance of their biennial inspection visit. Furthermore the same form will be used for prospective member inspections going forward from January 2006 thus ensuring commonality between the requirements of both new and existing NASC member companies.

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For further information please contact:

Becky Hole, The National Access and Scaffolding

Confederation.

Carthusian Court

12 Carthusian Street

London, EC1M 6EZ

Tel: 020 7397 8120 Fax: 020 7397 8121

e-mail:

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