Phoenix Journal · Ductwork
CHAS, SafeContractor and SSIP get quoted like a secret code on every cleaning contractor’s paperwork. Here is what each one actually means, why it protects you, and how it fits alongside TR19 kitchen extract cleaning.
Contractor accreditation, explained
If you have ever asked a cleaning contractor for proof they are competent and been handed a wall of logos, you are not alone - and the three that come up most often are CHAS, SafeContractor and SSIP.
They sound interchangeable, but they are not quite the same kind of thing. CHAS (the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) and SafeContractor are both assessment bodies. They review a contractor’s paperwork, safety systems and competence, then issue a certificate if the contractor meets the standard. SSIP - Safety Schemes in Procurement - sits above them. It is not an assessment you sit; it is the umbrella body that ties the different schemes together so they all measure against the same baseline.
That baseline matters. SSIP is recognised by the Health and Safety Executive, and its Core Criteria are drawn directly from the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. Those criteria first appeared in the Approved Code of Practice for CDM back in 2007, and when the regulations were revised in 2015 the SSIP forum adopted them into its own terms of reference. So when a contractor tells you they hold a valid SSIP-approved assessment, they are telling you an independent assessor has checked their health and safety arrangements against a legally grounded, nationally agreed standard - not a badge they printed themselves.
In plain terms: CHAS and SafeContractor are two of the doors you can walk through; SSIP is the framework that makes sure every door leads to the same room.
Because when something goes wrong in a commercial kitchen, the questions come fast - and most of them land on you, the responsible person, not the contractor who did the work. Kitchen extract ductwork is one of the highest fire-risk elements in any catering premises, and if a fire starts in a grease-laden system your insurer will want to see who cleaned it, to what standard, and whether that firm was competent to be on site in the first place.
Accreditation is how you answer that quickly and credibly. A current CHAS or SafeContractor certificate tells you an independent body has already checked the contractor’s risk assessments, method statements, training records, accident reporting, insurance and management of any subcontractors. You are effectively borrowing the assessor’s due diligence instead of trying to audit a supplier yourself. For a facilities manager juggling dozens of contractors, that is the difference between a five-minute portal check and a fortnight of chasing documents.
There is a second, quieter benefit. These schemes are renewed annually, so accreditation is not a one-off event - it is a rolling commitment. A contractor who has held CHAS or SafeContractor status for several running years has proven they keep their safety systems current, year after year, rather than pulling paperwork together for a single tender and letting it lapse.
Skipping the check can cost far more than the clean itself. If a claim is made and your contractor cannot demonstrate competence, or the work was not carried out to the recognised standard, insurers have grounds to reduce or reject the payout. Accreditation is cheap insurance against expensive surprises.
All SSIP-registered schemes share the same health and safety core, but they are not carbon copies. Knowing where they diverge helps you read a contractor’s credentials properly rather than treating every logo as equal.
CHAS is built around health and safety competence and was a co-founder of SSIP. SafeContractor covers health and safety too, but tends to cast a wider net - it also looks at areas such as environmental management, quality, equal opportunities, financial stability, anti-bribery and modern slavery. Neither is “better” in the abstract; the right one depends on what a client wants to see. Many buyers are happy with any valid SSIP-approved certificate.
This is the part most people miss. Under SSIP’s “Deem to Satisfy” agreement, member schemes accept each other’s valid assessments. So if a contractor holds a current SafeContractor certificate, a buyer using CHAS should recognise it rather than forcing a second, duplicate assessment. The whole point of the umbrella is to cut wasted effort - SSIP estimates the framework has saved UK suppliers and buyers around £68 million since 2016 by removing redundant checks. For you as a client, it means you should not dismiss a good contractor simply because their badge is not the one you expected.
Sitting alongside SSIP is the Common Assessment Standard, an industry-agreed question set championed by Build UK and delivered through Recognised Assessment Bodies including Veriforce CHAS, Constructionline, SMAS Worksafe and others. It goes beyond health and safety into around thirteen risk areas and comes at two levels - a desktop assessment, verified remotely from submitted documents, and a site-based assessment, where an assessor visits in person to check compliance first hand. It has recently been strengthened with mandatory building safety questions. If a contractor holds it, especially at site-based level, that is a strong signal of a mature, audit-ready business.
Here is the crucial distinction to hold onto: SSIP accreditation proves a contractor is safe and competent to work on your premises, but it does not, on its own, prove they clean your ductwork to the right technical standard. Those are two separate questions, and a properly compliant provider answers both.
For grease extract systems, the recognised technical benchmark is the BESA guidance commonly known as TR19 Grease. It defines how a kitchen extract system should be cleaned, how cleanliness is measured, and what evidence and post-clean reporting you should receive. Accreditation schemes like CHAS and SafeContractor sit around that technical work - they confirm the firm doing it manages risk, trains its people and carries the right insurance. Think of SSIP as “are they safe and competent to be here?” and TR19 as “did they clean it correctly and prove it?”
The strongest contractors carry both: an SSIP-approved accreditation for health and safety governance, and demonstrable competence in cleaning to TR19 with clear before-and-after evidence for every visit. That combination is exactly what an insurer, a fire risk assessor or an incoming auditor wants to see when they open your file - proof the people were competent and proof the work met the standard.
When you review a duct cleaning quote, look for a live certificate number you can verify on the SSIP portal, confirm the accreditation is current rather than lapsed, and check that the technical scope of work references TR19. If any of those three is missing, ask before you commit - a reputable contractor will be glad you did.
Questions
Not exactly. SSIP - Safety Schemes in Procurement - is an umbrella body, not an assessment you sit. What a contractor actually holds is a certificate from an SSIP member scheme such as CHAS or SafeContractor, which has assessed them against the shared SSIP Core Criteria. So the right question is whether they hold a current, SSIP-approved assessment, which you can then verify on the SSIP portal.
No, and this is an important distinction. CHAS and SafeContractor confirm a contractor manages health and safety competently, trains its staff and carries the right insurance. They do not certify the technical cleaning standard. For kitchen extract systems the recognised technical benchmark is the BESA TR19 Grease guidance, so you want a contractor who holds both an SSIP-approved accreditation and demonstrable TR19 competence with proper post-clean evidence.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Phoenix surveys and cleans kitchen and building ductwork to the TR19 standard - measured, cleaned and certificated, UK-wide.