Aura Graphics, based in Lowestoft, Suffolk,  have proved that they adhere to the highest possible standards of business competence and  professionalism by meeting the stringent requirements of all  five of the Altius Assessment Globes (Commercial, Risk Management, Customer Service, Corporate Social Responsibility and Quality Management).

Aura Graphics supplies high quality commercial graphics for a range of applications and business sectors. From retail graphics and signs to vehicle graphics, the company provides products and project solutions to meet every business requirement. Its customers range from growing SMEs to large global brands and blue-chip organisations across the UK, Europe and beyond.

Find out how to aim higher by joining the Altius Elite: http://www.altiusva.com/AimHigherProgramme.aspx

Other contractors at the event looking for new supply chain partners will include GB Building and Esh.

AkzoNobel Global  has commissioned a £100m manufacturing facility on a 25 acre site at Ashwood Business Park.

Sir Robert McAlpine has won the first contract to build the factory and is now looking for second and third tier suppliers.

Clients at the event include the Bernicia Housing Group which is currently having a new HQ built in Ashington and is developing plans for investment over the next five years with an estimated value of £64m.

Contract opportunities include large scale construction and engineering; concrete, aggregates, timber, carpets and floor coverings, secondary steel, drylining, suspended ceiling installation, raised access floors,  property maintenance, roofing, decorating and fencing.

Northumberland County Council tier 1 suppliers Esh Facility Solutions and GB Building are looking for joiners, carpenters, building product and service suppliers, electrical engineers, plumbers, heating engineers and roofers for work throughout the county.

The event will take place on Thursday May 10 at the Holiday Inn, Seaton Burn.

To book a place contact Robyn Murray, email: robyn.murray@arch-group.co.uk or telephone 01670 528400.

HSE inspectors visited 3237 sites and saw 4080 contractors, but 581 sites were found to have practices that put workers at risk with a total of 870 enforcement notices issued,  and in 603 instances work had to stop immediately.

“While this was a slight improvement on previous years, it’s still a worrying picture of safety standards in the construction industry”,  said Gary Plant, Managing Director of Altius Vendor Assessment, which assesses health and safety  and risk management standards among contractors.

Inspectors targeted sites where refurbishment or repair work was being carried out as part of an annual, month-long drive across Britain with the aim of reducing the risk of death, injury and ill health.

The focus was on high-risk activity including working at height and ensuring sites were in ‘good order’, being clean and tidy with clear access routes.

The HSE has also reported 50 fatalities in the construction sector last year (2010- 2011), with 54% occurring in the refurbishment, repair and maintenance sector. The regulator says that falls from height remain one of the most common causes of deaths and major injury and responsible for the largest proportion of enforcement notices (49%).

Gary Plant added: “Robust evidence based contractor assessment and accreditation can provide the prompts construction companies need to ensure they have training schedules and policies in place to deal with high risk activities, such as hot works and working at height. Such evidence also provides protection to client companies employing contractors who can demonstrate that they have used due diligence in selecting competent suppliers.

“From October 2012, failing on health and safety will become even more expensive as this is the anticipated date for the introduction of the Health and Safety Executive’s  cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI). The scheme aims to  recover costs from those who break health and safety laws, recovering the costs incurred by HSE officers in investigating the matter and taking enforcement action.”

The change in legislation was introduced on 6 April and, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) could reduce by 30%  the number of incidents that must be reported by law.

In addition, employers will also now be given a longer period in which to report, increasing from 10 to 15 days from the time of the incident.

By increasing the reporting threshold from three to seven days, the change will align with the ‘fit note’ system which ensures that someone who is off work because they suffered a reportable injury has a professional medical assessment.

Employers and others with responsibilities under RIDDOR must still keep a record of all over three day injuries, for example through an accident book.

HSE Chair Judith Hackitt said:”The change to the RIDDOR regulations will cut paperwork, help employers manage sickness absence and ensure that the reporting system is focused on risks which have resulted in more serious injury.

“This is just one of many changes we are making to the health and safety system to make it simpler, clearer and more easily understood – stripping unnecessary paperwork out of the system without compromising essential protections for workers.”

The change to RIDDOR was recommended in the Government commissioned Common Sense, Common Safety report.

The scheme aims to recover costs from those who break health and safety laws, recovering the costs incurred by HSE officers in investigating the matter and taking enforcement action.

Law-abiding businesses will be free from costs and will not pay a penny. Gordon MacDonald, HSE’s programme director, said:

“The Government has agreed that it is right that those who break the law should pay their fair share of the costs to put things right – and not the public purse.

“Discussions are still taking place on the technical details of the scheme, which we expect to conclude soon. Therefore, FFI will not be introduced in April but at the next available opportunity, which is likely to be October 2012.”

Detailed guidance for employers and organisations will be available on HSE’s website ahead of implementation.

The launch of the  Collaborative Construction Compliance (CCC) service (www.collaborativecc.co.uk) provides a combined online system to manage CDM and asbestos management and compliance; contractor assessment and accreditation; waste planning and record documentation. It is designed to cut costs and reduce the burden placed on clients and CDM Coordinators.

CCC brings together specialist services provided by Altius Vendor Assessment in partnership with health and safety consultancy Ai Solutions; Waste Plan Solutions, and Watson & Sole through one portal, which has a CDM compliance management software system as its backbone.

The new service launches as new statistics are released showing that 6.71% of all Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecutions were made under CDM regulations in 2011, up from 5.75% in 2010. The average fine for flouting CDM regulations was £7,219.00 in 2011, up from £4,300.00 in 2010.

The holistic CDM compliance solution has been developed in response to demand from construction clients who wish to focus on strategic CDM planning and management rather than being ‘lost’ in paperwork that can detract from performance.

“Clients and CDM Coordinators have a difficult role to perform in ensuring best practice in health and safety through the lifecycle of construction and maintenance projects and in liaising between all parties involved,” said Gary Plant, Managing Director of Altius Vendor Assessment.

He continued: “For some, this is an additional job role they undertake, so we believe there is a requirement for an online portal that captures all the data and management and reporting systems they require to fulfil their professional responsibilities without drowning under a mountain of paperwork. The prompts and procedures provided by the system reduce human error, providing an important safeguard in the critical task of robust CDM management.”

Ai Solutions’ ToolKit CS™ CDM management software provides an integrated knowledge base, document templates and competency management capabilities to provide a fully audited solution for all projects, properties and structures.

In addition, CDM Coordinators can utilise the portal to verify and assure compliance of contractors using the Altius Vendor Assessment system, which is a free service to clients and main contractors.  This is a best-practice assessment process that is evidence based and includes Safety Scheme in Procurement (SSIP) CDM accreditation.

Other elements within the CCC service include the WastePlan tool from Waste Plan Solutions which supports clients through all the steps of developing and executing a best practice, Environment Agency compliant Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP).

In addition, Clients, CDM Coordinators, Facilities managers etc. can gain web access to the INTELI-SCAN system, from Watson & Sole. This provides an online building library, where documents can be stored, retrieved through a fully indexed search for live reporting, and easily updated.

Further information: www.collaborativecc.co.uk

Professor Löfstedt, author of the recently published Löfstedt Report,  will outline the recommendations he made to government and the next steps for implementation of  the biggest shake-up of health and safety policy for more than a decade.

Gary Plant will explain how Altius’ client and vendor companies are minimising risk and liability  through evidence-based contractor and sub-contractor assessment and accreditation. He will demonstrate the award winning Altius Vendor Assessment system to the audience of construction professionals and CDM managers.

Delegates will earn a CPD credit and can hear  the latest advice on asbestos and CDM management, site waste management planning and updates on legislation.

Altius clients and vendors are invited to attend the conference. Further details: http://www.aisolutions.co.uk/events/show.asp?ID=9070

He will outline the steps facilities managers can take to manage risk and liability through the supply chain by introducing robust contractor assessment.

This exclusive event is designed to save Facilities managers  time and money by bringing together the key issues faced by FMs and tackling them in one day.

The Facilities Management One-day Legal Update is aimed at  premises and facilities managers who need to get to grips with the latest updates in their sector. The programme includes key updates on:

• Building regulations
• CDM regulations
• Fire years + of the RRO
• Health and safety law and practice
• HR legislation update for FMs
• Occupational health
• Waste management

For further information log on to: fmlu.workplacelaw.net/ or call  Workplace Law  on 0871 777 8881.

All existing Altius Assured Vendors who are members of any British Chamber of Commerce are being offered membership of ChamberComply™ – providing an excellent opportunity to win new business from main contractors and clients among the Chamber membership who are seeking accredited suppliers.

Altius Assured Vendors will already meet at least 95% of the assessment criteria to become an approved ChamberComply vendor, but there may be a small number of straightforward, additional questions to answer. To join, there is a heavily discounted fee of  £40 to cover our administration costs.

We hope that our Altius Assured Vendors will take advantage of this additional business opportunity that will showcase their company and competences among the national Chamber network – helping them to win new contracts.

For more information go to www.chambercomply.co.uk, call us on  08445 616 515 or email us at chambercomply@altiusva.com

Elite Vendor Evans Warrington Limited (www.evanswarrington.co.uk), based in Warrington, is a mechanical services company providing commercial, heating, plumbing and ventilation services.

Coventry-based MCS Control Systems Ltd (www.mcscontrolsystems.co.uk), specialises in the design, manufacture, testing, supply, installation, commissioning, repair and maintenance of control systems and control panels.

Asbestech (www.asbestech.com) is a specialist nationwide asbestos and hazard removal and abatement contractor with a history spanning more than 25 years. The company has frameworks with a large number of blue chip and household name clients, including most of the major supermarkets and banks.

CHC Group Ltd (www.chcltd.com), based in Northern Ireland, was established in 1969, and operates  in the Building Engineering Services industry where it has an enviable list of clients – from Government departments to Private Sector.

Structural Soils Ltd (www.soils.co.uk), based in Bristol, is a site investigation contractor that for over 40 years has provided comprehensive site investigation and ground investigation services in the UK and Europe

All Assured Vendors have an opportunity to aim higher and work towards Elite Vendor status by gaining accreditation in the additional areas of Customer Service, Corporate Social Responsibility and Quality Management. There is no extra cost for the additional assessment and the rewards are significant in terms of meeting the requirements of more clients, and therefore being eligible to win more business,  and being recognised as an elite performer.

Aim Higher with Altius. Discover more about the Elite Vendor programme: http://www.altiusva.com/AimHigherProgramme.aspx