RAMS for SMAS Worksafe Accreditation

SMAS Worksafe is one of the faster, cheaper routes to an SSIP certificate — popular with small contractors who need accreditation quickly for a specific main contractor. SMAS condenses the SSIP Core Criteria into a 10-question assessment and publishes the document list it expects you to have ready.

The SMAS document checklist

SMAS's own preparation list for the SSIP assessment includes:

• Insurance schedule
• Health & safety policy (statement of intent, organogram, arrangements)
• Your monitoring process (site inspections, audits)
• Sub-contractor assessment process
• Example method statements, risk and COSHH assessments
• Individual training information (qualifications, certificates, records)
• HSE enforcement actions and accident records
• Communication evidence (toolbox talks, safety meeting minutes)

The RAMS line is the one that takes real preparation — the rest is mostly gathering paperwork you already hold.

Pricing and turnaround

SMAS publishes "from" pricing: Worksafe (SSIP) from £317, Worksafe Plus from £523, and Worksafe Pro (Common Assessment Standard) from £679, scaling with organisation size. Turnaround is a selling point: SMAS advertises SSIP certification in 1–7 days, with same-day assessment available on its Complete membership.

The RAMS requirement is the same across every SSIP scheme

CHAS, SafeContractor, SMAS Worksafe and Constructionline's health and safety assessment all assess against the same SSIP Core Criteria — the HSE-recognised standard behind UK contractor pre-qualification. The RAMS evidence lives in Core Criterion 10: "Risk Assessment Leading to Safe System of Work", which asks for:

• Site or project-specific risk assessments created for a project within the last 12 months
• Safe systems of work or method statements for a project within the last 12 months (where applicable)
• COSHH assessments for any hazardous substances used (where applicable)

Two details catch small contractors out. First, the assessments must be site or project-specific — a generic template with no job details doesn't meet the wording. Second, they must be recent: RAMS older than 12 months don't count as evidence. If you employ four or fewer people and don't have written arrangements, SSIP allows you to describe verbally how you identify hazards and produce safe systems of work — but in practice a written, job-specific RAMS set is the simplest way to pass the criterion without discussion.

No scheme publishes an exact number of sample documents to submit. Assessors ask for examples relevant to the work you actually do, so the safe preparation is one complete, recent, job-specific RAMS (with COSHH where relevant) for each of your main work activities.

Preparing your RAMS evidence with RamsDocs

The recurring stumbling block reported by consultancies that help contractors through SMAS Worksafe applications is generic, copy-paste RAMS — documents that don't reference the actual work, site or controls. That is exactly what RamsDocs is built to avoid: pick the template for the task, and the builder produces a site-specific RAMS with the hazards, sequencing, control measures and COSHH triggers for that job, exported as a clean PDF.

To be clear about what that does and doesn't mean: RamsDocs prepares the documents assessors review — it is not endorsed by SMAS Worksafe and no document can guarantee an assessment outcome. You remain the competent person who reviews and signs off the content. What it removes is the blank-Word-document problem: your evidence set is job-specific and dated within the last 12 months by construction, not assembled the night before the assessment.

Already hold another SSIP certificate?

SSIP runs mutual recognition ("Deem to Satisfy"): a valid certificate from one SSIP Registered Member is accepted by the others, so you usually don't repeat the full assessment — though the receiving scheme can still ask for supplementary information such as insurances. If you're choosing your first scheme, pick the one your client actually asks for; the RAMS evidence you prepare is the same either way.

Preparing for a different scheme? See CHAS, SafeContractor and Constructionline.