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ARCA news
update
Jobs continue to be inputted into ALFA, the Asbestos Labour Feedback App, and the registered operatives placed on these jobs are being rated.
ARCA member contractors are registered in ALFA, with over 55 having had or have a job in the App, and therefore have rated the agency operatives they have had working on site. Infact, over 1,300 operative placements have now been made in ALFA.
There are over 840 operatives registered in ALFA, with over 120 who have already received over 5 ratings so have an overall performance rating.
It is positive to see that the average rating for all operatives on the system over the last 12 months is 4.9, where 4 is generally satisfactory and 5 is good.
Gathering ratings for operatives on all their placements, usually from multiple contractors, and then calculating an overall (average) performance rating, provides some reassurance to contractors of operatives’ competency before arriving on site. The main aim of ALFA.
Also, the certificate management system within the App, is proving helpful to agencies and operatives, especially as certificates are flagged 30 days prior to expiry.
(Stats as of 23rd November 2020).
Training dates for 2021 now available!
To support your planning training course dates are now available for 2021. Course dates can be found on the website and dates for Q1 are included on pages 41-42 in this issue of ARCA News.
A wide range of asbestos training courses is available, centre-based and remote, to fit your business and staff needs. Also, operative and supervisor refresher courses have been scheduled on selected Saturdays. Members don’t forget to use your training credits for an ARCA training course, including Saturday training, or towards another ARCA service.
Have you applied for CITB funding?
Learn how to obtain funds
If your business is registered for the CITB
Levy you could be eligible for funding of up to £25,000 to use towards asbestos training and NVQs.
If you are not sure how to get funding or need help in making an application, ARCA is holding Zoom briefings to explain. “Some members have not applied for funding as they thought it would be too complicated, however, this year we have already helped members secure £16,000 in funding” commented Satish Patel, Training Manager of ARCA.
Following attending an ARCA CITB funding briefing, I immediately applied as Satish made the whole “ process easy to understand. Our request was approved, so we now have £14,200 to fund training. Lorraine McDonnell, KDC Contractors Ltd. ”
Don’t miss out on funding you could be eligible for. ARCA is here to help.
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w Tuesday 1 December 2020COMPLETED Tuesday 12 January 2021 10 - 11am Tuesday 2 February 2021 10 - 11am Tuesday 2 March 2021 10 - 11am
These briefings are free, however, you will need to register.
Call us on 01283 505777 to secure your place.
The Chairman, Jason Davy,
welcomed everyone to the meeting and started by thanking all the staff at ARCA, and said that even with all the problems and issues over the last few months the ARCA staff had done an exceptional job in continuing to support members. The Chairman thanked the Governing Council members who had also given up a lot of time and effort during the lockdown period.
The Chief Executive, Steve Sadley,
reflected on the past year and said when the unprecedented step to lockdown the nation was taken, the first thing ARCA did was cease face to face training and site auditing, followed by furloughing most of the ARCA staff from 1st April. A small nucleus of 5 staff, working from home, was retained to ensure we could still provide the service members needed during the lockdown.
ARCA Virtual Annual General Meeting
2nd October 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact upon many of ARCA’s activities over the majority of 2020 and the Annual General Meeting was no exception. In keeping with many business meetings this year, the ARCA AGM was held virtually and online for the first time.
The Chief Executive also reported the following.
As a result of the first lockdown, ARCA began developing and delivering remote training courses such as RPE maintenance and COVID-19 Safe Working, which were delivered free to members and their staff throughout April, May and June via Zoom. ARCA also developed the operative, supervisor and contract manager refresher courses to be delivered remotely, and adapted the training centres so that ARCA could deliver face to face training and NVQ assessments in a COVID-19 secure way.
More ARCA members are naturally moving to 3 site audits per year as their memberships renew. ARCA auditors resumed conducting site audits on June 1st and revision 13 of the Site Audit form was introduced, which along with some refinements to existing audit criteria, also included criteria to assess whether suitable COVID-19 precautions were being implemented on site.
The Asbestos Labour Feedback App (ALFA) was mentioned, and it was explained that it had been produced in response to members telling ARCA that their biggest problem was the quality and competency of labour. The Chief Executive gave a special mention to the ARCA Labour Supply members, who had been key to the development of the App and thanked them for their help and assistance.
The Chief Executive said that If nothing else, when it has passed, COVID-19 will have left an indelible mark on ARCA’s operations. He said that he could see ARCA continuing to offer training and assessments, delivering member services, and conducting meetings remotely for many years to come, in addition to the face to face offerings that ARCA had traditionally provided.
The Chief Executive was proud to report that once again, the Association’s ISO 9001 Quality Management certification for membership services, training and auditing had been retained. With no non-conformances or opportunities for improvement identified. ARCA was also assessed against the Investors in People standard and was delighted to be awarded the silver award at the first attempt. Both awards, Investors in People Silver and ISO 9001, are testament to the way that the ARCA staff go about their work and the workplace culture they create.
There was no requirement for an election to take place this year to elect the ARCA Governing Council as the number of nominations did not exceed the number of seats available.
Governing Council for 2020/2021
Grant Beglan Bob Clarke
Tim Clifford
Sarah Costello
Tony Darsey Jason Davy Jonathan Francis
Andrew Jackson
Christian Jones Scott Murray Stephen Summerfield
Steve Watts
Michael Woods Aspect Contracts Ltd LAR Ltd
Clifford Devlin Ltd Northern Insulation Contractors Ltd
Erith Contractors Ltd
Rhodar Ltd
Riverside Environmental Ltd
Acorn Environmental Services Ltd
Artico Environmental Ltd
ECT Environmental Ltd
Mick George Ltd Life Environmental Ltd Rilmac Ltd
New ARCA Chairman
Scott Murray was introduced as the new ARCA Chairman and gave his incoming Chairman’s speech. He said that the original goals of the founder members of ARCA were to promote professionalism and improve standards. His aim is to maintain ARCA’s position in the industry by providing the most comprehensive up to date portfolio of training to its members, including the expansion of webinar training courses that meet members’ needs.
The new Chairman said that practical training will always be a necessity with several of our training courses, and as such, it remains of paramount importance that the high standards of hygiene and social distancing are maintained within our many regional centres.
The Chairman remarked that it has often been stated, incorrectly, that ARCA only serves the larger organisations, and that future Chairmen are only selected from those companies, well clearly that is not the case. He went on to impress that every full contracting member has access to all the benefits of membership regardless of the size of their respective companies.
Let’s hope that next year we can have a face to face AGM. As ever, the date for the ARCA AGM is the first Friday of October, which in 2021 is 1st October.
Gold Site Audit Award recognises 6 consecutive excellent audits
ARCA Gold Site Audit Award Winners 2020
l Abastra Environmental Ltd l Active Environmental Management l Allan Dyson Asbestos Services Limited l Alliance Asbestos Services Ltd l Allweather Roofing & Construction Ltd l Amicus Environmental Ltd l Amstech Asbestos Removals Limited l Arton Monoseal Ltd l Aspect Contracts Ltd l Bilfinger UK Ltd l Capstan Group Services Limited l City Building (Glasgow) LLP l Clifford Devlin Ltd l Crystal Environmental Services l Decontaminate (UK) Ltd l Econ Group Ltd l Environmental Asbestos Solutions Ltd l Erith Contractors Limited l H B Insulations (Notts) Ltd l Jackson Environmental Ltd l John F Hunt Ltd l KDC Contractors Ltd l Keltbray Ltd l LAR Ltd l Lawson Environmental Limited l Maylarch Environmental Limited l McGee Environmental Services Ltd l Pier Contractors Limited l R & F Insulations Limited l Reliable Environmental Ltd l Solent Environmental Services (Asbestos) Ltd l Spectra Analysis Services Limited l S Roberts & Son (Bridgwater) Ltd l Stork Technical Services Ltd l Wellington Insulation Co Ltd l Wring Group Ltd
ARCA acknowledges member contractors’ consistent high performance on-site by presenting a Gold Site Audit Award.
This award is not for just one excellent audit in one year but for 6 consecutive excellent membership ‘unannounced’ audits spanning up to 3 years.
“This gold award is very significant and meaningful to the contractors, and also to their end-clients,” commented Geoff Silver, Membership Compliance Manager for ARCA.
“This award is evidence that high standards and good practice is maintained over a lengthy period of time and over various removal jobs. Also, ARCA’s audits are unannounced, so the contractors have no idea that an auditor is coming on site to review their performance, so giving a more realistic view of a contractor’s usual performance.”
“I’m delighted to see both members retaining this award, and members receiving it for the first time,” concluded Geoff.
Under the Association’s membership audit scheme, contractors undertake three ‘unannounced’ site audits every membership year. These audits need to be passed satisfactorily for the company to maintain membership. For the Gold Site Audit Award, asbestos removal contractor members need to achieve Grades A-C, with an average of at least a Grade B, in 6 consecutive membership audits.
