Chief Executive’s comment

Steve Sadley, Chief Executive

OUR MISSION

To give the best possible service and support to assist ARCA members and customers in providing safe, effective and ethical management of asbestos, thereby safeguarding the public.

OUR VISION

We envision being an essential strategic partner, through membership of ARCA and ATaC, to all companies providing asbestos management and licensed asbestos removal services, or services to those companies, by providing solutions which contribute to the overall success of their businesses and provide reassurance to their clients.

OUR VALUES

Our values define the culture at ARCA. The values of integrity, service, excellence, teamwork and responsibility guide the way we work, our behaviour and our commitment to support members, customers and colleagues.

Changes at ARCA

Iam happy to be able to say that after 18 months of restrictions of one kind or another, we are now returning to something like normality. As a result, we have confirmed regional face to face meetings for November and the ARCA Annual General Meeting (AGM) is to go ahead at Lords Cricket Ground on the 8th of October.

Regular attendees at the AGM will note that for the first time in over 20 years this is not the first Friday in October, knock on effects of COVID-19 are still at play, resulting in the cricket season being extended. Therefore, our booking for the first Friday in October, has been rescheduled to Friday, 8th October.

I am pleased to confirm that Samantha Lord, HM Principal Specialist Inspector & Strategic Lead for Asbestos, has agreed to speak at the AGM to provide us with an HSE update.

Many of you will be aware that Geoff Silver left us at the end of June, for many years Geoff was ARCA’s Membership Compliance Manager with responsibility for ensuring the ARCA Rules of Membership were complied with, and for managing the Site Audit Accreditation Scheme and the Association’s ISO 9001 Quality Management System. As a result of Geoff’s departure, we had the opportunity to look at restructuring. As a result, Juliette Church has now taken on responsibility for managing the Site Audit Accreditation Scheme and Matt Boulton will undergo an ISO 9001 training course so he can take on responsibility for the Quality Management System.

We have also taken on two additional operational members of staff. Steve Brodie, based in Manchester, has joined the team to expand our abilities to provide training, NVQ assessments and site auditing, particularly in the North West region. And Rob Southall, based in York, joins to encompass the ATaC Manager role, along with an IQA role for the NVQ assessment process, as well as supplementing training, auditing and NVQ assessing when necessary.

I look forward to working with them in the future and I am sure they can only add to the ability we have to deliver the services our members require.

As a result of the recruitment process, the restructuring of staff and the necessity to continue to provide the core services we offer, the development of the site audit portal has been delayed, however we still hope to be able to showcase it at the November regional meetings. We have continued with the development of ALFA, and a system for our licensed asbestos removal contractor members is now being piloted with a handful of members. This system will allow members to carry out their own assessments/ratings of their own directly employed operatives, in a similar way to how the agency labour is rated, with these ratings acting as Training Needs Analysis (TNA) for the operatives. These TNA ratings are linked to training requirements, and where the TNA’s record the operative’s performance as generally satisfactory or better in all areas, a newly designed remote training course is available to these operatives. The training course is based on HSE guidance which states that, for those without extensive training needs refresher training could be given as part of other health and safety updates, e.g., a short toolbox talk or eLearning. This training course is expected to last half a day and is priced at £65 (excl. vat).

I look forward to seeing as many people as possible at the forthcoming AGM. If you haven’t booked your place, please contact the office as a member of the team will be happy to help you make your booking.

Steve Sadley Chief Executive