If you are building or reviewing your approved supplier list for working-at-height services, you will already know that the market ranges from small, specialist operators to large, multi-service contractors. The challenge is identifying which organisations have the genuine capability, compliance depth, and operational scale to be trusted on your buildings.

Here is what to look for.

Accreditations — the baseline, not the ceiling

IRATA certification for rope access operatives and IPAF certification for MEWP operators are the industry minimums — not differentiators. Your approved supplier should hold both as standard, covering the full range of access methods their teams deploy. Beyond these, look for Safe Contractor, CHAS, and Constructionline approval, which demonstrate that the contractor’s overall health and safety management system has been independently assessed.

ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management), and ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety) together represent the gold standard for a working-at-height contractor. A supplier holding all three has submitted its entire operation — not just its site delivery — to independent audit.

Combined capability: the question most procurement teams don’t ask

Most supplier evaluations focus on the primary service being procured. If you are tendering for façade cleaning, you evaluate cleaning capability. But the question you should also be asking is: what happens when this contractor’s team identifies a maintenance defect while they are on site?

A specialist who can only clean will raise a defect report and leave you to re-tender for a maintenance contractor. A contractor with combined capability can address the defect in the same mobilisation — with significant programme and cost implications for your estate

Scale and track record

Ask for evidence of delivery at the scale you require. Site visit volumes, building count, client references from comparable FM
environments. A contractor capable of 50 site visits per month may not be the right partner for a portfolio requiring 200.

CAM delivers 800+ site visits monthly across 300 London buildings, holds all of the accreditations described above, and has been an approved supplier to CBRE, JLL, Savills, Knight Frank, Mitie, and others for years. We are happy to provide our full credentials pack to support your evaluation. Contact us.