Site cards have become so routine on UK construction sites that they are often treated as a procedural formality — something checked at induction, recorded on a register, and never thought about again. For a principal contractor appointing a safety netting contractor, this is the wrong way to think about CSCS. The percentage of operatives carrying current CSCS cards on a contractor’s workforce is one of the more reliable indicators of how that contractor manages competence, training, and the quality of work that follows. On a fall protection package — where the consequence of incompetence is severe — that indicator matters.
What CSCS verifies
The Construction Skills Certification Scheme verifies that a cardholder has the relevant competence and health and safety awareness for the work they are carrying out. Different card colours correspond to different levels of qualification and different roles. The card itself is evidence that the holder has met the requirements at the point of issue and has passed the required health and safety test within the renewal period.
CSCS does not, on its own, guarantee that an operative will perform competently on any specific task. What it does is establish a verified competence baseline. An operative without a current CSCS card has either not met the qualification requirements, has let the card lapse, or has chosen not to carry it. None of these are positive indicators on a site where work at height and fall protection are being delivered.
Red Safety Netting’s 100% CSCS workforce
Red Safety Netting maintains 100% CSCS-carded operatives across its workforce. This is the operating standard, not an aspiration. Combined with FASET accreditation for safety netting installation, CISRS coverage where scaffolding work is involved, and IPAF certification for MEWP operations, it produces a workforce where every operative on site has a verified competence baseline relevant to the work being carried out.
For a principal contractor, this matters at procurement and on site. At procurement, it provides documented evidence that the contractor manages competence rigorously. On site, it means every operative the principal contractor inducts onto the project has met the required competence threshold before mobilisation. There is no need to chase up missing cards, no operatives turned away at induction, and no gaps in the project’s competence documentation.
Why this is harder than it sounds
Maintaining 100% CSCS coverage across a workforce is not just a matter of checking cards once. It requires a documented system that tracks expiry dates, schedules renewal, and prevents operatives whose cards have lapsed from being deployed. Where a contractor’s CSCS coverage drifts below 100%, it is almost always because the tracking system is informal — cards are checked at induction but not monitored continuously, and lapses go unnoticed until someone happens to look.
Under the Globe Group’s ISO 9001 quality management framework, Red Safety Netting’s CSCS tracking is part of the documented operative management process. Cards are verified at recruitment, expiry dates are tracked, renewals are scheduled in advance, and operatives are not deployed onto site if their card status is not current. This is what allows the 100% coverage to be sustained rather than periodically recovered.
CSCS in the context of CDM 2015
Under CDM 2015, the principal contractor must satisfy themselves that the contractors and subcontractors they appoint have the skills, knowledge, experience, and organisational capability to carry out the work safely. CSCS coverage is not the only evidence of this — it sits alongside trade-specific accreditations like FASET, training records, and supervision arrangements — but it is one of the more easily verified components.
On a fall protection package specifically, the principal contractor’s verification needs to extend to every operative who will be installing, inspecting, modifying, or removing the safety nets. A contractor with 100% CSCS coverage simplifies this verification. A contractor with patchy coverage requires the principal contractor to verify each operative individually, which adds time and creates the risk of non-compliant operatives slipping through.
Beyond CSCS: trade-specific competence
CSCS sets the baseline. The next layer is trade-specific competence. For safety netting, this means FASET-accredited training and assessment, which verifies that operatives understand net classification under BS EN 1263-1 and 2, anchorage requirements, clearance geometry, and inspection protocols. For MEWP operations, it means IPAF certification. For scaffolding work, it means CISRS. Red Safety Netting’s workforce holds these accreditations across the relevant disciplines.
This stack of accreditations is what gives a principal contractor confidence that the contractor’s operatives are competent for the specific work being carried out, not just for construction work in general. It is also what supports the contractor’s documentation in the event of a HSE inspection or post-incident investigation.
What this means at procurement stage
For a QS or H&S manager evaluating fall protection tenders, asking the question — what proportion of the contractor’s workforce holds current CSCS cards — produces a useful indicator. A contractor that can demonstrate 100% coverage, with a documented tracking system to sustain it, is a contractor whose competence management is operating at the standard the procurement team should be looking for. Anything less is worth investigating further.
Talk to Red Safety Netting
To discuss safety netting and fall protection on your forthcoming project, contact Red Safety Netting on 01223 890727 or email enquiries@theglobegroup.co.uk.
