arb association assured ??

[Drayton tree care]

anybody know how i can go about getting my business quality assured by the arb association. any advice or info would be great cheers.

[roseyweb]

Pay alot of money to a consultant for paper work your only ever going to need once and poses little relevance to the job in hand,

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

Hi Drayton Tree Care,

 

Further to my previous reply I assume you're looking for comments from the industry itself, and quite right too, rather than those who operate the scheme, i.e. 'me/the AA'.

 

Obviously I'm always available to give specific advice/guidance about the AAAC scheme and I hope the contributors give a fair view and highlight within that the balance we seek to achieve between (necessary and relevant) paperwork, safe and competent tree work operations (sectional felling with rigging), good tree pruning standards (crown reductions and crown thinnings)and 'reasonable/adequate' arboricultural knowledge to underpin the practices (although NOT requiring a formal qualification.)

 

If anyone's been through the assessment process recently it'd be good to give some feedback about what's involved and how close to having the balance right between 'writing' and 'doing' we currently are (remembering of course that now we dual award with the CHAS scheme we have to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" for H&S!)

 

Thanks in anticipation and "ding, ding...Round 1"!

 

Cheers..

Paul

[arb culture]

AARC contractors are not 'assured' by the AA in any way:

 

"Whist the Arboricultural Association makes every effort to ascertain the competence of Approved Contractors it cannot accept liability in respect of any persons or companies named in this directory. The Arboricultural Association cannot be held responsible for the advice or actions of any persons or companies named in this directory." (taken from the AA website)

 

I think this raises questions about the AA's confidence in its own scheme when it makes such a statement.

 

Just out of curiosity, I wonder about the AA's complaints procedure and how it works. I can't seem to find it on the website.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

AARC contractors are not 'assured' by the AA in any way:

 

"Whist the Arboricultural Association makes every effort to ascertain the competence of Approved Contractors it cannot accept liability in respect of any persons or companies named in this directory. The Arboricultural Association cannot be held responsible for the advice or actions of any persons or companies named in this directory." (taken from the AA website)

 

I think this raises questions about the AA's confidence in its own scheme when it makes such a statement.

 

Just out of curiosity, I wonder about the AA's complaints procedure and how it works. I can't seem to find it on the website.

 

 

Is that a 'knock out' in the first round then??...hope not!

 

I do have confidence in the scheme I manage and I do advocate use of AAAC contractors. The reality is that, similar to an MoT test on a car, provided the company demonstrates compliance and competence on the actual assessment, or reassessment day, the the status is awarded. Thereafter the primary responsibility to ensure the standards are maintained rests with the nominated manager (perhaps similar to the car owner/driver using the MoT analogy) who's knowledge and awareness has been (verbally) tested.

 

The clause above is a standard legal clause and I believe you will find similar ones on other accreditation scheme websites ("yes", the reality is this is Association protecting itself as it's Trustees/Directors/members would expect.) The AAAC status is not, unfortunately, an absolute assurity of competence at all times BUT, importantly, is an extra layer of reassurance for the client/'buyer' that the company can operate to legilsative and industry standards. The primary responsibility lies with those engaging / appointing the contractor to do all that is 'reasonable' to ensure they are suitable and competent. Choosing a contractor approved by an industry body would certainly assist here.

 

The complaints procedure is not currently available on the AA website as it is being reviewed. However there is a hard copy in the 2010 Directory of AARCs & AAACs and I am happy to supply a pdf to anyone who requires a copy (please email me directly [email protected])

 

Thanks for the post.

 

Paul

[Amelanchier]

Pay alot of money to a consultant for paper work your only ever going to need once and poses little relevance to the job in hand..

 

AARC contractors are not 'assured' by the AA in any way...

 

I'm sure if the OP wanted to kick that particular hornets nest, he would have. However, as he didn't - let's leave it unkicked please.