Approved Contractor Scheme support for security businesses — from first self-assessment through assessment day to annual renewal and score improvement.
Based in Greater Manchester, supporting businesses across the UK.
The Approved Contractor Scheme is a voluntary accreditation run by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) for organisations supplying licensable security services in the UK. Approved contractors are independently assessed against a published set of requirements covering how the business is run, how staff are recruited and vetted, and how service quality is managed.
ACS status is a commercial differentiator: many clients, particularly in the public sector and large private estates, will only tender to approved contractors.
Support is delivered by a consultant with BS 7858:2019 certification and SIA audit experience, working directly with your management team.
We work through the ACS requirements with you, establish an honest baseline, and identify what needs to be in place before assessment. You get a clear picture of effort and timescale before committing.
Screening is where applications most often come unstuck. We review your vetting process and records against BS 7858 requirements, close gaps in the files, and put a repeatable process in place for new starters.
We help you build the policies, procedures and records the assessment expects — written to reflect how you genuinely operate, and organised so evidence can be produced on the day without a search.
We prepare your team for the assessment itself: what will be asked, who needs to be available, and how to present evidence clearly.
After approval, we help you maintain the system between assessments and target the areas that will lift your score at renewal rather than simply holding it.
ACS and ISO certification overlap considerably — particularly ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 45001 for health and safety. Where you hold or intend to pursue both, we build a single integrated system so evidence is produced once and used for both, rather than maintaining two parallel sets of paperwork.
It depends on how much is already in place. A business with established screening and documented procedures may need a short period of tidying up, while one starting from scratch will need longer. We give you a realistic timescale after the readiness review, before you commit.
Scheme and assessment fees are set by the SIA and the assessing body and change over time, so check their current published fees. Our consultancy fee depends on your scope and starting position, and we quote after the baseline review.
Assessors check your documented procedures and sample evidence, such as staff screening files, training records and complaint handling, against the scheme requirements. The exact format is set by the assessing body. We prepare your team and your evidence beforehand.
Not necessarily. Check the SIA’s current requirements for your category, and we will confirm what applies to you in the readiness review. An existing ISO 9001 system often makes the quality evidence easier, and we can build both on one integrated system.
Yes. We are based in Greater Manchester and support security businesses across the UK.
Tell us where you are now — we’ll come back with a first assessment and next steps.
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