CITB to withdraw from CSCS card administration service

Published: December 4, 2017

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has taken the decision to serve notice on its contract to provide the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) with card application and contact centre services.

This decision was taken as part of CITB’s Vision 2020, which means that it will focus on fewer activities centred on its core priorities of Careers, Training and Development and Standards and Qualifications.

Most people who work in construction are familiar with CSCS cards. It’s the card used by the majority of contactors and clients to provide proof that individuals working on construction sites have the required training and qualifications for the type of work they carry out.

For more than 20 years the CSCS’s application processing and contact centre has been delivered under contract by the CITB. Each year the CITB process more than 400,000 card applications and 1 million contact centre enquiries on behalf of CSCS.

The notice period is three and a half years and CSCS will now begin the process of identifying a new service provision. In the meantime, the CITB will continue to deliver the card application and contact centre service and is committed to an orderly transition to a new supplier.

Graham Wren, Chief Executive at CSCS said: “I can confirm that CSCS recently received notice from the CITB that they wish to terminate the card administration and contact centre contract. CSCS has relied on the CITB to deliver the administration of the scheme for more than 20 years and we are grateful for the contribution they have made to the success of the scheme.

“CITB and CSCS agree that the administration of the scheme must not be interrupted and our priority is to secure a new service provision to deliver a first-class service to our 1.6 million cardholders.”

CSCS has appointed a management consultancy to assist with the process of identifying a new service provision and is committed to keeping the industry updated on progress.

Graham Wren added: “The three-and-a-half-year notice period provides an opportunity to identify new and smarter ways of working, such as online applications, that could benefit not just individual card holders, but their employers to. We would like to reassure card holders that the scheme will operate as normal while the process to identify a new service provision takes place.”

Braden Connolly, Director of Products and Services at CITB, said:“Future CITB will see us becoming a more strategic organisation, clearly focused on delivering on industry’s key skills priorities. This means focusing on fewer things and doing them better. In the last 20 years, the UK has established itself as a world leader in services and there are potential providers who can offer a more efficient, modern service than CITB can provide in the administration of the CSCS card scheme.

“Our association with CSCS goes back many years and CITB is proud to have been associated with its success however the time is right for us to withdraw from providing this service. CSCS still holds an important place in our industry, being relied on for evidence of skills and certification thousands of times a day. The continued success of CSCS is important to our industry and we will continue to work with them to improve the service and ultimately transfer that service to a new provider.”

Should you have any questions, or require further information on this please contact the communications team at CSCS on 0207 291 0740 or email: communications@cscs.co.uk.