Understanding ACS improvement needs
Improvement needs for SIA approved contractors: what they are, what causes them, and how to address them.
An improvement need is a formal requirement for you to take corrective and preventive action because you do not meet part of the ACS standard.
Your assessor may raise an improvement need during or after your assessment. We may raise an improvement need at any time.
What to do if you receive an improvement need
If you receive an improvement need, you must show how you will fix the issue and prevent it from happening again.
To do this, you must make an action plan. You must send your action plan to us and your assessing body within 5 working days of receiving the improvement need.
You might take:
- immediate actions, such as issuing alerts or notices
- longer-term actions, such as updating procedures, training or specifications
Try to avoid quick fixes. They often do not last and can reduce trust in your systems. Try to learn from the improvement need and use your action plan to strengthen your business.
If the improvement need is closed during your assessment, you do not need to send us an action plan.
What to include in your action plan
Your action plan should:
- explain the issue, what caused it, and why it happened
- review wider risks, checking for similar issues elsewhere and addressing any broader weaknesses
- describe what you’ll do to fix the issue and reduce the risk of it happening again
- set clear deadlines for each action
- name the person responsible for each action
- explain how you’ll share the plan with your team
- explain how you’ll check that the issue is resolved and the risk of it happening again is reduced
Simple issues
Some improvement needs relate to very simple issues. In these cases, your assessor might be able to close the improvement need during the assessment.
For example, your assessor might notice a broken link on your website and raise an improvement need. You might be able to fix the broken link straight away and your assessor would easily be able to check this. Your assessor could then close the improvement need.
Improvement needs that relate to breaches of the Private Security Industry Act 2001 cannot be closed during the same assessment.
Minor issues
You might receive an improvement need about an issue which is not simple enough to address during the assessment but is still minor. In these cases, your assessor might close the improvement need following a desktop assessment.
For example, your assessor might raise an improvement need because one of your directors is unlicensed. You would address this by making sure the director gets licensed. It would be easy for the assessor to check that the director had been licensed by looking at the SIA register of licence holders.
For an improvement need to be closed following a desktop assessment, the issue must:
- be easy to fix
- have a clear cause
- not raise any data-protection concerns
You must send an action plan to us and your assessing body within 5 working days of receiving the improvement need.
Complex issues
If your assessor raises an improvement need about a complex issue, they will need to come back to your site in-person to check that you have addressed it.
You must first send an action plan to us and your assessing body within 5 working days of receiving the improvement need.
What your assessor will do
Your assessor will:
- review your action plan to check it is realistic and achievable
- agree a date for the re-visit with you
If you are applying for ACS approval for the first time, your re-visit will take place within 6 months of when we confirmed you were eligible for approval.
If you are already approved, the re-visit will take place within 6 weeks of the last day of your annual assessment. This timeframe may be shorter if we have applied sanctions.
What we will do
We will close the improvement need if:
- you submit an action plan that addresses both the issue and its cause
- you fully implement the plan
- the assessor confirms that the actions taken are effective
If you cannot address the improvement need in time, we may do one of the following:
- apply sanctions to your approval
- withdraw your approval