Case Study
McCarthy & Stone
Standardising contractor vetting across a national supply chain
How McCarthy & Stone reduced duplication, improved onboarding speed and achieved contractor compliance rates of up to 80%
Background
As the UK’s leading developer and manager of retirement communities, McCarthy & Stone oversees the full property lifecycle – from land acquisition and design through to construction and long-term building management.
Their supply chain includes national contractors, regional SMEs and specialist providers across construction, fire safety and lifts. Because they both build and manage properties over the long term, they need confidence that every contractor meets the same standards, regardless of project or location.
McCarthy & Stone has worked with Veriforce CHAS for more than four years to address this challenge and bring greater structure to contractor compliance across the business.
The challenge
Managing contractor compliance across a large, geographically distributed business was becoming increasingly difficult to control and monitor.
Different regions and teams were working in different ways. Contractors could be vetted multiple times, depending on where they were working, and records were often held locally in spreadsheets rather than being shared across the business.
This created several practical issues:
- The same contractor could be assessed more than once by different teams
- There was no easy way to see which contractors met the required standard across the business
- Finding and verifying compliance records took time and effort
- Teams were spending significant time on admin rather than assurance
McCarthy & Stone needed a way to:
- Apply the same vetting standard across the business
- Avoid repeating the same checks for the same contractor
- Make contractor compliance status visible and easy to access
- Reduce admin without lowering standards
“I think it’s fair to say that contractor management was an area we struggled in. Trying to find records was difficult, we were duplicating things. Sometimes we might even have more than one person vetting the same contractor, particularly if they worked across regions.”
At the same time, construction timelines meant contractors sometimes needed to be onboarded quickly, increasing the risk of inconsistent checks:
“Sometimes you just need to get a contractor on site – maybe we weren’t being as diligent as we could be.”
The solution
McCarthy & Stone introduced CHAS as a single, business-wide standard for contractor vetting and approval.
Rather than each team carrying out its own checks, all contractors are now required to hold CHAS certification. CHAS Advanced is required as a baseline for contractors, while principal contractors must achieve CHAS Elite, which is the most comprehensive assessment and incorporates the Common Assessment Standard (CAS), providing a higher level of assurance for those leading work on site.
This shift replaced spreadsheet-based tracking with a shared, reliable source of contractor data and created a clear, consistent approach across the business.
“We chose CHAS because we already knew them. They had strong credibility within the industry and could scale with us.”
This created a clear and consistent baseline:
- All contractors are assessed against a recognised external standard
- Once approved through CHAS, contractors are recognised across the business
- Teams no longer run their own parallel vetting processes
The teams at McCarthy & Stone can now:
- Access up to date contractor compliance information 24/7
- See whether they meet the required level before onboarding
- Use the same compliance criteria across every project and location
The impact
A clear, shared view of compliance
More than 360 contractors are managed through CHAS, giving McCarthy & Stone one consistent, business-wide view of contractor compliance.
“That single source of truth for compliance is really important. We know where we stand without having to go digging”
Faster, compliant onboarding
Teams can quickly confirm whether contractors meet the required standards, helping projects move forward without compromising compliance.
“We’re having to push back less, and we can get the right contractors on site more quickly”
Less duplication, more focus
Contractors are assessed once and recognised across the business, reducing repeated checks and freeing teams to focus on safety and quality
“It’s allowed our teams to focus on the areas that really matter- quality and safety”
Consistent standards and clearer visibility
All contractors are now assessed against the same requirements across the business, helping some areas achieve compliance rates of up to 80%. This approach has also strengthened readiness for regulatory change and made individual responsibilities clearer.
“The Building Safety Act has really strengthened this, and people are much clearer about their responsibilities”
Supporting future growth
CHAS helps McCarthy Stone plan and expand its supply chain while maintaining consistent standards. As part of this, teams can use CHAS insight to identify contractors who already meet their requirements when entering new regions.
“We use CHAS for insight- for example when moving into new areas, we use it to identify contractors and build relationships”
