Handyman prices

I presume that the councils own works dept is approved by some other trade body;?...

Presumably they'd get thrown out of the Guild of Rogue Traders if they were caught registering for a FT scheme ;-)

OK you've sold me on it (you're in the wrong business Dave! :-)). Where do you get yours made?

They don't check the standard of your work, its more like an ISO quality control thing. They insist on £2M PLI, a CRB check, that you have a written complaints proceedure, that you have a system for quotes & estimates, that you keep proper records etc. They do visit once a year for an audit & will get involved in disputes.

I wouldn't like to lose the status, so I would be inclined to sort any problems out properly.

They don't automatically come down on the side of the customer, if its an unrealistic complaint they will tell them so.

I was in sales for 30 years :-)

Local company called Bell Workwear, but there are loads of small firms around, bound to be one in Reading.

I thought you could only get CRB checked to work in a specific place, like a particular school?

You get a CRB check for each role/location you perform for each organisation with a different CRB coordination scheme (like a school). For example, I have to have one for being on a PTA and another for helping with Scouts. If I moved to a different school/PTA I would probably need another (as each school does its own rather than the local authority) but the Scout one would do for all Scout groups. If it's a professional organisation they will coordinate the CRB checking and it will cover for entry to homes and business premises to do tradesperson work while a member of their organisation. I think.

So did I, but apparently things have changed.

Trading Standards told me to go to

Should have added thats for a 'basic' disclosure which is all TS require.

I thought most of your work was south of the border? Or am I mistaken about where the Medway is? :-)

Interesting - any idea how much the English equivalent costs? I have one, but since I'm a volunteer I don't pay.

Pete

Yes indeed, south of Hadrians Wall. Medway is 30 miles SE of London, sort of diagonally opposite Reading :-)

TS told me to use Discloseure Scotland cos its cheaper. Dunno by how much though.

Maybe you could get Chinese ones off eBay cheaper still ;-)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember YAPH saying something like:

Hah. Relatedly, I recall when the Guild of Master Craftsmen was fairly new and touting for business. All it required was a willingness to part with thirty quid a year and that was it, done and dusted. There were another couple of similar schemes around at the time, same process. I never saw the point at the time, if there was no accountability or inspection and it was immediately obvious is was a money-raising wheeze for the organisers.

I don't suppose anything's changed.