Self-certification of services

What is self-certification?

Self-certification is a self-governance process, whereby the installation of underground service connection pipework is inspected, checked and certified by fully qualified plumbing engineers working for, or on behalf of the equipment installers.

It is a contestable activity for Self Lay providers under the Codes for Adoption and is carried out widely across the water industry. It also applies to schemes which are not Self Lay schemes, developers can follow the same process provided they employ a qualified person to check the services laid by themselves or a contractor.

In either case the certifying person must be overseeing the work of others (i.e. those laying the pipework cannot also certify their own work). 

What certification is required?

WaterSafe recognises qualified professional plumbers who are employed by a business, which is a member of one or more Approved Contractors’ Schemes. It is operated by and unites the below seven existing Approved Contractors’ Schemes bringing them under one umbrella brand.

Currently there are seven Approved Contractors’ Schemes operating across the UK. The current Approved Contractors’ Schemes are: 

• The Water Industry Approved Plumbers’ Scheme (WIAPS)
• Anglian Water’s A Plus
• Severn Trent’s Watermark
• Thames Water’s TAPS 
• Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors (APHC)
• Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) Approved Contractor Persons
• Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation (SNIPEF) Water Regulations Approved Contractors’ Scheme

It is a condition of membership of the scheme that members comply with this Code of Conduct. The audit of members to ensure compliance with this Code of Conduct and the other Terms and Conditions of the Scheme gives customers confidence that they are engaging the services of water professionals with the necessary skills and commitment to high standards.  

Self-certification process

1. Contractor/Developer/SLP install all underground pipework,
2. Installation is inspected by an accredited operative (as above) employed by the installers,
3. The operative will issue a certificate to us demonstrating that the installation has been installed to the correct criteria,
4. The certificate, supported with photos of the installation, will be sent into developer services team for input into internal reporting system and approval will then be given to the Self Lay provider to complete the connections to the live network
5. Self Lay providers should provide us with certification evidence before progressing on to making the service connections and provide notification of intention to connect

All certification should be sent direct to: servicerequests@south-staffs-water.co.uk

Once connections are complete Self Lay providers can either fit the meters themselves or ask us to fit the meters. The principles around Self Lay providers fitting meters is below.

Meter fitting

Meter fitting is a contestable activity under the Codes for Adoption and Self Lay providers who are accredited under WIRS can carry out this activity.

Within the South Staffs region our preference is to deliver meters to site however we acknowledge that many Self Lay providers prefer to collect meters directly from our stores and we will accommodate this.

The principles for Self Lay providers fitting meters are:

• We require as much advanced notice of meter requests as possible to ensure that we have suitable stock within our stores, ideally no less than a week in advance,
• We ask that no more than 50 meters are requested per issue to again ensure we maintain suitable stock within our stores and so we can manage the process smoothly,
• Once meters are fitted we require meter details within one day of connection for non-household connections and within five days of connection for household connections.

A reminder of how self-certifying services and meter fitting fit within our overall services process can be seen below (blue steps reflect the Self Lay provider actions, green steps reflect the actions for South Staffs Water).