NFRC CPS Competency Passport: Frequently Asked Questions

The NFRC Competency Passport gives CPS members one place to manage the people and businesses carrying out their work, alongside the qualifications, training, experience and other evidence that demonstrates competence.

Powered by Certchain, it gives you a clearer way to keep these records up to date and share the relevant information with CPS as part of how we assess competence across the Scheme.

Expectations around how competence is demonstrated are changing, with a greater focus on showing that people carrying out relevant building work have the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (SKEB) needed for the work they do.

For CPS members, that means being able to clearly demonstrate who is carrying out work for your business and the competence they have.

The NFRC Competency Passport gives you a central place to manage that information and supporting evidence, making it easier to keep it up to date and demonstrate competence when needed.

CPS is introducing the NFRC Competency Passport as part of how we manage and assess competence across the Scheme.

This means all CPS members will need to set up their business on the NFRC Competency Passport and include the relevant people and businesses carrying out work for them. This gives CPS the information we need to assess competence as part of your membership.

The first step is completing your onboarding.

Once your business and the people and businesses carrying out work for you are set up on the NFRC Competency Passport, the next step will be competence records.

Your operatives will be asked to build their own competence records, adding relevant information and evidence about their skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours (SKEB).

You do not need to do this as part of your initial onboarding. We’ll provide further guidance when competence records are introduced, including what you and your operatives need to do.

Further functionality will then be introduced to support the management of work through the NFRC Competency Passport, with guidance and training provided as this is rolled out.

The initial onboarding period runs from 1 October to 1 November 2026.

By 1 November, you need to have:

• set up your business on the NFRC Competency Passport
• added the relevant people within your business
• connected the subcontractors, freelancers and other businesses or people carrying out work for you
• shared the relevant operatives with CPS

Our Getting Started with Your NFRC Competency Passport guide takes you through each step of the process.

You do not need to add everyone in your business. You need to add:

• roofing operatives carrying out work under your CPS membership
• your Nominated Competent Person (NCP)

Yes. You need to connect the external businesses and independent people who carry out work for your business. This includes:

• businesses you subcontract work to
• freelancers
• self-employed people
• other businesses or people brought in by your subcontractors to carry out your work

The information you add to the NFRC Competency Passport is not automatically shared with CPS.

For data protection, you control which people and information you share with us. This means you’ll need to share each relevant operative with CPS as part of your onboarding.

Once shared, we can see the information we need to assess their competence as part of the Scheme.

If you use a subcontractor or another business to carry out work for you, you should link their organisation to yours on the NFRC Competency Passport.

Linking simply shows that there is a connection between your businesses. They continue to manage their own business, people and information, and they cannot see the information held within your account.

Your National Insurance number is used as a unique identifier to help match competence evidence to the correct person.

This helps prevent duplicate records and makes sure qualifications and other competence information are associated with the right individual.

Your National Insurance number is only used for identification and is not stored.

When adding a new user, if you see the message Nobody was added: This National Insurance number is in use it means that person is already set up on Certchain.

You do not need to add them again. Instead, you can request for them to be transferred to your business.

The organisation they are currently connected to will need to approve the transfer before this can happen.

See the onboarding guide for step-by-step instructions on requesting a transfer.

If a subcontractor already has their organisation set up, you should connect to their existing organisation rather than creating another one.

Ask them for their Certchain ID, which you can use to find their organisation and send a connection request. They will then need to approve the connection.

As you take on new subcontractors or other external people and businesses, ask whether they are already set up and, if they are, ask for their Certchain ID. This will help you connect to their existing organisation rather than creating a duplicate.

No. CPS can only see the information you choose to share with us through the NFRC Competency Passport.

This includes the relevant information about your business and the competence information for the operatives you share with CPS.

This is why connecting your business to CPS and sharing the relevant operatives is an important part of the onboarding process. It gives us access to the information we need to assess competence as part of the Scheme.

No. Connecting a subcontractor or another business to your business through the NFRC Competency Passport does not make them a CPS member.

It simply shows the connection between their business and yours.

CPS membership remains separate from being connected to a CPS member through the NFRC Competency Passport.

You need to keep your NFRC Competency Passport up to date as the people and businesses carrying out work for you change. This includes when:

• a new operative joins or leaves your business
• you start or stop working with a subcontractor
• a new freelancer or self-employed person starts carrying out work for you
• a subcontractor brings another business or person into your work

Keeping this information up to date means your NFRC Competency Passport continues to reflect the people and businesses carrying out work for you.

For guidance on adding new people and businesses, see our step-by-step onboarding guide. Further guidance on offboarding people and businesses when they stop working with you will be available soon.

You may see other features in the platform that are not covered in the onboarding guides. You do not need to use these as part of your initial onboarding.

We’ll provide further guidance and training as these features are introduced as part of the NFRC Competency Passport.

Check your junk or spam folder for an email from [email protected].

If you still can’t find it, please contact us and we can send you a direct invitation link.

Our Getting Started with Your NFRC Competency Passport guide takes you through the onboarding process step by step.

For more detailed guidance on using the technology, you can also access Certchain’s platform guides.

If you’re unsure what you need to do as a CPS member, contact the CPS helpdesk and we can help.