Patricia Roefs has been active within Normec VRO in the field of SNF since 2021. Besides her coordinating role, she also performs both administrative inspections and site inspections herself for the SNF seal of approval. Thanks to her experience in both areas, Patricia knows better than anyone what organizations encounter in practice and where extra attention is needed. In this article we zoom in on the administrative inspection: how to prepare, how to keep Informis up to date, what (despite good efforts) can lead to a negative report, what the consequences are and how we support you in this.
What preparation is best for the customer?
The administrative inspection is conducted remotely. The inspector contacts you about a week prior to the inspection and shares a folder where all documentation can be safely placed.
An accompanying e-mail states what documents must be provided and the inspection period:
- The inspection period is normally 12 months.
- When requesting the documents, the company's activities are considered. One document requested from each company is a columnar balance sheet. You can read more about this in Appendix 2 of the standard for housing migrant workers.
- Keep Informis up to date
What is the best thing you can do to make sure Informis is up to date?
The standard for housing migrant workers states that Informis should be updated one week before the administrative check and at least on each first day of the month.
Checking each month that the location register is still up to date and processing changes will keep the location register current. Annex 5 of the standard describes how the various locations should be registered.
Despite good client commitment, what could lead to a negative report?
The incorrect recording of locations (especially in relation to the housing form) unfortunately leads to discrepancies.
An example is housing form E: housing in a recreational area. The standard clearly states that all bungalows must be recorded as a separate address in Informis (unless it is a campus). If a company rents four bungalows and only enters the main address of the recreation ground (often the reception), this is not recorded correctly.
Log of maintenance: we often see that parts are missing.
The logbook should record periodic inspections of the sites, by whom the inspection was done, when it was done and what the findings were. Since January 2025, this standard point has been expanded and must also record how the findings were resolved and by whom. Unfortunately, these last two points are still regularly forgotten, resulting in a deficiency.
What are the consequences of a negative report?
When a periodic (12-month) inspection is negative on standard point 1.1, an additional inspection always follows after six months. When active sites are missing, these sites must be entered into Informis within three weeks. This is checked during a three-week test. If only inactive sites are missing, the three-week test is void.
How do we support customers in this process?
When norm changes arrive, such as the expansion of the logbook, we inform companies even prior to future checks. In addition, we help with questions about registering locations in Informis. Because we see the registered locations in Informis, we can see how a location was registered and as of when. If a location cannot be registered as of a certain date, we can indicate the reason and how it can be registered. This way you keep your administration balanced. If registration does not succeed, we will contact SNF so that the addresses are processed correctly. This concerns notifications made prior to the administrative check; during the administrative check immediate recovery cannot be demonstrated.
For an initial inspection, we guide companies by discussing the entire inspection and making it clear what is expected so that you can properly prepare for the initial inspection. Our inspectors and back office are available by phone and are happy to assist you with questions.
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