The National Association for Safety and Health in Care Services (NASHiCS) is seeking participants to complete a short survey on fire safety measures in residential care homes.
The non-profit organisation has been working closely with the UK Home Office and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) to “understand the challenges faced by residential care providers in relation to current guidance, with a view to feeding this learning into the upcoming review of the guidance”.
“The following questions will be the start of that process to better understand some specific challenges that we have been made aware of,” NASHiCS states.
Aiming to help inform and shape guidance for residential care home providers, the ‘Fire Safety in Residential Care Homes’ survey asks participants to consider fire risk assessments and evacuation policies in residential care homes, including the level of consideration or focus given to evacuation plans and procedures and the use of comprehensive evacuation trialling or drills.
As previously reported by the FPA, in September 2024, the government announced key changes to fire safety and evacuation provisions, including provisions for sprinklers in all new care homes, irrespective of height. The fire safety measure is also one of the key policies set out by the FPA in its policy manifesto.
Commenting on the survey responses so far, NASHiCS said in a LinkedIn post: “A great response so far. Please keep them coming and share with your colleagues, so that we get a broader view of how fire safety is approached across the sector and generally.”
The five-minute survey is available until midnight on Friday 15 November 2024.
You can access the survey here.