Fire Safety Law

[Guest JPH]

Have you heard that fire safety law is changing in October 2006? The new law will emphasise preventing fires and reducing risk, make it your responsibility to ensure the safety of everyone who uses your premises, and do away with the need for fire certificates. A set of guidance notes has been developed to tell you what you have to do to comply with fire safety law, help you to carry out a fire risk assessment and identify the general fire precautions you need to have in place.

The guides are designed so that a responsible person, with limited formal training or experience, should be able to carry out a fire risk assessment.

 

Guidance can be obtained from www.communities.gov.uk

 

You can download the relevant information (loads of pages!) or order the booklet for £12.

[Inge]

thanks,

 

didnt know about the changes but our LEA training directory has a fire safety course / workshop in it this year, perhaps this is why ...another piece of training for staff, will have to check and book now before everyone else!!

 

Inge

[Guest]

Thanks. I'll have a read.

 

I heard that we'll need Fire Marshall training.

[hali]

oh my what next, have to get downloading....

 

ITS 147 PAGES LONG :wacko:

[Guest]

Gosh only 147 pages long - right - so you tell me who on this forumk is going to be the person with no life whatsoever to read all of it!! Not that I am demeaning this H&S area because it is so important but really but 147 pages long - its a book. I too have had an issue - we don't have a fire certificate - we work out of a community building which can take up to 120 people but apparently we don't need one. The emphasis is on the landlord/trustees of the hall to make sure they have got everything in place. So I phoned up my regional fire officer and they confirmed this but said that if I wanted help to phone the local branch to ascertain where the best meeting point etc would be and other bits of advice and they said they could not do anything - if Ofsted come in and say they are not happy with the arrangements, Ofsted will then advise them and they will come out. Oh well so I can now blame Ofsted. Seriously though it jsut doesn't seem a very good solution really.

Nikki

[hali]

i agree, but we are in the same boat as you Nikki.

[Guest]

Been updating my First Aid today with St John's Ambulance.

 

They are running the Fire Marshall training that we'll need from October. You have to ensure that enough people in your setting have it, so that there is always someone on shift who has it.

 

It is 4 hours long and costs £75 per person, or they will come and do it in-house for 6 people, at a cost of £400 (which works out as £55 each). It we can afford it then I thought of splitting the cost with a local setting.

 

Here

Edited August 21, 2006 by Guest

[Guest]

I did a thorough fire risk assessment last term in preperation for Ofsted. I don't know where I got the form from, but I do know the web address was from some kind person on the forum.

 

It is for large community buildings such as schools. I have attached how I've filed it in for my setting, the items in red are my queries to my landlords, might be useful for some of you.

 

Shelley1, will it be mandatory for everyone to have a Fire Marshall in place from October, or are there circumstances like number of employees etc.??

 

 

Peggy

fire_risk.doc

[Rea]

We were only talking about fire drills and how often they should happen today. Should they be carried out once per term or half term? And do you carry out drills so that every child does one what ever day they come?

[Guest]

We have fire drills once a month and have them at different times of the day. The staff don't know that there will be a drill.

I haven't been organised enough to do them when different children are in.

 

I don't think we will need the training by October, but we should have it on our Training Plan, and demonstrate that we are aware of it. I'm pretty sure that number of employees don't matter, and that you will need to have the training no matter what size business you work in. St John's Ambulance are really useful when you ring them up, so you could given them a quick call to find out on 08700 10 49 50.

 

He said that schools have been sent the guidance over the summer, and so most of them won't even know about it until they get back off holiday, and then they'll be a mass panic to book onto the training. Therefore, I would have thought they'll have to be a bit lenient with everyone having the training by October.

 

Thanks for the Risk Assessment. We talked about that today as well and I added it to my long list of Actions!! I have just appointed one of the staff as H & S Officer, and she's marvellous. She's on holiday at the moment, but bless her - she's got so many actions just from a day's 1st Aid Training!!!

 

How do people keep a log of Fire Drills - both practice ones and real?

[hali]

we just use an a4 note book and put in date, time, numbers of staff and children, who checked what and how long it took.

[Guest]

My fire log is similar to Hali's, at the end I write a one sentence evaluation and whether any issues have arisen that needs to be discussed, ie: once I called a surprise fire drill when a a child was having a nappy change, this caused a discussion of whether in the even of a real fire what the staff should do??? ( I know, I was amazed the staff member felt the need to ask)

 

I call drills at least once every half term, these are planned in advance in my diary, different days and times. If we have a new child start or new member of staff start I have a drill within one week of them starting. I vary the drill to go out of different exits, depending on where the 'pretend' fire is within the building. I blow a whisle, shout Fire in the ........then point to which exit to use, I repeat the command but say pretend fire, pretend fire, then the children join in the chant and are not fearful, seeing it as just a game.

 

I also instruct all my staff to 'call' a drill, at any time they decide, so that I can practice when not ready , It's good for them to practice blowing the whistle, it's amazing how many staff have to try a few blows before they get it loud enough.

 

Peggy

[Rea]

I used to do mine pretty much like you Peggy, but I havent done one at any of the nurseries i've worked long term at and thats why the discussion started yesterday.

I loved doing unannounced ones, staff really had to get their brains in gear.

[Guest]

This is something which really worries me at our school. Last year our head only did ONE. That was only done because i asked him if we could have one as part of our topic on fire safety as part of people who help us

[Andreamay]

we do afire drill every half term,an allocated member of the committee just turn up in session tells us where the fire is and we do the rest.they time us and them write it up in a fire record

[Marion]

We have a whole school drill with bells n such once a year but because we have continual intake into the FSU we have mini drills for new children.

 

Does this mean the nursery teacher will have to stop BBQing indoors

[Guest]

Talking of Fire Risk Assessments - I saw some more training today offered by St John's Ambulance, which was a full day on Risk Assessments, at a cost of £80 per person.

 

You come out with a certificate at the end of it.

 

Quite pricey but definitely worth it.

 

It should be on the St John's Ambulance links on the earlier posts.

[Inge]

Fire drill once a month, we use a register to record each one and try to cover all children and staff each month!! can mean sometimes up to 4 or 5 a month! and twice a day with afternoons.Children very good at it by the end of this!

 

Also record any issiues or needs to be addressed. This is kept in the register and available for all to have a fire drill whenever they remember.

we also have a risk assessment on the fire drill!! have had for a while now, where we go, how to collect children together, how we move between buildings keeping all safe etc. Seems if I add about risks in trhe building and how to minimise them, where equipment is etc, we are mostly covered.

 

Our LEA are doing some training next feb for this... 4 staff booked on it so we should be covered, (asked a local firm who do our Fire inspections for quote £700.00 for 15 people on site. )

 

Inge

[Guest]

We have a whole school drill with bells n such once a year but because we have continual intake into the FSU we have mini drills for new children.

 

Does this mean the nursery teacher will have to stop BBQing indoors

 

 

:wacko: :rolleyes: I'm bad enough with a toaster, let alone a BBQ :unsure:

 

 

Peggy

 

Fire drill once a month, we use a register to record each one and try to cover all children and staff each month!! can mean sometimes up to 4 or 5 a month! and twice a day with afternoons.Children very good at it by the end of this!

 

Also record any issiues or needs to be addressed. This is kept in the register and available for all to have a fire drill whenever they remember.

we also have a risk assessment on the fire drill!! have had for a while now, where we go, how to collect children together, how we move between buildings keeping all safe etc. Seems if I add about risks in trhe building and how to minimise them, where equipment is etc, we are mostly covered.

 

Our LEA are doing some training next feb for this... 4 staff booked on it so we should be covered, (asked a local firm who do our Fire inspections for quote £700.00 for 15 people on site. )

 

Inge

 

 

Have you planned where you would take the children if there was a fire and they could not go back into the building. Somewhere safe and warm, whilst they wait for parents to arrive.?

I'm sure you have Inge.

[Guest]

thanks for all this info i was not aware of these changes and will now have to spend this week looking in to this and where we stand

 

is there any more they can keep loading on us!!!!

[Marion]

:wacko: :rolleyes: :unsure: I'm bad enough with a toaster, let alone a BBQ

Peggy

 

We planned a BBQ and as usual in a week of hot sunny days the day of the BBQ arrived with thunder storms............I arrived in the unit to find the BBQ in the hallway covered in sauages and the Nursery teacher walking away to deal with an adult visitor. As you can imagine it was manic.........the head was in a huge panic about setting off fire alarms (it was also the school harvest festival with hall full of parents)

[Guest]

The more I hear about your school the more I like it.

 

Peggy

[Marion]

Pity about the distance Peggy think wed make a good partnership for the childrens centre provision

[Rea]

:wacko: I'm bad enough with a toaster, let alone a BBQ :rolleyes:

Peggy

Have you planned where you would take the children if there was a fire and they could not go back into the building. Somewhere safe and warm, whilst they wait for parents to arrive.?

I'm sure you have Inge.

 

 

Something else that I asked about Peggy. The fire assembly point is at the back of the playground, but from there the only way off the premisis is over a fence or back through the building, not the only place I've been to who would be trapped within the grounds. Fire training for settings will be a good idea.

[Inge]

Peggy, of course we do, hence the risk assessment!,

 

As rea has said - once worked in a setting where there was a fire exit into a fenced in play area , exit, climb the fence!!

 

We use the church or the school next door and all parents know this

 

Inge

[Guest]

Pity about the distance Peggy think wed make a good partnership for the childrens centre provision

 

 

Oh, I wish, I agree entirely..so are you moving to Kent or am I moving to Durham???

No, wouldn't work, Durham would miss you, and I hope Kent would miss me, we will just have to remain virtual partners.

 

Peggy

[Running Bunny]

Thanks for passing on all the useful information - I now have some research to do and probably 300-odd letters to send out to our providers!!

 

How do people keep a log of Fire Drills - both practice ones and real?

 

This is what I pass on to our providers as a sample copy... Fire_evacuation_record.doc

 

RB x

[Guest]

That's useful Running Bunny - thanks

[Guest]

Hi. Going back to the fire safety law, we were offered our training by Surestart. I attended the courses a few weeks back. It was quite intersting (nothing to do with the fact that 2 extremely good looking firemen were taking the course)

Anyway back on track.. It was a fire risk assessment course covering all the new changes. Basically any premises that isn't a domestic premises needs to do a thorough risk assessment by law. We were shown slides of the template risk ass form they recommend and it was quite long over quite a few pages but seemed simple enough to fill in. I am still waiting for my certificate and with that they prmised copies of the slides which show an example copy filled in. We got goven a blank from to take but he said he was best to wait till we get the slide copies before attempting to fill it in. The course was open to managers and supervisors and there are furtherr courses coming up. Not sure if anyone can get booked on through Surestart. Whoever is the fire safety officer in the premises (me) is fully responsible for these forms and they were quite harsh when they said that if there happeneded to be a fire with a fatality and our risk ass form was not doen properly or not at all then the fire officer risks imprisonment.

On a brighter note though the second half of the courses was training on fire extinguishers which have also changed their look and using them outside. Quite fun soaking people in the adjoining car park to the training centre.

 

I have the information here not at work if anyone is interested. I would strongly recommend though getting onto whoever does your training and getting booked in.

[Guest]

evee, was there a cost for your training?

 

Peggy