Taking precautions when it comes to fire safety is important in any situation but it becomes crucial when you are in a care setting with older people who may not have the speed of urgency or understanding to flee if the worst happens. This means that the responsibility for ensuring precautions are taken and safety procedures are understood and adhered to falls to you.
What areas do your Fire Risk Assessments cover?
All risk assessments start with identifying the hazards and risks. Under Health and Safety Law employers are required to carry out risk assessments in respect of any activities undertaken on your premises. Where any of these risk assessments indicate a risk of fire they should be considered in your Fire Risk Assessment. As well as the normal sources such as electrical appliances and heating sources etc you may need to include activities such as events involving fireworks, barbecues, birthday cakes with candles and also individual’s activities that may involve ignition sources such as smoking.
What are the implications for care providers?
Failure to identify all fire hazards and risks may mean that your fire procedures do not cover all eventualities, which would be putting lives at risk. As risk assessments are a requirement under Health and Safety Law, failing to carry them out may also incur a fine.
Staff awareness
Ensuring that your staff have the knowledge to enable them to recognise hazards and risks and understand how they can reduce them or remove them where appropriate, will ensure a safer environment for all. By increasing staff awareness, productivity will improve, the risk of financial loss through litigation or damages will decrease, which in turn will create a happier and safer working environment.
Protecting your clients and their home
Care delivery can often mean working in the client’s home. This does not only apply to home care workers but also to residential care workers. A balance is needed between keeping the residents and their home safe and providing the person centred approach which allows us to meet individual needs. Whilst it may be easier to remove all hazards and risks we need to ensure we do not restrict the wishes and needs of those we care for.
The Fire Safety Awareness manual from Redcrier ensures all of your staff are aware of how fires start, the fire hazards in their working environment and the impact fire can have on everyone involved. The course also offers an easy to follow refresher process that will enable the fire training to be updated every 6 months, if not more frequently depending on the competence of your staff. Redcrier can also offer Fire Safety awareness via face to face courses and e-Learning.
