If you work in, or own a care home, fire safety must take precedence. Fire safety in care homes can unfortunately, be a matter of life and death due to the vulnerabilities of residents and staff who may not have the capability to evacuate safely on their own.
Fire safety measures required in care homes can be more difficult and complicated than general work settings. In the unfortunate event of a fire, it is more complex to evacuate vulnerable residents safely, especially if they are very old or very sick. Additionally, this can be made more problematic by staff shift patterns, particularly at night where there tend to be fewer staff members on shift.
We have produced the simple guide below for people responsible for fire safety in care homes.
1) Risk Assessments to improve fire safety in care homes.
Ensure your care home fire risk assessment is up to date and thoroughly reviewed within the last 12 months
Carrying out the assessment
- Identify the fire hazards.
- Identify people at risk.
- Evaluate, remove, or reduce the risks.
- Record your findings, prepare an emergency plan and provide training.
- Review and update the fire risk assessment regularly
You’ll also need to consider:
- Design and layout of the care home- find emergency routes and exits
- fire detection and warning systems
- firefighting equipment
- removal or safe storage of dangerous substances
- suitable escape routes, especially considering the needs of vulnerable residents who may not be able to escape quickly
- an emergency fire evacuation strategy
- emergency lighting
- providing information to employees and other people on the premises
2) Create an evacuation plan
In order to improve fire safety in care homes, you ought to create a comprehensive evacuation plan and provide to all staff members as well as making it visibly noticeable throughout the care home grounds. The plan must demonstrate that you have a clear passage to all escape routes, emergency lighting where needed as well as emergency doors that can open quickly and without difficulty. The evacuation plan should also make allowance for special arrangements for residents with mobility complications, and you must have a sufficient number of exits to guarantee everyone is able to leave safely. As the degree of mobility of each resident may be diverse, a delayed or progressive evacuation plan could be required, involving vacating a number of residents at one time.
3) Install and maintain suitable fire safety equipment and systems throughout the premises that are completely serviced and in working order
All fire safety equipment inside the care home should be regularly maintained and tested. Ensure all safety equipment including fire and smoke alarms, lighting, doors and fire extinguishers. In particular, those accountable for care homes must make sure that appropriate fire detection and warning systems are fitted and working. Mainly this will encompass fire and smoke detectors and manually operated call points (usually ‘break glass’ boxes) linked to an appropriate fire alarm system. Care homes should generally have a system that includes fire detectors in all rooms as well as fire alarms in all bedrooms and throughout the home.
Professional expert advice should always be acquired in designing and fitting detection and alarm systems.
Did you know that the majority of people continue exactly with what they’re doing when an alarm is heard? They will either refute that something is occurring, or they’ll wait for leadership. We investigate how you can quit this behaviour. By using simple daily procedures all staff can learn to react correctly and automatically, if the worst were to happen.
To find out more about fire safety awareness and fire safety equipment, take a look at our online course today.
Who is this Fire Awareness course for?
Everyone. We all have a responsibility, to ourselves and to others to be prepared for fire.
Fire doesn’t just happen to other people.
About the Fire Awareness course
This course is in 4 sections which cover the following topics:
- Fire: what it is and what makes it dangerous
- Causes of fire
- Fire prevention
- What to do in the event of a fire
There are 4 banks of questions which you will need to answer. Achieve the pass mark and you’ll be able to move onto the next section.
Accreditation
This Fire Safety Awareness course is accredited and endorsed by The CPD Certification Service. Once you’ve completed the course you’ll be able to immediately download a unique, personalized and endorsed certificate. You can keep it with your records or to pass on to your employer.
FAQ
When do I get my fire safety awareness certificate?
Unlike many e-Leaning courses, you’ll get your certificate immediately after you pass the course. It will be in your name and you can download it as soon as you’ve watched all the clips and successfully passed the tests.
How long is this course going to take?
We suggest you allocate 30 minutes for this fire safety awareness course. It’s short but it contains the essential information you need to know.
How is the course delivered?
The course is presented as a set of four short video clips. Simply press play and the first clip will be shown. Watch it, concentrate on the information and after the clip finishes there will be a set of questions for you to answer on the information you’ve just watched.
Is there a pass mark?
Yes. Every set of questions requires you to get 75% to move on to the next clip.
Can I re-sit the test?
Yes you can. If you don’t get the 75% pass mark you can re-sit the test but the questions are likely to be different to the ones you just attempted.
Can I watch the clip again?
Yes you can. As many times as you want to.
Can I fast forward through the clip?
No, we’ve disabled that facility. When we were setting these courses up we looked at some other e-Learning courses out there and found out we could fast forward to the end of each section. In our opinion, that’s no way to learn. This stuff is important and could save lives and stop accidents and injuries – that’s why we make sure that you have to watch the video through to the end.
Why are the courses delivered by video?
Watching moving images and swiftly decoding the messages within, is second nature to us all. The average viewer in the UK watches more than 3 hand a half hours of TV a day. What better way to receive information whilst at work? But there’s another key reason. On average video learners score 37 percent better than text learners on a post-training test. On retention tests given a few days following the training session, video learners’ scores were 45 percent greater when compared to the text group. (University of Twente, 2012)
Training by video is simply a more effective way to learn.
Is the video just someone talking at me?
Nope. We create scenarios, we interview victims and medical experts, we show what you should be doing and a lot of the things you shouldn’t be doing. We make these videos as entertaining as we can. When you’re entertained, you’re concentrating. That’s key. We also use a professional crew and the outstanding actor, Mark Roper.
