FIRE SAFETY ‘‘
There have been some recent prominent examples of fire risk assessors with all sorts of letters after their name, but it was soon realised that these were neither relevant, nor really meant anything
maintenance for a fire-related service – all of whom are referred to in HTM 05-01.” This ‘Competent Person’ would have the capability to provide skilled installation or maintenance of a fire-related service, e.g. an accredited fire-stopping contractor, or perhaps a fire alarm and detection specialist able to maintain the fire alarm.
The role of an AE (Fire) Referring to the slide of the Fire Safety Management structure, Andrew Foolkes added: “Where appointed, an NHS Trust may also employ the services of an Authorising Engineer (Fire). It is the job of the Fire Safety Manager and Fire Safety Adviser to ensure that the various fire safety objectives set by the Board and management team are undertaken, monitored, checked, and reviewed.” The Authorising Engineer (Fire) will, he said, normally be a Chartered Engineer, or a chartered member of another professional body with extensive experience in healthcare buildings. As per the HTM 05-01 diagram, they are very much independent professional advisers to the organisation, and report to the Executive Director. Andrew Foolkes explained: “Instructed by, but not employed by, the Trust, it’s their role to make independent recommendations on the monitored performance of fire safety management, and to provide an annual audit to the Executive Director.” Moving to the role and typical expertise of the ‘Competent Person’, Andrew Foolkes asked: “What does a ‘Competent Person’ mean?” He said: “To answer this, the first place I went to was the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (the ‘RRO’).” He dubbed this ‘a piece of legislation which requires a Responsible Person to take general fire precautions to make sure that relevant persons are, in effect, safe from fire within the premises’. He said: “The RRO acknowledges that this ‘Responsible Person’ could, for example, be the Chief Executive, the Executive Director, or the Fire Safety Manager. However these individuals may well not have all the necessary skills to be able to demonstrate that they are taking these general fire precautions, and that people are staying safe.”
The principle of ‘safety assistance’ Recognising this, the RRO recognised the concept of ‘safety assistance’ – essentially the ability for the Responsible Person to call in other ‘more expert’ personnel to help them discharge these obligations. Andrew Foolkes explained that the
46 Health Estate Journal February 2022
RRO stipulates that those called in to provide this ‘safety assistance’ should be ‘competent’, and have the necessary training, experience, knowledge, and other qualities, ‘to enable them to properly assist in undertaking the preventive protective measures’.
While the Fire Safety Order covers
many different sectors and different building types in both England and Wales, the speaker said he had been keen to understand ‘what it looks like in a healthcare context’. For example, did the sections relating to healthcare provide any additional detail? He said: “The answer is ‘no’; looking through HTM 05-01 on managing healthcare fire safety, a person is deemed to be ‘competent’ – and this is very similar to the stipulation in the RRO – if they have training and experience or knowledge, ‘or other qualities’.” This, Andrew Foolkes said, had
Trust Board
got him thinking whether he was in fact himself ‘competent’ to select somebody who is themselves competent’? He said: “How can someone providing that ‘safety assistance’ demonstrate their competence? Is it in fact incumbent upon the Responsible Person to ensure the competency of the individual they are seeking the ‘assistance’ from?”
What constitutes sufficient training? The speaker’s conclusion was that it was. He elaborated: “It’s important that you understand what constitutes sufficient training and experience to demonstrate competence. As many of you will know, there have been some recent prominent examples of fire risk assessors with all sorts of letters after their name, but it was soon realised that these were neither relevant, nor really meant anything. Nor did they possess the necessary experience, training, or skills, to be able to demonstrate their competence. I think third-party accreditation, or registration with a professional body, are key for a lay person – perhaps somebody in the organisation that doesn’t need to understand the intricacies of fire safety
Chief Executive
Relevant Committee independent of the Fire Safety Committee
Executive Director (with fire safety responsibility)
Authorising Engineer (Fire)
(where appointed)
(Senior Operating Manager)
Fire Safety Manager
Competent Person (Fire)
Fire Safety Adviser Authorised Person (Fire)
Departmental Managers
Fire Wardens Staff
Figure 2: A Fire Safety Management Structure, from HTM 05-01, 2nd edition: 2013 – Managing healthcare fire safety – Appendix C.
Direct accountability for fire safety Fire safety responsibility Exception reporting
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