Fire safety
during an evacuation. The plans should be documented, regularly reviewed, and integrated into staff training and emergency drills to ensure effective implementation. They must also be tailored to each resident with mobility or cognitive impairment and updated regularly. Risk assessments must also consider
how sprinklers and fire panels interact with evacuation strategies. If stay put strategies are used for certain residents, sprinkler reliability and panel monitoring are vital. A thorough, regularly reviewed risk
assessment is therefore the mechanism that binds together technology, procedures, and human response for fire incidents.
Responsible person Since the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, there has emerged a trend towards personal accountability. Under the current legislation, the ‘Responsible Person’ is an individual who can be prosecuted personally for failures. In serious cases, it could mean going to prison. For care home owners, directors, and
senior managers, this change means that fire safety can no longer be delegated down the chain with minimal oversight. While
specialist fire engineers will always be needed for installation and maintenance, accountability rests at board level. This is driving a new emphasis on
governance, audit trails, and real-time visibility of compliance across care home estates, making remote monitoring with cloud-based logs an attractive option. This means that care home owners
who may have once relied on minimum- specification systems and reactive maintenance now find that this approach is no longer enough. Instead, there is a shift toward integrated, intelligent fire systems that combine early detection, automatic suppression, intelligent fire panels, remote monitoring, and thorough risk assessment.
So, with fire safety regulation tightening,
sprinkler systems now a mandatory requirement in new care homes, fire system design and specification must evolve to meet these demands. Effective integration of sprinkler monitoring, reliable false alarm reduction, and real-time system oversight are key to delivering safe, compliant environments.n
Reference 1 Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service, 30 September 2025 https://www.
lancsfirerescue.org.uk/news-and-events/ lancashire-fire-and-rescue-service- prosecutes-person-in-control-article-5-3- for-fire-safety-breaches
Matthew Jones
Matthew Jones is head of sales for UK & Ireland at Advanced, with over 10 years of experience in the fire industry. He is passionate about raising standards through education and competency, ensuring customers and partners specify and deliver the right fire solutions.
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com February 2026
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