FEATURE: HEALTH & SAFETY
highlights just how misunderstood fire risk assessment competency can be. Fire safety is rarely something that can be easily assessed, particularly in buildings occupied by hundreds or even thousands of people every day. A fire risk assessment requires the assessor to understand how a fire may start, how it could spread, how occupants would respond, whether passive fire protection remains effective, whether management arrangements are sufficient and whether the school’s controls align with current guidance and expectations. Most importantly, it requires all those factors to be considered together.
One reason fire risk assessments are so challenging is that no two schools are the same. A modern purpose-built primary school may be relatively straightforward to assess, while a Victorian school extended and altered incrementally over decades by numerous contractors is an entirely different proposition. We frequently visit schools where original documentation is missing, alterations have been poorly recorded, and previous works have created unforeseen issues. Service penetrations – gaps in fire resistant walls for utilities like cables, pipes, and ductwork – may have been left unsealed and even fire doors have been removed because they were considered inconvenient.
In many cases, previous assessments failed to identify any of these issues, each of which could contribute to the rapid spread of fire and smoke through a building. That is why for me competence cannot
be viewed as a fixed standard. Someone may be entirely capable of assessing one type of building but lack the knowledge and experience required to assess another. Rather than asking if a person can complete a fire risk assessment, the question needs to come from a different direction and determine if that person can competently assess the building.
Schools should not be marking their own homework
One of the most valuable aspects of a competent fire risk assessment is independent challenge. School staff naturally become familiar with their surroundings and can over time normalise risks that would immediately concern a trained fire risk assessor. These might include leaving outstanding actions unresolved because money is short or allowing fire doors to be removed because they get in the way. None of these decisions are in the end malicious but they are often the result of competing priorities, limited resources and imperfect advice.
The starting point of fire safety The fire risk assessment is the starting point, rather than the destination, of fire safety, with the real test not the completion of the assessment but the process of testing whether findings are understood, actions are prioritised and recommendations completed. Fire safety is built through consistent action, effective maintenance, strong leadership and regular review, and the
assessment is simply the tool that helps identify what needs to be done.
Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility The education sector has worked hard to create a safeguarding culture where everyone understands their role and responsibilities and offers an excellent example of cultural transformation that would benefit fire safety. This doesn’t mean every member of staff needs to become a fire expert, but that everyone contributes in some way. This includes leaders providing oversight, site teams maintaining critical controls, contractors understanding expectations and every member of staff feeling empowered to report any concerns they might have. It’s about creating a resilient organisational culture around fire safety, rather than making it the responsibility of a single individual.
A question worth asking
When it comes to fire risk assessments, the most important question isn’t whether one has been completed but whether the trust can demonstrate that the person carrying it out was genuinely competent to assess that building.
It doesn’t matter if they are an internal assessor or an external consultant – where they work or what title they hold is irrelevant if they have the knowledge, experience and judgement to identify the risks others might miss.
October 2026
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