Why is fire safety training vital in care homes?
Fire safety training is essential in any workplace. However, for those in a care home, it’s perhaps even more important. Why is this?
Fire safety training is a legal requirement
Did you know that fire safety training is actually a legal requirement? And that failure to comply could result in fines?
The impact of a fire within your care home can lead to extensive property damage, financial loss, and injury. The worst-case scenario, it may even result in loss of life.
Employers have a duty to ensure that all employees have an induction into their workplace, including fire safety. It is essential to keep training up to date and this should include evacuation procedures, details of the fire policy, and all staff should be made aware of any changes.
Its vital that annual refresher training is provided to all staff within the care home.
Risk assessments are also a legal requirement
As well as fire safety training, care homes must always have suitable and sufficient fire risk assessments. At LS Fire Solutions, we offer professional fire risk assessments for care homes and other workplaces. We’ll work with you to identify the hazards and risks within your premises and advise on suitable remedial actions whilst providing continued support.
Carers have a responsibility
As carers, your staff are responsible for keeping residents safe. Part of this includes taking a proactive approach to fire prevention and knowing what to do if a fire occurs.
There may be a number of people to evacuate
In the unfortunate event of a fire, it will be the carers’ responsibility to evacuate themselves and residents. Depending on the size of the care home, this could involve supporting a large number of people. It’s vital that they know how to handle the situation.
At LS Fire Solutions, we offer Evacuation training so care home staff members can feel confident in the safe evacuation of all residents.
Residents may have additional access needs
A lot of general information learnt in fire safety training is applicable to a variety of workplaces. However, as residents may have varying additional needs, care homes present their own unique complications.
Mobility issues, hearing or sight impairment, and other conditions such as dementia can make evacuation difficult and increase risk. It’s important that your fire safety training is tailored to your residents’ individual situations.
Fire safety training should also reflect the specific environment, which is why site-specific training is so important.
Some care homes ‘phase their evacuation’
The evacuation plan for a care home may look a little different to other businesses. Due to the nature of the residents’ needs, some care homes use a ‘phased evacuation’ policy. This is where the fire alarm and other protective measures within the premises, allow for the evacuation process to be carried out in phases, for example, close to the incident move first along with the client who or more mobile, followed by client who are further away from the incident.
If your care home employs this delayed evacuation method, it’s vital to know how to carry it out safely.
Does every carer need fire safety training?
You might wonder if having one staff member trained in fire safety is enough to cover the whole company. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Care homes require 24-hour staffing. With carer rotations, it’s crucial that every single person has sufficient fire awareness and evacuation training. This training gives them the knowledge and experience they need to confidently identify and remove risks in your care home and respond calmly and swiftly in a challenging situation.
However, the level of training each staff member needs may vary depending on the size of the care home and the risks within that workplace. This will be covered in your company Training Needs Analysis (TNA).
Fire protection in Newbury care homes
LS Fire Solutions provides comprehensive fire safety training tailored to the needs of care home residents and staff members.
If your care home is in Berkshire or the surrounding areas and looking for training, feel free to find out more or contact us directly.