The LWF Blog

Fire Safety for Healthcare Premises – Fire Safety Training for Staff – Part 85

October 24, 2019 6:13 pm

In LWFs blog series for healthcare professionals, our aim is to give information on best practice of fire safety in hospitals and other healthcare premises. In part 83, LWF considered those roles in a healthcare environment which might have special responsibilities in case of a fire, before beginning to discuss trainers. In part 85, we will consider the responsibility for effective training through competent trainers before looking at recording and assessing training programmes.

Under Firecode, the responsibility for an effective staff training policy in fire safety procedures rests with the board-level director, assisted by the fire safety manager. The fire safety manager must receive suitable training prior to assuming their duties.

Any staff member required to deliver training to other staff members must have the necessary level of competence in fire safety and in training, the proof of their competence should be demonstrable.

The training programme itself should include practical sessions and fire drills, both of which are expected to supplement classroom training. The training sessions must be well-publicised and the arrangements made in advance of the sessions to ensure the release of staff from their usual duties.

The identification of individual staff members’ training needs is essential in order to deliver effective fire safety training and records should be kept of all staff attending instruction, the dates and duration of the training, the nature of the training given and the names of those attending and those delivering the training.

While assessing the effectiveness of the training sessions can be challenging, it is also important. The fire safety manager, working with healthcare fire safety advisers, should regularly devise methods of training staff to ascertain what information they have retained and are able to act upon. These checks should be undertaken no less than every two years.

The performance of staff members during training will also provide an indication of how effective the programme has been and the degree to which staff have taken on board the relevant information.

The aim of the recording system is not only to fulfil legislatory requirements, but also to enable the fire safety manager to oversee training programmes and check that training goals are met for all staff members, whether full-time, part-time, agency or night-duty.

Line managers are held responsible for recording staff attendance at training sessions and any training which is undertaken by e-learning should be completed within one month of the session commencing. Any session not completed within the month must result in the e-learning programme being re-started.

In part 86, LWF will discuss Fire Drills. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this blog, or wish to discuss your own project with one of our fire engineers, please contact us.

Lawrence Webster Forrest has been working with their clients for over 25 years to produce innovative and exciting building projects. If you would like further information on how LWF and fire strategies could assist you, please contact Peter Gyere on 0800 410 1130.

While care has been taken to ensure that information contained in LWF’s publications is true and correct at the time of publication, changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact on the accuracy of this information.

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