Competency. Integrity. Value.
With care homes having such a high risk of life and a high duty of care, building owners should do everything they can to ensure residents are evacuated in the event of a fire.
We have been working closely with a local care home for several years.
During our routine fire extinguisher maintenance, we discovered that there was a need for a review of the home’s evacuation procedures. Consequently, they engaged us to deliver our bespoke, in-house-developed evacuation training course.
In care homes, compartments can contain up to 10 bedrooms, meaning up to 10 people may need evacuation to a safe place. During the daytime, evacuating any compartment within 2.5 minutes is expected due to the higher staff presence. During the night, with fewer staff, the 2.5 minutes is a starting point to which an assessment can be made.
However, without practical training that simulates the evacuation of the highest number or most dependent number of residents utilising the minimum number of staff expected to be present, how can the responsible person provide a reasonable demonstration of the building’s evacuation times?
Therefore, we physically demonstrated repeated evacuations based on the worst-case scenario specific to the building. For instance, we trained two staff members to evacuate a 50-kilo dummy four times against the clock. This practical exercise simulated their minimum staffing levels and largest number of dependent residents per compartment in their building which helped determine actual evacuation times.
The care home now achieves excellent evacuation times and couples this with fire awareness/warden training to ensure that their staff are as prepared as they can be.
Many care homes do not fully understand their duties, which inspired us to create the evacuation course. Without practicing physical evacuations, a care home cannot realistically demonstrate they are compliant.
Our goal is to reduce the burden on staff and ensure they know their role during emergencies.
By ensuring proper training and understanding of fire safety protocols, we help care homes comply with regulations and, more importantly, protect the lives of their residents.
If you are interested in this course, please email enquiries@npgfiresafety.co.uk.
In addition to evacuation training, we offer: