A care home combines the two things that make fire strategy difficult: people who cannot evacuate themselves quickly, and a building they sleep in. The fire safety order applies as it does to any workplace, the care regulator has its own requirement about safe premises and equipment, and the two are read together after any incident.
Why simultaneous evacuation is usually impossible
Moving a large number of residents with limited mobility out of a building takes far longer than a fire allows, and taking frail people outside at night carries its own risk. The strategy that guidance builds around instead is progressive horizontal evacuation: moving residents through fire doors into an adjoining compartment on the same floor, away from the fire but still inside, and only continuing if the fire develops.
What that demands of the building
Compartmentation that actually holds, which means fire doors that close and latch, walls and floors whose fire resistance has not been breached by cabling or plumbing, and detection that gives warning early enough for staff to start moving people. A care home's fire strategy is only as good as its worst penetration, and those are found by inspection rather than by paperwork.
Staffing is part of the strategy
The strategy assumes a number of staff able to move a number of residents in a period of time, and that assumption has to hold at three in the morning as well as at three in the afternoon. Night staffing levels are therefore a fire safety matter and not only a care one. Personal emergency evacuation plans record what each resident needs.
What is recorded and read afterwards
The fire risk assessment naming the strategy. The evacuation plans for individual residents. Training and drill records showing staff have practised the actual movement. Maintenance records for doors, detection and lighting. The regulator's requirement about premises and equipment brings all of this into the care inspection as well as the fire one.
Questions people ask about fire safety in care homes
Does a care home need a stay put policy?
Stay put is a strategy for purpose built blocks of flats with compartmentation designed for it. Care homes generally use progressive horizontal evacuation, which is a different arrangement with different demands.
How often should evacuation be practised?
Often enough that staff can do it, including night staff at night staffing levels. A drill that only ever happens on a weekday afternoon has not tested the hard case.
Who is the responsible person in a care home?
The employer and whoever has control of the premises, which is normally the operating company. The duty is not discharged by appointing a contractor to write the assessment.