Fire Safety

Registered Managers for the Caldecott Foundation children’s homes and boarding provision have overall responsibility for fire safety in their homes and for ensuring that all facilities, including alarms and extinguishers are in good order. They are also responsible for ensuring fire drills are carried out and checks made in accordance with these procedures.

All inspections, checks, defects and repairs must be recorded in the Fire Safety Log, and checked/signed by the Home's Manager and others, as set out in Section 7, Routine Inspections and Checks.

The Fire Risk Assessment is generally reviewed every twelve months; this may be sooner in the event of any significant operational or environmental changes to the building, staffing, and/or children i.e. age, behavioural risk.

Fire Risk Assessment must always be available for inspection by outside agencies.

The Fire Risk Assessment must be brought to the attention, and be available to all employees, including new (or temporary employees) as part of Induction. A record, in the form of a signatory sheet, should be kept indicating all adults who have read the risk assessments.

Any amendments or revisions must be shared with all adults without delay.

Employees have a general responsibility to be vigilant at all times during their working time in the home and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the safety of children and colleagues is not compromised.

No child is to be allowed matches/lighters unless deemed to be responsible by the Manager of The Home and for specific domestic tasks only i.e., lighting a BBQ. This decision will be evidenced by way of a risk assessment beforehand.

Smoking by adults working in the home will only take place in the designated area and out of the sight of children.

Candles, other than those used decoratively on cakes, must not be allowed on to Company property and must never be used, even in a power cut.

All Homes must have torches in case of power failure.

Barbecues or campfires are never to be left unsupervised and never to be lit using petrol or other inflammable liquids (other than BBQ lighter used in the recommended manner).

No campfire or barbecue shall be left to burn out. It must be extinguished with water or sand after use.

All vehicles are to carry a fire extinguisher.

All Children must be made aware of the Fire Procedures and escape routes upon joining their home in the Caldecott Foundation.

On hearing the alarm all children, visitors, off duty and working adults must vacate the building and report to the designated assembly point as quickly as possible ensuring that all doors are closed behind them.

1. The senior member of the adult team on duty is responsible for ensuring that people who do not hear or are ignoring the alarm leave the premises promptly. However, adults must not put themselves at risk to ensure they do so;
2. The senior member of the adult team will be responsible for determining which part of the building is affected by checking alarm panel display as they vacate the building (if safe to do so). The senior member of the adult team must determine the next course of events, either to telephone the Fire Service or continue to determine if there is a fire. If there is any doubt as to the situation the Fire and Rescue Service should be called immediately.
   The senior member of the adult team is responsible for ensuring that the children and young people and visitors are at the designated assembly point and someone has undertaken a roll call using the daily log and visitor's book;
3. If it becomes apparent that someone is missing, immediately perform a recount and then try to establish where the missing person might be. This information should be passed to the Fire and Rescue Service by telephone if they are en-route or immediately upon their arrival;

4. Send a responsible person to meet the Fire engine, at the gate/drive or nearest junction (if appropriate) ensuring they are aware of any missing person and their possible location, instruct them to pass this information on as a priority;
5. On no account should fire extinguishers be used. It is company policy that adults in the home evacuate everyone in the building and to a place of safety and not fight fires;
6. If there are no obvious signs of fire the senior member of the adult team will recheck the Fire alarm panel to confirm which zone triggered the alarm, (please note resetting the alarm is not the priority at this time, although they may consider muting the sounders if this will aid communication) a member of the adult team (accompanied by a colleague if possible) will go to the zone identified in search of the call point or the detector which had been activated. If no fire is found the alarm system can be reset. If a fire is found they must leave immediately and call the Fire Service;
7. Children must respond appropriately to the Fire Alarm or drills, any wilful failure to do so must be brought to the immediate attention of the Home's Manager, the Child's placing Authority and their family; without delay. Details of action taken must be maintained with the record of the drill. Any re-occurrence of behaviour will result in an emergency meeting being held to discuss how the matter can be resolved; the Fire Risk assessment will need to be reviewed without delay. 1:1 work will take place with the child to address the reasons for not responding appropriately. Evidence of this work will be shared with parents/carers, where appropriate and the child’s social worker;
8. On no account should children or unauthorised adults re-enter the building until confirmation is given by the senior person in charge that there is no risk of fire;
9. The senior member of the adult team will be responsible for maintaining all related recordings in the Fire Safety Log.

If the emergency services are called to the home, the Social Worker for Children placed should be notified; it will also be necessary to notify the Regulatory Authority - see Notification of Serious Events Procedure.

The often complex needs and behaviour of the children we look after requires additional consideration when we are managing safety procedures. Fire drills must be implemented with care in order to prevent any disturbance of day-to-day routines and also to avoid any desensitisation to the importance of the alarm. Fire Drills are an integral part of The Home's Emergency procedure; at least four fire drills, (which including evacuation of all adults and children from the building), must take place within a 12-month period (or more frequently as dictated by risk assessment). At least one of the fire drills must take place at night (after dark).

Additional Fire Drills must be carried out as part of the procedure when a new child moves into the home or as part of the induction process for new members of the adult team in the home.

It is essential that adults and children distinguish Fire Drills from the Alarm/Bell test.

Normally, advance warning should be given of the approximate timing of the fire drill, as the main purpose of having the drill is to ensure that all persons participating are familiar with the correct procedure to be followed. Particular emphasis should be placed on adults training and reviewing the effectiveness of the established procedures.

Where the alarm system operates either as a result of a fire or a false alarm, the resulting evacuation of the building must be recorded in the appropriate section of the record book and indicated as such as afire or as false alarm.

All details to be recorded in the Fire Safety Log.

Checklist: Click here to download a hard copy version of these checks.