Fire safety guidance - existing high rise domestic buildings and specialised housing and similar premises: impact and effectiveness

Appendix A: Additional detailed issues raised: Guidance for specialised housing

As noted at the end of section 4.7, specialised housing research participants raised a small number of detailed comments in relation to the guidance for existing specialised housing and similar properties, where participants considered the guidance was not sufficiently clear. These are noted below.

Definitions:

Small care home: Clearer definition of a smaller care home and how this relates to the 2014 Care Homes Guidance. As noted in section 4.7, the Guidance does provide a description of small care homes. Nonetheless, there did appear to be some confusion as to the distinction between small care homes and care homes.

Others: A definition was also requested for retirement housing.

Other issues:

Para 26: Clarity sought on what the following sentence means: "Schedule gas safety checks and inspections of electrical installations can provide opportunities"

Para 57: Include evidence of drug use, as well as evidence of alcohol misuse, as indicator that person could be at risk of having a fire in their home

Para 59: Include nightwear, as well as bedding, sheets, pillowcases, etc.^[7]. Bean bags should be included as a potential fire risk (polystyrene pellets)

Para 67: Also should mention 'daisy chaining', i.e. plugging an extension board into an existing extension board

Para 62: Add note to state that fire retardant upholstery only works if there are no rips in it. Mention checking for rips/tears.

Paras 71 and 72: Housekeeping to extend outside a building. Items dumped outside may be prone to vandalism.

Para 82: Unclear whether last para is referring to the alarm system remote monitoring or water systems.

Para 97: View that the number of staff available to help evacuate is not always dictated by the fire risk assessment. It may be dictated by the funding received from the local authorities.

Action plans p104/114: Clarity on who is responsible for actions identified: need to clearly link the action and person responsible to the issue identified in the initial check list.

Checklist in Appendix 6 (Matrix of Responsibilities) should also include personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs)