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Government’s ‘green light’ for sprinklers in all new care homes endorsed by NFCC

16 September 2024

THE NATIONAL Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has welcomed the recent announcement that sprinklers will be mandatory in all new care homes. The Government made the announcement in a ministerial statement delivered on 2 September by Rushanara Ali (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Building Safety), with the provision being made through an update to Approved Document B, which itself affords guidance on Building Regulations relating to fire safety matters in England.

The statement reads: “Sprinklers enhance fire protection where residents may be reliant on others for help and assistance, especially if a building evacuation is needed. Many care home providers already include sprinklers in new designs. For those that do not yet provide for sprinklers, again, we recognise that businesses and investors seek certainty. As such, the owners and developers of care homes will benefit from a six-month transition period until the guidance comes into effect and will then have a further six months to enable work on current development projects that are underway, or about to start, to continue.”

The NFCC has been calling for the strengthening of sprinkler requirements in care homes for many years now, most recently in the updated Automatic Water Suppression Systems (AWSS) policy statement published back in May. That document notes: “The installation of sprinklers in care homes would reduce the likelihood of a fire spreading beyond the room of origin, which then buys time for evacuation and firefighting, and can also reduce the need for unnecessary movement of vulnerable residents.”

Responding to the Government’s announcement, Jonathan Dyson (the NFCC’s lead for sprinklers and AWSS, stated: “The NFCC welcomes the announcement that all new care homes in England will be required to have sprinklers installed. There have been several high-profile fires in care homes across England in the last ten years. In many of these cases, there were no sprinkler systems in place and it was not possible for firefighters to fully mitigate the effects of serious fires that resulted in lives being lost, serious injury and major property damage.”

Dyson added: “The Government’s announcement recognises and addresses the serious concerns we have had about fire safety in care homes. The addition of sprinkler systems is a measure that the NFCC and the Fire and Rescue Services have long called for to help protect vulnerable residents and staff members.”

Fire safety and evacuation

In addition, the Home Office will bring forward proposals to improve the fire safety and evacuation of disabled/vulnerable residents in high-rise and higher-risk residential buildings in England in response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 1 recommendations that relate to Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs). These proposals will be called ‘Residential PEEPs’.

Through them, residents with disabilities and impairments will be entitled to a person-centred risk assessment in order to identify appropriate equipment and adjustments to aid their fire safety/evacuation, as well as a ‘Residential PEEPs statement’ that records what vulnerable residents should do in the event of a fire outbreak occurring at a given premises.

Next year, the Government has committed funding to begin this important work by supporting social housing providers to deliver Residential PEEPs for their renters. Future years’ funding will be confirmed, assures the new Labour administration, at the upcoming Spending Review.

The Government has “made progress” on delivering recommendation 33.22[d] of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Phase 1 report on evacuation alert systems (‘sounders’) for new builds through amendment to statutory guidance to the Building Regulations in relation to high-rise residential building design (requiring sounders to be fitted in new buildings over 18 metres in height).

Rushanara Ali said: “We will consider further the second part of the recommendation relating to existing buildings in light of further evidence or recommendations in the Phase 2 report. Much like the work on fire safety improvements nationally, this will be part of the important task of reducing the likelihood and impact of future fires.”

 
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