The impact of ANY fire can be devastating but due to the vulnerability of residents in Care Homes, the highest degree of management control is needed to ensure that fire protection arrangements are effective, and staff actions in an emergency are clearly understood and implemented.
A number of fires in 2017/18 raised concerns that management of Fire Safety arrangements in Care Homes may need review and subsequently the London Fire Brigade carried out a detailed inspection of 177 care homes within their area, in order to establish if their management of fire protection arrangements were suitable which identified a number of fire safety failures.
The attached letter was subsequently sent to all care home operators in London, as the findings from inspections raised concerns over fire safety.
Our local care home managers will no doubt find the report an interesting read, and should anyone need our help with carrying out Fire Risk Assessments or support with Fire training, audits or inspections, we can help. With over 30 years’ experience in the health and social care sector, Acorn Health & Safety deliver consultancy, support, guidance and tailored training with the aim of keeping businesses, staff and clients safe.
For any audits/inspections (consultancy work), we will assign you a dedicated and competent health and safety professional who will gain an understanding of your needs and be on hand to provide any help, advice or comment you need.
Any documentation produced will either be uploaded to our cloud based storage system provided electronically, or as a hard copy in the required format. Following any piece of consultancy work we are available by phone or on e-mail so you can contact us easily if you need any further assistance or advice.
Last month saw the Experience of Care Week – an international initiative to celebrate the work that happens across health and social care to keep improving experiences of care and keeping everyone safe, for patients, families/carers and staff.
We also offer a variety of courses relevant to those in a Care Home setting, including our Fire Marshal course which can also be done with practice of putting out a live fire. Our tailored course programmes are particularly suited to organisations with specific learning outcomes and developed to meet the requirements of the care certificate. We are pleased to confirm that our Manual Handling of Clients courses, Fire Safety courses and Basic Life Support and AED Training are all aligned to Skills for Health The Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF).
Our courses are delivered by a dedicated team of experienced trainers, the majority of whom have, and in some cases, continue to work in the Health and Social Care Sector. By attending courses care home staff, clients and organisation benefit from:
- Learning life-saving skills
- Being able to meet the often varied and individual needs of clients
- Learning a wide variety of skills that can easily be translated into working practice
- Increased competence and confidence contributing to high standards of care
- A variety of printed course materials including workbooks and handouts for all delegates
- A printed course certificate per delegate, on successful completion of this course, with a free reminder for when your certificate expires so it (hopefully) never lapses
- Improving and maintaining your organisation’s reputation
- Reduced fees for group bookings
Our ‘in-house’ course programmes are the most cost effective option if you’ve a number of staff requiring training, and in many cases can be adapted to include reference to local policy, practice and documentation. These courses can be delivered either at any suitable venue or you can hire our purpose-built training centre located in Warmley, Bristol, whichever is best suited to your needs.
We also run a rolling programme of ‘open courses’ which are particularly suited for individuals, organisations that only have a few delegates or those looking to release small groups of staff at a time.
Please contact us to discuss all of your training needs so we can advise the most suitable and cost effective solution.
Prefer to talk about your training and consultancy needs?