Your Guide to Appointing a Reliable Fire Safety Consultant

Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, Dame Judith Hackett led the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety which was announced in July 2017.  Its purpose was to make recommendations to ensure a robust regulatory system for the future, and for residents to feel and be safe in their homes.  As part of the recommendations, the Building Safety Act 2022 aims to reform building safety legislation and introduces new duties for the management of fire and building safety in high-rise residential buildings. You can read more about the Building Safety Act 2022 here.

Fire safety is a core area of compliance and has faced increased scrutiny from the Regulator of Social Housing in recent years.

Even if you appoint a fire consultant to assist your organisation, as the Responsible Person (RP), you are still responsible for ensuring compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and any future legislative requirements. Do you know who you trust to ensure quality, safety, and compliance?

So, where do I start?

This guide is designed to help those with responsibility decide who should carry out a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA), and a range of other fire safety related activities, on your properties. You may be able to carry this out in house, or choose to appoint an external fire safety consultant.

To successfully carry out any of these activities, you will need to fully understand what you need to do to keep people safe in your properties.

If you do not have the appropriate knowledge or understanding of fire safety in order to comply with legislation and fulfil your legal obligations, or you are unable to provide sufficient time and resources to undertake this critical task, you will need to appoint a specialist to carry out these activities.

You may require assistance in your management of fire safety compliance to:

•  Quickly identify where gaps and weaknesses exist in your organisation in regard to fire safety obligations and to help you comply with the Building Safety Act 2022.

•  Review/audit the quality of existing fire risk assessments in line with PAS 79:2020.

•  Design and complete a prioritised programme of FRAs in an expedited manner.

•  Review your fire strategy and policy documents to ensure they are fit for purpose.

•  Review your organisation’s approach to fire safety including business plans, asset management strategy, policies, procedures, process maps, and KPI data.

•  Complete Compartmentation Surveys and Fire Door Audits to prevent the spread of smoke and fire in the event of an incident.

•  Provide fire safety training to your team to ensure everyone is keeping your business safe with legislative and proactive knowledge to stop fires happening and manage the situation appropriately if they do.

•  Procure a consultant.

How to identify a reliable consultant?

Irrespective of who carries out the activity, the RP must ensure the assessment is adequately carried out. When selecting a fire safety specialist, you should make reasonable checks to verify their competence and suitability to do the  job properly.

We have put together some key markers of a high-quality consultant to help you appoint the right person for the job:

Accreditations
There is no legal requirement to hold accreditations for fire safety consultancy, but by choosing a consultant who voluntarily hold related accreditations shows their commitment to quality. It will also show that you have demonstrated due diligence in using a competent person to help meet your fire safety obligations. 

Examples of reputable accreditations are:

BAFE Fire Safety Register
BAFE is the independent registration body for third part accredited fire safety service providers across the UK. In order to be accredited by BAFE, companies are rigorously assessed annually by UKAS accredited certification bodies to ensure absolute compliance to defined quality standards and industry best practice for fire safety.

Institute of Fire Engineers
The Institute of Fire Engineers assesses knowledge of fire and professional experience fits members and also support continuous professional development. Holding this membership demonstrates the consultant has proven their knowledge of fire safety to a competent level.

Fire Protection Association
Membership to Fire Protection Association shows that the consultant is kept up to date with fire legislation, industry events, training and professional development.

Health and safety schemes
Membership to health and safety schemes is also a good indicator of a high quality consultant as their health and safety practices are vetted and approved on an annual basis by a third party body.

Reputable memberships include:
•  CHAS
•  SafeContractor
•  Construction line

Experience and track record
This applies both to the organisation and also to the individuals within the organisation. Check that the consultant has worked within your sector before - gather references and make sure you follow them up. Request details of the experience of the individuals working on your properties and get access to their training records.

Ability to offer a local service
While many consultancies might centralise some business functions such as laboratory or administration services, it is important that the consultancy has ‘feet on the ground’ in terms of assessors and validators in the local areas that you work in.

Availability and flexibility
These consultant attributes are important when programmes of work are uncertain, when incidents arise or when circumstances change (changes in working practices or policies for example).

Managing access
Access is a critical factor to success of any project. Consider whether you require the consultant to organise access and if they have the trained resources to do this. Also think about the people you are responsible for - can the consultant cater to vulnerable and at-risk occupants such as in sheltered accommodation, schools or hospitals? Will your occupants respond to letters or do you think a text appointment service would have a higher success rates? You will also need to consider General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements here and how the consultant ensures they are compliant with this regulation.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Make KPIs challenging but reasonable and achievable. A target of 100% might look impressive on paper, but is it practical? Whilst this might be suitable for some areas requiring measurement such as health and safety, for other areas it may not. The starting point is to identify what your organisation needs, what has been performed previously by others in the industry as a benchmark standard and what is possible.

Contractual certainty

Examples of contract forms such as Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) or New Engineering Contract (NEC) are the most commonly used for contracting with a fire safety consultancy.

Your organisation may have bespoke forms of contract which should be checked to make sure they are suitable for use with fire safety consultancies.

You should make sure that your insurance requirements are appropriate and available in the market and that any consultants you appoint have the required level of cover.

If you are using the consultant’s own terms and conditions, then make sure they are suitable for use.

Take the time to read them properly and if they are not quite right, negotiate the important terms. If in doubt (and pending the size of the contract) get advice from a legal, qualified professional.

Which services do I need?

You may feel you have a good understanding of where your organisation is at, how to identify any gaps in your approach, and how to go about addressing them. However, it isn’t uncommon to be unsure of where to start. We have detailed below a range of services most reliable fire and building safety consultants should be able to offer you:

Fire Compliance Review
A fire compliance review is an excellent way to achieve a holistic view of how your organisation manages compliance. A fire compliance review will look at fire safety management from top to bottom including business plans, asset management strategy, policies, procedures, process maps and KPI data. It is also important to determine whether staff, contractors and other partners are clear about their roles and responsibilities for managing fire safety compliance. Through a series of document reviews, staff interviews and workshops, the consultant should produce a summary report, bringing together key findings including a gap analysis, commentary and recommendations. The summary report should provide clear, practical and time-bound advice on how to rectify these areas.

Fire Strategy Reviews
This is a review of your strategy for a particular building, including a full review of all evacuation policy documents and other information available.

Fire Risk Assessments
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, amended by the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, requires those in control of buildings which are within scope of the Order to carry out fire risk assessments. These assessments must consider the building’s structure and external walls (including doors, windows and anything attached to the exterior) and any common parts, and also all doors between domestic premises and common parts.

As part of a FRA, the fire safety consultant should:

•  Carry out FRAs of premises and advise you on the frequency with which you should carry them out.
•  Provide a report and inform you of the findings and recommendations in an action plan.
•  Advise you about putting in place and maintaining appropriate fire safety measures.
•  Work with you to create a plan for an emergency.

PAS 79:2020 provides an industry recognised methodology, guidance, and template for undertaking and recording FRAs.

Compartmentation Surveys
Compartmentation forms an important part of a building’s fire plan and is a key part of the fire risk assessment process. Correctly managed compartmentation prevents the spread of smoke and fire, dividing buildings into manageable areas and providing suitable means of escape. Our fire safety consultants carry out compartmentation surveys in new builds as well as existing buildings, assessing the effectiveness and completeness of fire resistant materials.

Compartmentation Audits
Are you confident that your existing Compartmentation Survey is sufficient? If you need assurance that your compartmentation is robust, a Compartmentation Audit will assess your building's compartmentation on whether it meets relevant requirements, as well as identifying any issues that will require further investigative work. This is a quick and easy method of checking the adequacy of your compartmentation and will provide you and your tenants with the piece of mind that work has been undertaken correctly. 

Fire Door Audits
Fire doors are a big part of a building’s passive fire protection system and strategy, providing key protection to areas of escape and safety. If you are the responsible person for a building or premises, it is essential that your fire doors are regularly checked for any damage and faults and are compliant with current regulations. Fire door audits should include checking the certification of fire doors is up to current standards and the current state of all fixtures and fittings – are they working correctly, assessing the frame of the door for damage and gaps and checks on intumescent strips and cold smoke seals.

Fire Risk Assessment Audits

If you are unsure whether your FRA is suitable or want assurance that it covers all aspects of your fire safety risks, then an Fire Risk Assessment Audit is a time-effective method of assessing the amount of detail in your existing FRA against the set industry standard PAS 79 template. This will ensure that your FRA captures the right information, gives the right information for the enforcing authority, and will provide tenants with the assurance that their homes are safe. It's important that you are confident that your FRA is representative of all your buildings risks so you can take any remediation steps in a timely manner. 

FRAEWs

Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls (FRAEWs) are crucial in determining whether your building's External Wall Systems (EWS) are made up of a safe material and design. An FRAEW,  based on PAS 9980:2022, is a requirement under a number of fire safety legislation, including the Fire Safety Act 2021 and Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and is applicable where the risk is known, or suspected, to arise from the form of construction used for the external wall build‑up, such as the presence of combustible materials.

What now?

Appointing a reliable, certified fire consultant should enable you to save money in the long term, mitigate the risk of non-compliance, and help deliver projects on time and within budget.

If your consultant is unreliable, you run the risk of legislative noncompliance, overspend and missed deadlines. Your brand reputation could be at stake, which is why it pays to invest in a consultant that is reliable, and one who can provide you with fast solutions to problems that could hinder your project.