You start with what is legally required (fire risk assessment, fire plan etc). The FS policy can complement this, but is not mandatory. It is basically a record of your procedures and a way of expressing the company's way of implementing fire precautions, training, equipment servicing etc..is more useful for large or complex organisations or where you have several different buildings.

Policy: a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organisation or individual. Synonyms: plans, strategy, blueprint, approach, scheme, programme, schedule, code, system, guidelines, intentions, theory, line, position, stance, attitude, practice, custom, procedure, wont, way, routine, style, convention, mode, rule . . . the list goes on. Personally I only hang the term 'policy' onto something which the organisation executive (not me) has actively decided / agreed upon. If it's just my own good idea, then I may call it a strategy, plan, guidance, rules, procedure, depending on intended audience.

Article 11 of The Fire Safety Order states: "The responsible person must make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the size of his undertaking and the nature of its activities, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures". So in England and Wales, most businesses will have to record how they manage fire safety. The 'having regard to the size' part of the Article can be interpreted as meaning that if you have a single, low risk and medium size premises - its possible to record the provisions to cover Article 11 within the FRA document. For more complicated or larger premises, those with a higher risk or where an organisation has multiple sites, a fire safety policy may be a better was to cover this regulatory requirement. Be warned that during recent fire safety audits, I have seen an increased emphasis on 'management' with Inspecting Officers asking to see any policy and one IO trying to insist a FS policy was a requirement.