Posted By Laurie We are an FE college and later this year are opening a dance facility with a 150 seat auditorium. There will be public performances arranged and controlled entirely by students. My planned fire strategy is for auditorium sounders to be silenced during public performances, and for trained staff, alerted by audio and visual signals, to carry out a planned and controlled evacuation. (This is a fairly standard scenario for theatres/cinemas) My question - Can I regard the front of house students, suitably trained, as "trained staff" for the purpose of the Fire Regs, or do I have to insist on full time College staff being present, which will obviously carry a grave financial penalty? My own risk assessment tells me I can, but I may have got it wrong - it has been known! Any opinions? Laurie Richards

Posted By Ken Taylor I would expect the licensing authority to require them to be trained, competent and adult - but not necessarily staff members.

Posted By John Donaldson I must stop placing to much reliance on my spell checker. Just hope it does not incur the wrath of the Moderators :-)