Posted By Anwar Afzal October is around the corner, so how are you all getting on with your assessments, have you nearly finished, not started yet, or you leaving it to the last minute. I suppose if its one or two not a problem, but in my case its over 200 and 10 completed 190 + to go. i am not joking either, and thats im addition to my role of managing safety of all of these sites.

Posted By TBC It is true that most (nearly all) risks should have been assessed some time ago, but there are additional parts to consider now. It will be 'normal' for quite a few to wait until the last minute to think about the total assessment. Don't be caught out.

Posted By Gary IMD(UK) Anwar, Should you need assistance in training your members of staff, do give me a call! Regards, Gary gary@imduk.com

Posted By Mike Herbert Hi Anwar. This may be fine to start with but i'm sure there may be issues of competence with premises managers in this respect. You will have to audit them all to have a degree of coherence across the organisation i would have thought. They may not have had training in identifying potential fire hazards to start with or think that a hazard is less than it is. I am in a similar position as you (although thankfully not as many) and have found that the managers are great at providing the service but frankly a bit dim when it comes to fire. Just a thought or two cheers mike

Posted By Dave Wilson gary that must be against the AUG's

Posted By Phillipe Part of the problem I have found since I joined the company I am currently working for was that historically, my predecessor had compiled a template document for all retail store managers to conduct their own fire assessments which is, quite frankly very difficult to actually understand, from my point of view (and I am CMIOSH) let alone someone who has little working knowledge of such documents. I am currently putting together a much more simple and straightforward assessment that will cover all bases of the requirements under the RRO and at the same time will give me the confidence that once trained, local managers will be better equipped to complete the task in hand. Couple this with regular auditing (part of the overall mgt system) I am confident that this is an achievable goal. There are some excellent templates on the net that can be used as a basis for a thorough and comprehensive risk assessment. They just need adapting and shaping into the one that best suits your organisation.

Posted By Anwar Afzal With great difficulty at the momment, time is against me, And i have to keep on top of the issues in the company.

Posted By Mike Herbert Hello again, If i read you correctly you are getting 200 people together. Yikes. Not all at once i hope The thought of that with my lot is daunting. Good luck and let us know how you get on. cheers mike

Posted By J Knight Hi Anwar, What kind of undertaking have you got? It really makes a hepa of difference as to who can or should do the assessments. We have, broadly, three catgories of workplace; large Care Establishments, very small Charity shops, and offices of varying sizes. Our Estates managers have done the care establishments, using their cumulative years of experience as facilities and maintenance managers of care centres, and NHS Firecode, which is very prescriptive in its approach. In addition we are putting them (or should I say dragging them kicking and screaming!) through the NEBOSH Fire Safety Management cert. The shops and offices are being done using a template by managers trained to IOSH MS level, with the support of the Retail H&S Adviser. This of course is because the Care Centres are 24 opertaions, in very complex premises, full of extremely vulnerable people; the shops and offices are not. So without knowing what your sites are, its difficult for me to say whether I agree with yourb approach or not. though we should have had FSRAs since 1997, we didn't have them when i arraived, and I have used the upcoming RRFSO as an excuse to launch a campaign around this in Retail. In Healthcare we have noticed musch moer direct advice and pressure from fire services to get our FSRAs done, and as it happnes, we have, John

Posted By Anwar Afzal John Dont worry about the spell check its the contents that count, and to your question: 1. We have large care homes, hostels, and sheltered housing for all categories. 2. I rely on the managers competance because they know their scheme having each been there for a number of years. 3. I devised the questions in a 47 page document and they are answer as to whether it is applies or not,and to what extent. Then they return the documents to me for final checks, and if approve or call them up if any queries. 4. When i eventually get to site, over a period of time i check to see if it works and where necassary make any further amendments. It is also open for amendment subject to change in guidance and legislation, so all i will have to do is change a particular page and not the whole document. What do you think of the plan?