Georgina

Yes, we have a lift. At this moment, we do not have any persons who require assistance in evacuating. But that does not mean someone will come into school tomorrow with a broken leg. Also, the assessor mentioned we have a duty of care for our visitors. Which I fully understand.

Hi Anthony. Thank you for your reply. Yes, our assessor is insistent that we have evacuation chairs available for use by any visitors. We have a main circulation stair / central stair which is open. You can see this stair when you enter the main reception / lobby area and is a central focus of the school. This staircase takes you to all floors, we have three floors (including ground). We have split our school into three parts; central, left & right. The left and right wing have an enclosed staircase each. These take you down all floors exiting to the rear of our school - school field. The central staircase would lead you back to the reception, to the front of the school. Our science department also have access to an external staircase which leads them to the side of the building, where they would made their way to the school fields (assembly point). What other options could we consider or take back to our assessor? I know it if very difficult to answer as you have not seen our school however, I am wondering if we provide alternatives, he may see that evacuation chairs aren't the only answer.

Hi, I have been advised by our fire risk assessor to provide evacuation chairs at out stair landings. At present, we do not have any persons who will need to use these chairs and are able to evacuate safely on their own. We have procedures in place for staff and students in the event they cannot evacuate i.e. injury, pregnant, etc, which are assessor is happy with. However, their concern is for when visitors are in our building. We have three floors and lifts are available for persons to reach the upper floors. Evacuation chairs are expensive and we have not budgeted for these chairs and will not be able to assign money until the new tax year. Our assessor will not provide any alternative advice and is insistent we provide these chairs in the event they are needed. Can anyone provide any alternative solutions?

Hi, I am a Business Manager at a school and I have a responsibility to manage health and safety and fire. I have been speaking to the headteacher about reviewing the fire management policy. Within the policy highlights who the responsible person is. Our headteacher has stated that my name should be detailed at the responsible person. However, shouldn't this be the headteacher or the Trust, as the employer? or can you have more than one responsible person - headteacher, care taker, business mananger, Trust?