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Safety advice for professionals and carers

Fire safety advice for professionals and carers who work with people with care and support needs.

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Safety

As part of the West Midlands Fire Service’s (WMFS) strategic vision to make the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier, we have produced a series of initiatives, training packages and guidance aimed at those working with and or supporting members of the community with care and support needs.

There is documented evidence following Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SAR) highlighting that following fatal accidental fires in the home, adults with care and support needs may be at an increased risk of fire. However, these traits are not always recognised by their care provider and are not shared with fire and rescue services who are best placed to offer advice guidance and support.

Public sector organisations have a duty under the Care Act 2014 to work effectively and in partnership to ensure that individuals can continue living independently, safely in their own home for as long as possible.

Fire service data analysis concludes that casualties of accidental dwelling fires who are in receipt of care and support, are more likely to be severely injured or die as a result of the fire.

Additionally, West Midlands Fire Service Serious Incident reviews (SIR), have identified a need for the risk and vulnerability to fire to be integral to the initial and ongoing individuals care plan, this should also include a responsibility to monitor and review any change of circumstance that affects that risk.

In assessing and providing for someone’s needs to live independently, a variety of health care agencies and professionals may be involved, so our guidance can assist those who are:

  • Commissioners
  • adult social care staff
  • social workers
  • occupational therapists
  • those providing domiciliary and home support
  • continuing health care professionals
  • community nursing teams.
  • Staff in organisations or agencies involved in the care of people in their own home
  • Those providing unpaid care and support voluntarily to a family member or friend.

The aims and objectives of our guidance and associated learning provide information in the following areas:

  • Identifying risk and vulnerability to fire
  • the importance to include the risk of fire in the initial assessment and care plan design
  • when and how to refer to WMFS including what support and services are available
  • ongoing training and workforce development.

We trust our guidance will help raise awareness to the correlation of those living independently in their own home with care and support needs and any potential fire risk that may pose. The term ‘own home’ includes those people who live in sheltered housing with care and housing with extra care schemes

The e-learn package

As part of the West Midlands Fire Service's strategic vision to make the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier, we have produced an e-learn package designed to help those who work within a care environment. This will help you to identify potential fire hazards and risks you may find whilst caring out your care role.

The following link will take you to the registration page, where you will find a short video clip explaining how to register to complete the course. Please use the enrolment code '999' when prompted.
Partners and carers learning portal

Identifying vulnerability and risk to fire

The following are characteristics and vulnerability to fire that you may see or become aware of during the course of your work. 

While individually, these can increase risk to an individual, combinations of these characteristics will escalate the risk and make it even more vital to ensure appropriate support and mitigation is considered. 

Where risk and vulnerability to fire is identified, a Safe and Well visit should be requested, even where the individual may not meet eligibility/thresholds for care provision. Although consent is preferable for best engagement, we are able to act on referrals made without consent where risk and vulnerability have been identified. You can do this via the button below
Book a Safe and Well visit
A professional carer talking to an elderly gentleman

Some typical risks or vulnerabilities you might see

Book a Safe and Well visit

If you're a partner, carer or professional and want to submit the details of a client or property you're responsible for, please complete the form below.
Safe and Well Form
  • Urgency
  • Your details
  • Occupier details
  • Risk questions
  • The legal bit

If the referral you are making cannot wait until office hours to be dealt with, or there is a genuine risk, or potential risk, to life or property please DO NOT continue with this form.


If there's an immediate emergency or risk to life, dial 999 and report it to us.


If there is no immediate risk, but a visit is urgently needed, please call our home safety centre number 0800 389 5525.

If you've used a link provided by us, this code may populate automatically.

Please provide us with YOUR address and contact details below. If this referral is for someone else, we'll give you the option to give us their details and address in a moment.

Please enter the contact details for the third party below.

Here, we ask you questions to help us identify the best way to help you, or the person you're referring.

Fire risk assessment and care planning

Assessment and review

West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) recognises that there are many variations across agencies and sectors in the types of assessments and reviews of care and support needs to be undertaken. Therefore the term assessment and review is used in this guidance to cover:

  • assessment and review processes as defined in the Care Act 2014
  • continuing health care assessments and reviews
  • domiciliary and home support planning and reviewing processes
  • hospital discharge planning processes
  • occupational therapy assessments/reviews.

Where risk and vulnerability to fire have been identified, with service user consent, professionals and carers should make Safe and Well visit referrals to us even if the person being assessed does not meet eligibility/threshold criteria for care and support.

We recommend that the Fire Safety Risk Assessment tool detailed in Appendix 1 of the downloadable document linked in this section is used to identify risk and vulnerability to fire. If any of the risks and vulnerabilities are present and/or the person does not have a working smoke detector then we strongly recommend that a referral for a Safe & Well Visit is made.

The Safe and Well referral form found on our website shows the information required by West Midlands Fire Service to triage and arrange the Safe & Well visit. A 'paper' copy of this form can also be found in Appendix 2 of the document linked in this section.

If it is anticipated you, or the organisation you represent will make multiple referrals to us for Safe and Well visits then please make contact with your local station before submitting a referral (unless urgent). They will then create a unique referral pathway number for your organisation/
team. The referral number is key for communication between WMFS and the referring agency.

Housing providers should consider how they can incorporate assessing risk and vulnerability to fire within their letting processes for individuals with care and support needs. Particular consideration should be given to those who require adaptations within their properties and those who will reside in sheltered/housing with care/extra care schemes.

Community Alarm/Assistive Technology

Where it is decided that assistive technology is used to support service users to live independently, WMFS recommends that a smoke detector linked to the system is considered, in all cases, where a Community Alarm is being installed. This is particularly relevant for people with complex needs, who have limited mobility and smoke.

Activity/Behavioural Risk Assessments

Behaviours and activities such as the use of alcohol and drugs or smoking may require a more detailed activity-specific assessment and management plan. This is particularly important when individuals with limited mobility smoke.

An example of good practice in assessing ‘smoking’ as a specific risk is attached as Appendix 4 the downloadable document found in this section.
It includes examples of statements of:

  • the benefits the person believes they get from undertaking the activity
  • risks and hazards identified through conversations with the person to make sure that they understand the risks to
    them and others around them
  • statements explaining what actions/plans are in place to reduce/monitor the risk together with roles and responsibilities
    for these.
A carer speaking to a lady at a dining table.

Mental Capacity

Where a service user is identified as being vulnerable and at risk of fire, we require the person's consent to receive a referral for a Safe and Well Visit.

We do recognise there will be instances where the service user either, lacks capacity or can make unwise decisions.

When a person cannot make decisions about their fire safety, we recommend inviting us to attend any multi-agency meetings, to discuss and agree on best-interest decisions.

When a person can make decisions about their fire safety but refuses to consent to a Safe & Well visit, we recommend that this is recorded in the individual’s records.

At this stage, we are available to provide professional advice and guidance. We would encourage professionals and carers to make contact in these instances using the Home Safety Centre's free phone number which is 0800 389 5525.

Information sharing

We recommend that wherever possible consent is gained from the service user and for the referrer to be present, during the Safe and Well Visit. This provides the best opportunity for a coordinated and shared approach to supporting the individual to reduce or manage their risk.

Where this is not possible, following a Safe and Well visit, our firefighters will leave a booklet called ‘Keeping you safe and well’ summarising the outcome and recommendations with the service user. An electronic copy of this document, without service user recommendations, can be downloaded from our website.

Where the service user gives consent, we will also record these outcomes and recommendations in the ‘Collaborative Care Record’ when this is present.

Where the service user refuses consent for us to share information but we consider that the person is at significant risk of fire (life risk to self and others), we will, in the best interests of the service user, share all relevant information relating to the risk with the referring agency.

The flowchart available in the Fire Safety for Professionals and Carers document linked earlier in this section summarises the process of assessing, referring and mitigating risk and vulnerability to fire for people who have care and support needs.

Workforce training

In order to be able to identify, assess, refer and mitigate the risk and vulnerability to fire, the workforce that engages with people with care and support needs must be able to:

  • understand who is at risk and vulnerable to accidental fires in the home
  • identify behavioural, health, lifestyle and environmental risks
  • understand how and why these risks increase vulnerability
  • undertake fire risk assessments
  • make a referral to WMFS for a Safe and Well Visit for service users who are at risk and vulnerable to accidental fires
    in the home
  • incorporate the recommendations from the Safe & Well Visit into care and support planning and review
    processes
  • understand the resources available to mitigate risk and vulnerability to fire.

We recommend that agencies design and deliver training to their workforce that incorporates the objectives above. The information contained in our guidance will provide the foundation to develop the content for the training session. This guidance has been written following recommendations from the Miss G SIR conducted by Coventry Safeguarding Adults Board, therefore a good practice approach to developing the training session would be to focus on Miss G or a similar individual as a case study.

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