Care homes receive upgraded fire safety guidance

Updated fire safety guidance has been released for residential care and nursing homes.

The policies, which may lead to more effective fire risk assessment plans, have been published by the National Association for Safety and Health in Care Services (NASHiCS) and the Chief Fire Officers’ Association.

It is hoped one of the benefits from the introduction of the directions is that fire resistance will be improved to 60 minutes for locations housing residents who are not as able-bodied as others.

The organisation also wants to see an evacuation targets of two and a half minutes introduced for protected zones and directions for staff staying with residents when evacuations are taking place.

Devices such as sprinklers have been advocated as a way of suppressing many of the problems associated with fire.

It comes after fire fighters in Surrey branded proposed changes to the fire protection schemes in the county as "totally unacceptable".