Simon Ince of Warrington Certification Ltd hits out at what he sees as the foot-dragging of professional and industry bodies on the subject of unified fire risk assessors schemes.

"The competence council working group is made up of representatives of some groups that haven’t been able to raise standards in the profession since the Fire Safety Order came in to operation"

The memory of this one day will stay with me for a long, long time. I refer to the Promat Fire Day at Ascot racecourse on 29 June 2010. Not because of the spectacular venue, not because of the effort and hassle I had to endure getting there and setting up our promotional stand, and not for the fact that I had to give a presentation to well over a 100 people. The reason this day stood out and was so memorable was that for just one day – well actually for just one moment on that day – I had the overwhelming feeling that there could be a joined up approach; that standards could be raised and that the key stakeholders would be able to work together for a safer world.

A clear and constant message came from all the speakers and was well received by the audience: ‘Competence, competence, and competence’. The trade, the enforcers, the profession and the service providers all offered opinion in turn, and the one reoccurring key factor for a joined up approach was ‘third party certification’.

You might say that it is not unusual to attend such an event, hear these good words and well meaning sentiments, and come away with a feeling of hope, with a sense that this time something could happen to raise standards. Nothing remarkable yet, I know.

But at one delightful point during my presentation, I looked out at the faces of the audience and got the overwhelming feeling that they too wanted change, that they could see a brighter future, and that they would support a joined-up approach to raise fire safety standards. The feeling, fantastic though it was, only lasted a brief second or two; my own summary crushed any sense of belief in a shared vision. As I spoke each line of my closing statement, it was like waking up in stages to realise it was all just a dream...

“IF...we can get the professional bodies working with the certification bodies”
I already knew the answer to this; recently Warrington Certification made an offer to the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM), the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and the Institute of Fire Prevention Officers (IFPO) which would allow standardisation of competence assessment across the full range of registers, and thus in one simple step would create a national benchmark of competence for fire risk assessors in the UK. Only the IFSM have embraced the offer, and not without some internal conflict. The IFE declined and we are still awaiting a response from the IFPO.

“IF...we can get CLGs support”
We recently wrote to CLG requesting that the advice given to the responsible person on selecting a competent fire risk assessor on their website be amended, and a reference to accredited third party certification be included. They declined to add this reference, despite their support for third party certification of fire safety products and installers in the most recent edition of Approved Document B.

“IF…we can get the end user demanding competence as standard”
Price is King in the land of the ‘Great Big Cuts’. If the responsible person pays £75 for his risk assessment he may believe he is complying with legislation, until either the enforcer tells him he isn’t or he educates himself enough to make a technical evaluation of the content.

“IF...we can get a national register of competent fire risk assessors”
Without the three ‘ifs’ above becoming reality, this will be difficult to achieve. I could feel the sense of hope draining out of me and thus with little gusto I delivered my final line...

“We will raise standards through a joined up approach”

As I took my seat at the front of the room to listen to the remaining presentations my mind wandered to all the other reasons which will prevent improvement in standards. At a recent meeting at the Fire Service College, it was suggested by BAFE that Warrington Certification’s Fire Risk Assessors Competency Scheme (FRACS), despite being accredited to a standard, was ‘too good’ and the level of competence required to pass was set ‘too high’. Any new BAFE scheme would be more ‘open to access’ with a view to ‘stiffening up’ the scheme at a later date. The FIA have put together some ‘interim’ measures for their members until the BAFE or another accredited company scheme is available. These measures are akin to first party certification; i.e. self-declaration of competence, with a two-year grace period before any third party assessment of competence has to be obtained.

The competence council working group is made up of representatives of some groups that haven’t been able to raise standards in the profession since the Fire Safety Order came in to operation, nearly four years ago. The chairman of the Promat fire day seminar also summed it up perfectly when he said: “Some people on the working group have such big egos it’s a wonder they can agree the time of day, let alone anything else.”

During the long drive home I continued to thrash out the reasons why the raising of standards for fire risk assessors is doomed to fail and felt utterly down in the dumps. I arrived home just after 9pm that evening; as I pulled up on the drive and stepped out of the car, I looked up at the stunning sunset. The depression lifted instantly – Red sky at night, fire safety delight. Tomorrow was indeed going to be a bright day, a new day, and who knows, I may get that fantastic feeling back again. I, for one, still believe in the power of ‘IF’...

Can we improve standards in an industry that badly needs it?

IF…we all want to, we can!
IF …we use a standard method, we can!
IF …the end user demands it, we will have to! 

Simon Ince is manager, personnel certification schemes at Warrington Certification Limited