SFJ Awards has launched a fire safety qualification with the aim to equip operational staff to deliver fire safety checks.
Fire & Rescue Services attended more than 180,000 fires in the UK last year, with the majority taking place in homes and workplaces. Of these, it is estimated that up 90% could have been prevented had the appropriate fire safety measures been in place.
An effective tool that enables Fire & Rescue Services to educate and inform businesses and the public about fire safety, and to identify premises where additional regulation may be needed is through fire safety checks, believes SFJ Awards.
To support Fire & Rescue Services the awarding body has added ‘Ofqual approved’ fire safety qualifications with the launch of its Level 2 Award in Carrying Out Fire Safety Checks.
Head of Service Delivery and Improvement at National Fire Chief’s Council Richard Fowler adds: “The vast majority of fires are preventable if correct fire safety rules are adhered to, so we are pleased that the Level 2 award is now available for Fire and Rescue Services to use.
“This award will support the very valuable work that Fire & Rescue Services do to ensure that residents, and particularly the more vulnerable members of our community, and employees are sufficiently protected.
“This unique qualification is central to ensuring that Fire & Rescue Services staff are equipped with the up-to-date knowledge and skills to develop fire safety competence to reduce fire risk in premises that they regulate.”
Said to be developed in collaboration with the National Fire Chiefs’ Council and Fire & Rescue Services from across the country, including Greater Manchester and London Fire Brigade, this qualification aims to enable learners to identify and offer advice to businesses and check that key fire safety measures are in place.
Upon completion of the award, learners have the option to progress to the Level 3 Certificate in Fire Safety (Fire Auditors) and Level 4 Diploma in Fire Safety (Fire Inspectors) qualifications.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) were closely involved in the development of the Level 2 award and their Head of Protection Jenni Seex comments: “This qualification is vital to our ambitions for improving knowledge and understanding about the built environment across our frontline operational staff at GMFRS and equipping them to deliver fire safety checks to keep our communities safe.
“We have committed to an ambitious plan to deliver this qualification to all operational crews over a 3-year period (total of around 1,100 learners) to ensure they can provide basic advice to business owners on their legal responsibilities, collect risk information to inform our Risk Based Inspection Programme, identify immediate risk to life in the event of a fire and make an immediate referral to the Fire Safety team and identify areas of non-compliance to be triaged and followed up by Fire Safety teams.”
Commenting on the launch, Candace Miller, Managing Director of SFJ Awards, said: “We launch this qualification at a time of heightened focus on fire safety.
“In this time of increasing costs there is a risk that some organisations may be tempted to cut corners when it comes to fire safety.
“It therefore remains of utmost importance that the Fire & Rescue workforce is able to counteract this through fire safety checks.
“Hence, through equipping learners at every level with the very latest knowledge and skills, our Fire & Rescue Services can continue to combat fires that devastate so many lives.”
The total qualification time for the Level 2 Award in Carrying Out Fire Safety Checks is 20 hours, with a guided learning component of 12 hours.
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