The clocks go back at the end of this month. For care homes, that means longer nights, more time with heaters and electrical equipment running, and more hours when the building is run by a smaller night team.
None of the fire safety basics change in winter. But the darker months are a good time to ask a simple question: if the alarm went off at 3am tonight, would your night staff know exactly what to do for each resident?
The responsibilities haven't changed
In England and Wales, care homes come under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The "responsible person" must have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, and act on it. Government guidance for residential care premises makes the point that care homes are different from most buildings. Many residents can't respond to an alarm or leave without help, so the evacuation plan has to be built around the people living there.
Most care homes use progressive horizontal evacuation: moving residents away from the fire, through fire doors, into a neighbouring protected area of the same floor, rather than straight out of the building. It works, but only if staff know in advance who needs what help, how many staff that takes and what equipment to use.
Inspectors will also look at this. Under CQC's Safe key question, the "Safe environments" quality statement covers whether the premises and equipment are safe and well maintained. Fire safety records are some of the easiest evidence to show, and some of the easiest to let slip.
1. A PEEP for every resident, kept current
A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) records how a resident would be evacuated. It covers:
- their mobility and awareness;
- whether they would understand and respond to an alarm;
- how many staff they need;
- any equipment needed, such as an evacuation sledge, a wheelchair or a ski pad.
The most common problem isn't a missing PEEP. It's an out-of-date one. A resident who walked with a frame on admission may now need two staff and a sledge after a fall or a hospital stay. If their PEEP hasn't been reviewed, the plan your staff are relying on is wrong.
Good practice:
- Review the PEEP whenever needs change. This includes after a fall, a hospital admission, a change in mobility or a new diagnosis, as well as at a regular review date.
- Think about nights separately. Some residents are more confused, sedated or harder to wake at night. Plan for the help they'd need at 3am, not 3pm.
- Make it visible. A PEEP in a filing cabinet in the manager's office doesn't help a bank night carer on their first shift.
2. An evacuation register you can hand to the fire service
When the fire service arrives, the first questions are who is in the building, where they are and who needs help to get out. An evacuation register answers all three at a glance. It's a single list of every resident, room by room, with their evacuation needs.
It needs to be:
- in room order, so it matches how crews and staff move through the building;
- complete, with anyone who doesn't have a PEEP clearly flagged;
- current, printed from today's records rather than last year's.
Keep a printed copy in the fire folder or grab bag. Reprint it whenever a resident is admitted, moves room or has their PEEP updated.
3. Know who else is on site
Residents and staff aren't the only people in the building. Visitors, visiting professionals and contractors all need to be accounted for in a roll call. A paper visitors' book by the front door is easy to forget in an emergency, and it often doesn't show who has already left.
4. Routine checks, recorded every time
Most fire safety failures found on inspection aren't dramatic. They're gaps in routine records:
- Fire alarm: a weekly test of a call point (BS 5839-1 recommends weekly testing), with the call point used rotated each week.
- Emergency lighting: a monthly function test and an annual full-duration test (BS 5266-1).
- Fire extinguishers: a regular visual check that each one is in place, in date, undamaged and unobstructed.
- Fire doors: they close fully on their own, aren't propped or wedged open, and have intact seals.
- Escape routes: kept clear, and in winter that includes outside routes, gates and paths.
- Fire drills: include drills that reflect night-time staffing, so the night team has practised with the numbers they'll actually have.
If a check was done but not written down, inspectors have no evidence it happened. If it was written down but nobody followed up the fault it found, that's arguably worse.
How BoolCare helps
We've recently added several features built around exactly this:
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PEEP form. A quick, tap-based PEEP that suggests a Green, Amber or Red category from the answers, with space for night-time differences. A resident's current PEEP shows on a PEEP tab on their profile, with a badge next to their name (for example "PEEP: Red · 2 staff"). Every member of staff can see it, because everyone needs it in a fire. Each update is kept as a new version, and the report shows what changed since the last one.
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Evacuation register. Under Reports, a printable register of every resident's current PEEP for a home, in room order, highlighting anyone without one. It prints on one page for the fire folder or the fire service.
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Maintenance & Fire Safety forms. Ready-made checks in the form library include:
- Fire Alarm Check
- Fire Extinguisher Check
- Emergency Lighting Check
- Door Access Check
- External Gate & Door Check
Each can be scheduled, so staff can see what's due.
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Visitor Sign-In module. Visitors and contractors sign in and out on a tablet at reception, and staff can pull up a fire roll call of everyone still on site.
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Maintenance module. Faults found during a check can be reported, tracked and signed off, so a failed emergency light doesn't stay failed.
Visitor Sign-In and Maintenance are optional modules. Like all our modules, you can switch them on in Settings at no extra cost.
A quick winter checklist
Before the clocks go back:
- Check every resident has a PEEP, and that it was reviewed after any recent change in their needs.
- Make sure night-time needs are recorded where they differ from daytime.
- Print a fresh evacuation register and put it in the fire folder.
- Look back over the last three months of fire alarm, emergency lighting and extinguisher checks. Are there gaps?
- Book a drill that reflects your night staffing levels.
- Walk your escape routes, inside and out, in the dark.
Fire safety is one area where good records and good care are the same thing. Knowing exactly how to get each resident out safely is what keeps them safe on the night.
This article is general guidance, not legal or fire safety advice. Always follow your own fire risk assessment, and speak to a competent fire safety professional or your local fire and rescue service about your home's arrangements.