A Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) is an organised and methodical look at your premises, the activities carried out there and the likelihood that a fire could start and cause harm to those in and around the premises.​The aims of the fire risk assessment are:​

• To identify the fire hazards.​
• To reduce the risk of those hazards causing harm to as low as reasonably practicable.​
• To decide what physical fire precautions and management arrangements are necessary to ensure the safety of people in your premises if a fire does start.​

FRAs are re-assessed on a formal basis every two to three years depending on the level of risk at the premises. FRAs should be reviewed by the responsible person/Head teacher on a regular basis to ensure that they are still relevant for the site.

Triggers For Revisiting your Assessment

Certain events or changes in your premises should trigger a re-assessment of your Fire Risk Assessment, regardless of the time elapsed since the last review. These factors include:

• Recommendation by the Fire Risk Assessor or the assessment itself.
• Suspicions that the assessment is no longer valid.
• Structural alterations to the building, both internal and external.
• Occurrence of a fire-related incident, emergency, or accident.
• Damage to fire safety equipment (passive or active measures).
• Inadequate maintenance of fire safety provisions.
• Significant changes in personnel or an increase in staff members with disabilities or young employees.
• Modifications to equipment, machinery, furniture, or fixtures.
• Introduction or changes in the storage of hazardous substances.
• Changes in legislation or guidelines.

If any of these triggers apply to your premises, please contact the Fire Risk Assessment team via email as soon as possible to arrange a re-visit: scfiresafety@somerset.gov.uk

Pre-check questionnaire

Our Fire Risk Assessment team have recently introduced a pre-check questionnaire which they are emailing out to the school a few weeks prior to the site visit. This allows the team to gather information such as who is the responsible person and approximate total number of occupants present in the building. It is important that this form is completed and returned to scfiresafety@somerset.gov.uk promptly.

Learn more:

Workplace Fire Safety Policy
Recording Fire drills for schools on Civica is now termly
F10 Fire Forms
Guidance sheets for Questionnaires (Annual Returns), Inspections and Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) actions in Civica
Updates and amendments to the Fire Safety Order (S156 Building Safety Act 2022)