Disability Rights Commission

Transcription

1 Disability Rights Commission Disability Rights Commission draft Fire Safety Guide response to Scottish Executive Introd uction The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is a non-departmental public body, established by statute in 1999 and launched in Our goal is a 'society where disabled people can participate fully as equal citizens'. We are committed to the effective delivery of disabled people's rights across Scotland and Great Britain. We welcome the opportunity to respond to the draft Fire Safety Guide. The DRC will frame its response on the issues that we feel are pertinent to disabled people and thus will not necessarily answer all the questions set in the review paper. 2. Legal Context From October 2004, service providers have had a duty to make a reasonable adjustment to their premises under Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act This includes making reasonable adjustments to a policy, practice or procedure to ensure a disabled person has the opportunity to accessing that service. Building managers including those responsible for providing residential care are subject to this duty. Public bodies are currently preparing for the disability equality duty due to come into effect in December The Duty is divided into six parts: the need to eliminate discrimination the need to eliminate harassment of disabled people the need to promote equality of opportunity between disabled and non-disabled people the need to take steps to take account of disabled people's disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled people more favourably than other people

2 the need to promote positive attitudes towards disabled people the need to encourage participation by disabled persons in public life. Public bodies that provide residential care, amongst others, will have a specific duty to prepare and publish a Disability Equality Scheme setting out how they will meet these duties under the Disability Discrimination Act This includes setting out how they will monitor and assess the impact their policies and procedures will have on promoting disability equality. In essence, the duty requires public authorities to design out discriminatory practices at the start of any policy planning process. This will have clear implications for a residential care provider's policy and procedures on fire safety. 3. Evidence of discrimination in sector During the fire fighters strike in 2002, evidence suggested that employers and service providers were failing to consider alternative arrangements to ensure the safety of disabled persons in the event of a fire. In some cases, service providers refused disabled persons entry to a building because they were uncertain of the evacuation procedures. 1 The introduction of Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 should dispel any confusion over responsibility for fire safety and ensure that building managers fulfil their legal obligations. 4. Policy proposals We understand the paramount importance that service providers ensure the safe evacuation of all residents, staff and visitors from a fire. Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 places a duty on service providers and employers to ensure the safety of persons in the premises in regard to harm caused by fire. This relates to employees, residents, visitors or others. 1 Disability Rights Commission, 2002, drc.org. uklnewsroom/newsdetails.asp?id=205&section=2

3 The guide offers detailed advice on the steps necessary to meet the law and to ultimately ensure the safety of all persons within a residential care premise. It offers a comprehensive step by step guidance of assessing those at risk and the potential causes of a fire, advice on training of staff to deal specifically with residents, methods of detecting and giving warning of a fire and measures for reducing the risk of a fire. 5. DRC Comment on policy proposals The DRC welcomes the advice the draft Fire Safety Guide offers to providers of residential care. We believe that the advice takes account of disabled people's needs in regard to the risk assessment, detection, warning and evacuation in fire safety. The step by step guidance on Fire Safety Risk Assessment addresses the needs of residents in regard to their ability to evacuate from a fire safely. In particular, it recognises that a resident's health condition or impairment will determine how they are evacuated from the premises by guidance, unaided or fully assisted. However, this only offers a brief assessment of determining a resident's need for and type of assistance required. A holistic approach to determining a resident's evacuation requirements based on their individual needs should therefore be adopted rather than one based on a medical model. The guidance needs to clearly outline or make reference to other advice concerning how residential care providers shall determine the need for and type of assistance required for residents. It is important that a Personal Evacuation Needs plan is drawn up for each resident and takes account of their varying needs over time. This should ensure that the evacuation procedures are carried out effectively and residents in addition to staff and visitors are able to exit from a fire safely. Under Managing Fire Safety, residential care providers are expected to have in place comprehensive fire safety policies and procedures. It covers a wide variety of issues that need to be addressed in fire safety. Issues such as arrangements for training, where residents should be taken after evacuation and evacuation procedures should address the varying needs of disabled residents. Although the guide takes account of the need for progressive evacuation where there are Ihigh dependency' residents, it should specifically take account of those with

4 progressive mobility, chronic, sensory and mental health impairments. For example, residents with multiple sclerosis or arthritis will require extended time to evacuate the building. Such issues need to be built into the evacuation procedures. Training of staff to safely evacuate all residents, other staff and visitors from the premises is vital. We agree that training should be provided to staff involved in the evacuation of residents requiring assistance on the methods to achieve this and the use of equipment. Whilst recognising that this is essential, we consider that training in dealing with any residents suffering panic attacks or epileptic shock as a result of a fire is also important. Part 3 places a responsibility on employers to provide training to staff on what to do in the event of a fire. The Fire and Rescue Service do not have a duty to provide training on fire safety. This will have implications for providers because they will have to seek trainers that may not have the relevant experience or qualifications to teach staff how to assist disabled residents or how to use evacuation equipment properly. This will ultimately impact upon the safety of disabled residents to exit from a fire. We therefore recommend that a list of qualified trainers is made available to care providers. Practice fire drills are important to ensuring that a residential care provider's emergency evacuation plan works effectively. In addition to staff, residents should be involved in the practice drills to measure the effectiveness of the evacuation procedures. In particular, disabled residents requiring assistance or use of evacuation equipment should be considered a high priority to ensure that the equipment works and that they are able to evacuate safely. The guide identifies a number of crucial factors determining the means of escape and measures for ensuring such means can be used. It is vital that the needs of disabled residents are taken into account in determining if the escape routes are appropriate and also the amount of time each resident requires for evacuation. As stated previously, the nature of a resident's mobility, chronic, sensory or mental health impairment will affect how and how long it will take to exit safely from a fire. Furthermore, we agree that signs with essential fire safety information should be in a format and size that is accessible to those with a visual impairment and also, at an appropriate height.

5 In conclusion, the guide offers practical and comprehensive advice to residential care providers on fire safety and takes into account the factors affecting the needs of disabled residents. However, we feel that further consideration should be made in regard to the varying levels of mobility, chronic, sensory or mental health impairments that affect those at risk, their means of escape and their requirements for safe evacuation. For further information please contact Chris Oswald, ORC Scotland,

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