Fire Risk Assessment for Care Homes in Nottingham | Nottingham Fire Assessments

Care Homes & Nursing Homes

Fire Risk Assessment for Care Homes in Nottingham

Specialist assessments for residential care, nursing homes and supported living. CQC Regulation 12 compliant. Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) for every resident. Written report issued within five working days.

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✓ CQC Regulation 12 compliant ✓ PEEP plans for every resident ✓ Progressive horizontal evacuation ✓ Sleeping risk specialists

Why Care Homes Need Specialist Fire Risk Assessments

Care homes and nursing homes are classified as sleeping risk premises under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — meaning residents may be asleep at the time of an incident and many will be unable to self-evacuate. This places care homes in the highest-risk category for fire safety regulation and scrutiny.

A standard commercial fire risk assessment is not sufficient for a care home. The assessment must specifically address the vulnerability of the resident population, the complexity of progressive horizontal evacuation strategies, oxygen storage risks, and the personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPs) required for every resident.

Nottinghamshire has a significant care sector, with registered care homes operating across Nottingham city, West Bridgford, Arnold, Gedling, Mansfield and the wider county. All are subject to CQC inspection and require a current, specialist fire risk assessment to demonstrate compliance with Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

CQC and Fire Safety — The Direct Link The Care Quality Commission has a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). Fire safety failures identified by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service are shared with CQC and can directly affect your CQC rating. An inadequate or absent fire risk assessment is not just a legal issue — it is a regulatory risk to your registration.

What Our Care Home Assessment Covers

Our assessors are experienced in the specific challenges of care home environments. Every assessment is produced to PAS 79-1:2020 and the Home Office guidance Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Residential Care Premises.

✓Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) — individual plans for every resident based on their mobility, cognitive ability and medical needs
✓Progressive horizontal evacuation strategy — phased movement to refuge areas on the same floor before full building evacuation
✓L1 automatic fire detection — full coverage of all areas including bedrooms, corridors, communal rooms and kitchens
✓Fire compartmentation — 30-minute and 60-minute fire resistance between bedrooms, corridors and service areas
✓Fire door compliance — self-closing devices, intumescent strips, vision panels and correct fire ratings on all bedroom and corridor doors
✓Oxygen storage and use — safe storage of cylinders, control of use near ignition sources
✓Commercial kitchen risks — deep fat fryers, extraction canopy condition, suppression systems
✓Laundry facilities — dryer filter maintenance, tumble dryer positioning, lint accumulation risk
✓Staff training assessment — fire marshal competency, evacuation drill records, staff knowledge of PEEPs
✓Smoking risk — designated areas, resident smoking policy, proximity to building
✓Night-time staffing levels — adequacy of staff on duty to complete assisted evacuation of all residents
✓Person-centred fire risk assessment (PCFRA) — documented consideration of each resident’s individual risk

Progressive Horizontal Evacuation — What It Means for Care Homes

Unlike a standard commercial building where occupants evacuate directly to outside, care homes use progressive horizontal evacuation. Residents move away from the fire compartment into an adjacent compartment on the same floor — a protected area separated by fire-resistant construction.

This strategy is essential because many care home residents cannot use stairs independently or quickly enough for a simultaneous evacuation of the whole building. The fire risk assessment must verify that the building’s compartmentation can sustain this strategy — that compartment walls, floors, doors and any penetrations (cables, pipes, ducts) provide the fire resistance required to keep residents safe in the refuge area while the fire is controlled.

Refuge Areas

The assessment identifies suitable refuge areas on each floor — spaces with adequate fire resistance, capacity for the expected number of residents and staff, and means of communication with the fire service.

Compartmentation Survey

We check the integrity of all compartment walls, service penetrations (cables, pipes, ducts through walls), door closers and glazing to confirm the 30 or 60-minute fire resistance is maintained.

Legislation Applicable to Care Homes

Legislation / Guidance	What It Requires
RR(FS)O 2005	Written fire risk assessment; responsible person must implement findings and keep assessment up to date
Health and Social Care Act 2008 — Regulation 12	Registered care providers must assess and mitigate risks to the health and safety of service users, including fire
Fire Safety Act 2021	Clarifies the RR(FS)O applies to structure, external walls and flat entrance doors of multi-occupied buildings
Building Safety Act 2022	Enhanced regime for higher-risk buildings (18m+); mandatory registration with the Building Safety Regulator
Home Office Guidance — Residential Care Premises	Sector-specific guidance on sleeping risk assessment, PEEPs, horizontal evacuation and staff training
PAS 79-1:2020	Best practice standard for fire risk assessments in occupied premises; sets out the methodology and report format

Care Home Fire Risk Assessment Pricing

Care home assessments are priced on the number of registered beds, the number of floors and the complexity of the building. All prices include the written fire risk assessment report and PEEP framework.

Care Home Size	Starting Price	Notes
Small — up to 20 registered beds	From £450	Single floor or simple layout
Medium — 21 to 50 beds	From £650	Multi-floor, full PEEP framework
Large — 51 to 80 beds	From £850	Complex layout, compartmentation survey
Very large — 80+ beds / nursing home	POA	Full compartmentation survey included

All care home assessments are carried out by assessors with demonstrable experience in sleeping risk premises and residential care environments. We do not send a generalist assessor to a care home.

Frequently Asked Questions

There is no fixed statutory interval, but care home assessments should be reviewed annually as a minimum. The assessment must be reviewed immediately after any material change — a change in resident profile, a building alteration, a new piece of equipment, or after any fire incident or near-miss. CQC inspectors will check that the assessment is current and that its findings have been acted upon.

A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) is a documented, individual plan for a resident who cannot evacuate the building without assistance. In care homes, the expectation is that every resident has an individual PEEP unless they are independently mobile and able to self-evacuate. The fire risk assessment must confirm that PEEPs are in place, up to date, and that staff are trained to implement them.

Technically yes, but the responsible person must ensure the assessor is competent for the specific premises type. The Home Office guidance for residential care premises sets out specific knowledge requirements — sleeping risk, PEEP methodology, progressive horizontal evacuation, oxygen storage and staff training assessment. A generalist assessor without experience in care environments may not identify all relevant risks, which could leave the responsible person exposed to enforcement action.

Yes, directly. CQC assesses safety under Well-Led and Safe domains. Fire safety falls under Regulation 12 (Safe Care and Treatment). The CQC-NFCC Memorandum of Understanding means fire safety failures identified by Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service are shared with CQC. An inadequate fire risk assessment, or one where actions have not been implemented, can result in a rating of Requires Improvement or Inadequate under the Safe domain.

What Actually Happens on the Day

The practical detail nobody publishes, because it is unglamorous and specific.

Do tenants need to be there?

No. For a standard Type 1 assessment we inspect communal areas — hallways, stairwells, shared kitchens, cellars, the external envelope. We do not need access to individual bedrooms for a communal-areas assessment, so nobody needs to take a day off. If a full assessment including individual rooms has been agreed, you will need to give tenants the statutory notice you would give for any other access.

What if a room is locked and nobody is in?

It gets recorded as not inspected, with the reason. That is honest, and it is better than a report that implies coverage that did not happen. If the un-inspected areas are material to the findings, we will say so and arrange a short return visit rather than guess.

What does the assessor need access to?

The consumer unit, the alarm panel if there is one, the loft hatch, the cellar, any plant or meter cupboards, and the bin store. In Nottingham the cellar matters more than most places — more on that below. If keys for any of these live with a letting agent, it is worth arranging them in advance; a locked meter cupboard is the single most common reason a visit runs long.

How long does it take?

A small HMO is usually 45 to 60 minutes on site. A 7-bed over three floors is closer to 90. A mid-sized care home is a half day. Anyone quoting twenty minutes for a multi-storey building is not doing the job properly.

When does the report arrive?

Five working days as standard. The delay is deliberate — writing a useful action plan takes longer than the inspection. If you have an enforcement deadline, say so upfront and we will work to it.

Six Questions to Ask Any Fire Risk Assessor

Ask these of us, and ask them of whoever else you are considering. A competent assessor will answer all six without hesitation.

1. What is your register number and tier?

Individual assessor competence is set out in BS 8674:2025 and reflected in the IFSM National Fire Risk Assessors Register, which has three tiers — Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. Intermediate covers typical commercial and residential premises. Advanced is for high-rise residential and complex healthcare. Note that the register moved away from the older “Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3” labels, so a site still using that language has not updated in a while.

2. What is your professional indemnity limit?

The assessment is a professional opinion you are relying on. If it is wrong and you act on it, their PI cover is what stands behind it. Ask for the figure, not just confirmation that cover exists.

3. Can I see a sample report?

This single question filters out most poor providers. You are looking for findings tied to specific locations in a building, a prioritised action plan with timescales, and language you can actually act on — not a checklist of yes/no boxes.

4. Have you assessed this building type before?

A 6-bed student HMO in Lenton and a 40-bed care home are not the same job. Sleeping risk premises, listed buildings and mixed-use conversions each require specific knowledge. Ask directly.

5. Do you sell the works you recommend?

If the answer is yes, the assessment is not independent. That is not automatically disqualifying — plenty of good firms do both — but you should know before you book, and you should price the remedial quote against the open market.

6. What type of assessment is this?

Assessments run from Type 1 to Type 4. Type 1 — a non-destructive inspection of communal areas — is the standard for most HMOs and blocks. Higher types involve opening up construction and cost considerably more. Make sure you are being quoted for, and are getting, the type your building actually needs.

Get a Free Care Home Fire Risk Assessment Quote

Tell us about your registered premises and a local assessor will get back to you with a fixed quote and a visit date.

Prefer to talk? Call 0115 647 8715 · lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.