No one would doubt the importance of fire safety compliance across the school estate. Getting it right matters but in too many cases fire safety in schools is treated more as a periodic assessment exercise rather than a practice that should be woven into the organisational fabric of the organisation. That means achieving compliance through continuous organisational control, rather than periodic tick boxing exercises.
I spend most of my working life advising and supporting schools and trusts to stay on top of their health and safety obligations. Fire safety is a big part of that work.
When I begin working with schools and trusts I’ve found that a recurring challenge is not always the absence of fire risk assessments (FRAs), but a lack of systems to ensure that the actions arising from them are clearly and consistently managed and completed. One indication is if trusts and schools continue to commission fire risk assessments every two to three years without fully addressing the findings of previous reports. An FRA does not make a building safe. Completing the actions does.
Fire safety compliance accountability
Fire risk assessments are typically spread across a wide range of roles. Estates teams are commonly responsible for fire doors and compartmentation, catering teams for equipment safety and teaching staff for classroom displays and storage. Evacuation assistance is often down to support staff, while senior leaders might be responsible for prioritisation, training, policies and procedures or this could be a MAT level responsibility.
This can lead to confusing lines of accountability, blurring ownership of fire safety responsibilities and compromising the school or trust’s sincere intent to be truly compliant. They might be compliant on paper, but the reality doesn’t quite match up. Lower-level actions, such as training and housekeeping, can be overlooked while higher cost items such as fire door replacement or compartmentation works are deferred. In many cases, issues such as defective fire doors or missing door closers appear in multiple assessments, despite being critical to preventing the spread of fire and supporting safe evacuation.
Another often overlooked area is organisational capability during non-routine events. Many schools can evidence routine compliance activity such as annual fire risk assessments (FRA), alarm tests and basic training, but staff are not always equipped to recognise when a fire safety issue has escalated beyond normal operational management.
For example, we support a trust that asked us to delay its FRA programme for operational reasons. A fire then occurred at one of the schools, and the Trust did not inform us. After a fire, it is common practice to review the premises FRA. The incident only came to light four months after the fire and two days before a visit from the Fire & Rescue Service to check if measures were in place to prevent future fires. We supported the MAT by scheduling an FRA as soon as possible.
This is a case which I think highlights an important governance issue: the challenge is often not the absence of compliance activity, but the absence of escalation pathways, operational awareness, and confidence in managing changing fire risk conditions. Where there is ongoing visibility of actions, through mechanisms such as central dashboards, regular review points and clear escalation pathways, progress improves significantly.
I believe that improving fire safety in education settings requires a shift in approach. Rather than treating fire risk assessments as periodic compliance exercises, trusts must develop a continuous fire risk management capability. This includes clear allocation of responsibilities, live tracking of actions, leadership oversight and alignment with wider organisational risk management and capital planning.
Without this, the same risks will continue to be identified but not resolved and the gap between compliance and real fire safety will, troublingly, remain.
Isthar Pearce is Head of Health, Safety and Fire Safety at Judicium. Judicium’s specialist compliance and operational support helps schools and trusts meet regulatory requirements, reduce risks, and create a safe environment for students, staff, and visitors. www.judiciumeducation.co.uk/health-and-safety
