Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Introduction to Fire Safety Management
Figure 11.8 The senior managers of an organisation must
review the outcomes from the active monitoring systems
‘in-depth’ process than conducting a fi re safety inspection
or a check on the contents and completeness of a
fi re safety manual or log book.
It is very likely that during the audit process fi re
safety auditors will use some or all of the methods for
monitoring performance described previously and that
audit fi ndings may well include performance indicators
such as the results of inspections, and performance
measurement data that includes both reactive and
proactive monitoring.
The key differences between monitoring performance
and auditing are:
➤ It always involves active or proactive monitoring
➤ It is carried out by either independent external auditors
or employees without line management responsibility
for the site or activities being audited
➤ It is carried out in order to provide an independent
input into the safety management review process
leading to continual improvement
➤ A scoring or measuring system is always used.
The overall purpose of an audit is to measure performance
against a standard, in this case the safety management
system against an organisation’s policy or a
standard such as HSG65 or OHSAS 18001. The results
of the audit provide an effective feedback loop that
enables an organisation to measure its effectiveness of
the safety management and areas of weakness that may
require attention.
In general, safety auditing comprises an assessment
of parts, or all, of the safety management system.
Typically, the safety auditor or audit team may:
➤ Carry out a comprehensive audit of the whole safety
management system or
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Audit
The structured process of collecting independent
information on the effi ciency, effectiveness
and reliability of the total health and
safety management system and drawing up
plans for corrective action.
HSG65
➤ Look at a horizontal slice, e.g. an audit of the ‘organising’
element in the system or
➤ Look at a vertical slice where the arrangements to
control a specifi c hazard, as in the case of fi re, are
audited in terms of the policy, organisation, planning
and implementing, measurement and review processes
in relation to fi re safety management.
The aim of conducting a fi re safety audit is to establish
that appropriate management arrangements are in place
such as the provision of a formal policy, arrangements
for staff training, adequate risk control systems (such
as regular fi re safety inspections and testing of fi xed fi re
fi ghting systems) exist and that they are being implemented
and that other workplace precautions (preventive
and protective measures) such as fl ammable stores,
permits to work and fi re doors are in place.
An effective auditing programme will be able to
provide a comprehensive picture of exactly how
effectively and effi ciently the fi re safety management
system is controlling fi re risks. The programme should
also identify when and how each of the component parts
of the system will be audited. Due to the technical nature
of some of the workplace precautions (e.g. detection and
alarm systems, sprinklers, etc.) these may be required to
be audited on a more frequent basis than other elements
of the system and the auditing process should refl ect this.
11.4.1 Key stages of an audit
For an audit to be effective it must be based on a sound
foundation and will generally include the following key
stages:
➤ Agreeing a protocol:
➤ Ideally a protocol should be developed and utilised
when undertaking audits. This protocol is a
documented set of procedures and instructions,
which is used to plan and organise the audit. It
provides a step-by-step guide for the audit team
and forms the framework in which audit is undertaken,
providing the necessary guidance to the
team on how the audit should be carried out.