NAHFO ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2011 FIRE EVACUATION IN MENTAL HEALTH – the Right Mix? By Alan Briggs Fire Safety Specialist

ABOUT THE TRUST - 1 Established on 1 April 2001 One of only 3 Trusts of its kind in the country providing the entire range of specialist mental heath services Services include:- – Mental Health services for adults and older people – People with Learning difficulties – People with Substance misuse (drugs and alcohol) problems – Low Secure Services at Rathbone Hospital in Liverpool – Medium Secure Services at Scott Clinic in Rainhill, St Helens – High Secure Services based at Ashworth Hospital in Maghull, Liverpool – Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Rathbone Hospital in Liverpool

ABOUT THE TRUST - 2 Contact with over 284,000 service users or carers per year Direct care to 21,200 people per year Employs 4,700 staff Dispersed across 34 sites (owned/rented) Has 700 in-patient beds on 13 sites Makes 45,000 outpatient attendances 18,000 day hospital attendances Serves population of one million for Liverpool, Sefton & Kirkby for community and secondary care Provides Medium Secure Services for Merseyside and Cheshire Provides High Secure Services for the North of England and Wales

The Area We Cover

SERVICE DELIVERY Seven Clinical Business Units (CBU’s):- Addiction Services (Drugs/Alcohol) High Secure Services (Ashworth Hospital) Liverpool (Mental health services in Liverpool inc. PICU) Positive Care Partnerships (Mental heath services in Sefton, Kirkby and North Liverpool) Rebuild (Learning difficulties, community residential/supported housing, respite services and brain injury rehabilitation) Safe Partnerships (Medium and low secure Services and criminal justice liaison teams) Specialist Management Services (All support services inc. fire safety)

FIRE SAFETY IN MERSEY CARE Executive Director – Pending Steve Bradbury – Head of Risk & Resilience Trust Fire Safety Team Fire Safety Specialist & Team Leader - Alan Briggs tel Fire Safety Advisor - Mike Hamilton tel Fire Safety Advisor - Mike Farrell tel

FIRE SAFETY – the set up Five Year Forward Plan 2009 – 2014 (approved by Board) Fire Safety Policy Fire Safety Management Group Fire Link Persons in each CBU Annual Performance Reports to the Trust Board New Trust Fire Safety Team And ALL staff

What Programmes do we deliver? IT’S A CHALLENGE!!! Annual Fire Risk Assessment Programme (172) Annual Fire Evacuation Drill Programme (180) – inc. night time visits Annual Fire Safety Training Programme (188) – Induction (23) – Mandatory (72) – Fire Warden (41) – Fire Marshall (27) – Fire Fighting Equipment (16) – Evac+ Chair (9)

WHAT ELSE DO WE DELIVER? Administrate the Fire Safety Management Group Fire Investigations Liaison with Estates/Consultants on new builds/refurbs Liaison with Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service – Emergency Response – Major Exercise planning, 7.2.d visits – Community Fire Safety – Pilot Project for Service users in their homes – Legislative Fire Safety – Fire Safety Audits and Unwanted Fire Signal reduction initiatives Oversee Fire Safety Audits for each CBU Respond to Specific requests for advice, etc.

What is our Fire Safety MIX? Just about the same as any other NHS Fire Safety Team BUT with particular emphasis on the following:- Emergency egress and security– promoting the correct (key) culture – Keys for doors – Fobs for doors – Key pads for doors – Mag locks Fire Alarm Cause & Effect Matrix – must be right!!! Fire Alarm Sounders – voice alert, especially where we have introduced progressive horizontal evacuation (lower dB(A) – more sounders)

Our Fire Safety Mix – cont. Extended Fire Alarm systems in In-Patient areas upgraded to L1 Plus –Toilet Bathroom areas not covered inc. 90 second delays and voice warning Key operated manual call points (staff fully involved in evac drills) Are our detectors in situ (regular staff fire safety checks - documented) Extra Fire Alarm Repeater Panels Improved Fire Zones Plans (orientation) New Trust-wide Fire Alarm Panel Address logic – linked to Estates policy Staff Panic Alarm system addressed as per the Fire Alarm system Improved Emergency Lighting Extra (Sub) Compartmentation – to aid what can be a difficult evacuation – Next Stage - considering unique solutions for unique situations Introduction of PEEPS Improved Staff fire safety training programmes (all evaluated)

IS THE MIX RIGHT? It appears so at present:- 70% reductionfires – 70% reduction in the number of fires over a three year period – now running at about 1 per month 25% reductionfalse alarms – 25% reduction in the number of false alarms over a two year period training course evaluation 4.4 out of 5 – Overall Fire Safety training course evaluation averaging 4.4 out of 5 (very, very good) No deaths – No deaths Two injuries to staff – Two injuries to staff (smoke inhalation) Adverse (fire) incident reporting – Improved Adverse (fire) incident reporting

SIMPLY - ITS ABOUT

THANK YOU & STAY (Fire) SAFE!! Alan Briggs Trust Fire Safety Specialist T: M: