PPL Training, one of the UK’s leading providers of Safe Systems of Work and technical compliance training – including for healthcare estates management and healthcare engineering personnel – has recently expanded its already wide-ranging training offer with a number of new fire safety training courses. On a recent visit to the company’s impressive York facilities, HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, discovered what led it to begin offering courses covering key fire safety topics such as fire-stopping and fire door survey and inspection. He also met Senior Fire Safety Training consultant, Richard Parker-Wood, who will lead the courses.
During two one-day conferences held at its York training facilities on 9 and 10 November last year, PPL Training not only highlighted the extent and speed of its growth over the last decade, but also provided delegates from the commercial facilities management sector, on the first of the two days, and healthcare engineering and estate management and associated personnel on the second, with some valuable guidance on a range of key fire safety topics.
During two one-day conferences held at its York training facilities on 9 and 10 November last year, PPL Training not only highlighted the extent and speed of its growth over the last decade, but also provided delegates from the commercial facilities management sector, on the first of the two days, and healthcare engineering and estate management and associated personnel on the second, with some valuable guidance on a range of key fire safety topics.
The company’s MD, Gary Cooper MIHEEM, Tech IOSH, MSOE, MIPlantE, a qualified and multi-skilled mechanical engineer with 30 years’ experience in military and commercial environments, and a practising AE for Mechanical and Confined Spaces, explained – on welcoming attendees to the ‘Effective Management of fire safety in healthcare premises’ conference – that PPL has been in business for 17 years, and is regarded as one of the UK’s leading providers of specialist training in Safe Systems of Work and technical engineering compliance. Its courses cover topics ranging from high and low voltage electrical, medical gas pipeline systems, ventilation, and working at height / in confined spaces, to Legionella management and risk awareness, mechanical and pressure systems, and working on equipment containing fluorinated gases.
The company is also a provider of City & Guilds-accredited airfield lighting training courses. To this extensive portfolio – with the heightened focus on fire safety in public premises, and especially high-rise ‘residential’ buildings, since 2017’s Grenfell Tower fire – PPL has now added a range of fire safety training courses. In healthcare these are aimed squarely at those whose work entails installing fire safety products, inspecting and auditing them, and maintaining them in ‘a suitable and sufficient condition’ to ensure that in the event of a blaze, they prevent fire spread, and protect the building’s occupants until help arrives.
A combined approach
PPL’s training model combines classroombased tuition from experts, with handson practical training in a series of well-equipped rooms on the ground floor of each of the discipline-specific training buildings. Gary Cooper explained that its trainers possess considerable knowledge and expertise; some of its water safety trainers, for instance, have worked in the field for over 30 years. The combination of classroom tuition and practical handson training is designed to ensure that a delegate on, for example, the Fire and Smoke Damper Survey and Inspection course, not only goes away with good theoretical knowledge on how different types of mechanical and motorised fire and smoke dampers operate, how to maintain them, and any potential problem areas, but also having spent time handling a variety of such devices within the ground floor fire safety training area This, Gary Cooper explained, is especially valuable for those in hospitals tasked with inspecting and maintaining them, or with arranging their inspection and maintenance by external contractors. In some cases, those undertaking fire / smoke damper training might have never encountered such devices, and would gain some invaluable practical experience with them during their training.
Recent recruit from the fire service
At the ‘Effective Management of Fire Safety’ conference on 10 November, which was complemented by an exhibition, one of the speakers was Richard Parker-Wood, who recently joined PPL Training to lead the company’s new fire safety training after an 11-year spell with Humberside Fire & Rescue Service. There he gained considerable experience inspecting a range of premises to determine their compliance, or otherwise, with fire safety legislation. Appointed as PPL Training’s Senior Fire Safety Training consultant in November 2021, he was charged with establishing a suite of fire safety courses and, at least initially, delivering them himself. In coming months he hopes to recruit additional staff to help him deliver the training, which is predominantly offered at one of PPL Training’s three sites, in York, Slough, and Livingston in West Lothian, but can also – if say, an NHS Trust requires this – be given at the customer’s premises.
Gary Cooper explained that a combination of factors had seen the business decide to extend its training portfolio with a range of fire safety courses – not least the increasing focus on fire safety in high-rise buildings following the Grenfell Tower fire, Dame Judith Hackitt’s subsequent report, Building a Safer Future: Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Final Report, published in May 2018, and the resulting public enquiry.
An even brighter spotlight on fire safety
He said: “The Grenfell Tower fire, and Dame Judith Hackitt’s report, have shone an even brighter spotlight on fire safety, especially in multi-level buildings, of which there many across the NHS. There are also a number of quite complex pieces of legislation and guidance around fire safety for healthcare which healthcare personnel need to be cognisant of – including the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005, HTMs 05-01, 05-02 and 05-03, and a number of British Standards. With the considerable additional focus on fire safety, and the competence of those responsible for it in all types of public buildings, we felt we had a duty to offer courses covering this vital area.”
By way of context, he explained: “We now have five buildings here in York, and essentially occupy about half of this trading estate. We originally had just one, and have expanded our operation and staffing significantly over the past five years as our training portfolio has grown. In Slough we have a similar set-up, although a little more condensed, and on both sites the buildings are now disciplinespecific. We also have a small building in Livingston with four classrooms and practical training facilities.”
HTM-based
“To date,” Gary Cooper continued, “our healthcare-related training has addressed key areas covered by, for instance, HTM 06, HTM 04, HTM 02, and HTM 03, and we were keen to further broaden our offering. Unit 8 here on the York Business Park became available, and we wanted to make the best use of it. One thing we decided to do was to use it to expand our high voltage electrical training, the facilities for which now occupy half of the building. However, for the aforementioned reasons, and having talked to IHEEM, people out in industry, and some of the ventilation AEs, we identified a gap in existing fire safety training. IHEEM’s Fire Safety Technical Platform has also issued technical guidance on fire compartmentation, fire door PPM, and fire and smoke damper maintenance. We thus began investigating establishing a training facility which could address the discipline, and this is what you now see.”
Second facility in Slough
PPL Training has had the fire safety training facilities in York – classrooms and a ground floor practical training – operational since last April. It is currently fitting out a second building in Slough with similar facilities, and in time hopes to augment the fire safety training in York and Slough with a similar offering in Scotland. Gary Cooper explained: “To lead our fire safety training we wanted an individual with great hands-on experience and expertise. We were thus delighted to be able to recruit Richard Parker-Wood from Humberside Fire & Rescue Service as our new Senior Fire Safety Training consultant.”
Opening presentation
Richard Parker-Wood in fact gave the day’s opening presentation following Gary Cooper’s welcome, focusing on ‘The role of the Responsible Person within healthcare premises’. Among the topics he covered were the key fire safety legislation in healthcare premises – most notably the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, HTM 05-01, HTM 05-02, and HTM 05-03, and several British standards, the role and remit of the various staff responsible for fire safety in healthcare facilities; establishing and documenting an effective fire safety policy and protocol; the need for regular fire door and fire / smoke damper inspection and maintenance; the importance of effective fire-stopping; the requirement for regular fire risk assessments by properly trained personnel, and the varying fire risk levels in healthcare premises of different sizes and with patients of differing acuity. He also discussed the role and remit of Fire Safety Committee; the enforcement powers of external bodies such as the Fire and Rescue Services or the Health & Safety Executive in the event of breaches, and where the ‘buck’ stops in the event of legal action, and the need for regular communication with the local fire and rescue service.
Questions from an informed audience
His wide-ranging presentation – which generated considerable interest from an informed audience – also touched on the levels of knowledge, experience, and expertise required by individuals such as a Trust’s Fire Safety Adviser and Fire Safety Manager, the ‘key steps’ for a thorough fire risk assessment – including identifying the hazards (for example ignition, fuel, and oxygen sources needed to be looked at, and accounted for), identifying the people at risk, evaluating the risks, and removing, reducing, and protecting against them, recording the actions taken, and then informing, instructing, and training the relevant staff, before reviewing all the actions taken. He also highlighted the wide range of personnel – from a Board-level director with overarching responsibility for fire safety in an NHS Trust, to part-time agency nursing or catering staff, who can all play a role in minimising fire risk in a healthcare facility, and emphasised the importance of an effective evacuation plan tailored to the condition of patients with differing levels of dependency.
The day’s conference programme also included a look, by Alan Oliver of Golden Thread Fire, at fire-stopping and compartmentation, a lunchtime tour of PPL’s practical training facilities on the York Business Park, a presentation at ‘Emergency lighting systems and total cost of ownership’ by Lee Halliday and Harry Russell of Eaton Electrical Systems (whose emergency lighting features in Unit 8 at PPL Training’s York base), and a detailed focus on ‘Ventilation and Fire and Smoke Dampers’ by Shaun Sutton of Air Projects.
Goals and ambitions in the role
The day after the conference, I caught up with Richard Parker-Wood to find out what attracted him to the new role, and ask him about his plans and goals leading PPL Training’s fire safety training. He explained: “I was recruited last November, having previously spent 11 years with Humberside Fire and Rescue Service. I started my time there in the administration team at the Service’s Health and Safety Office, before progressing to become an Inspecting officer within the Technical Fire Safety area. After five years I was promoted to manage two teams – responsible for Business Safety and Technical Safety, covering two geographical areas within the region.”
He continued: “I effectively started at the bottom within the inspecting arena, visiting commercial premises, and assessing compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The role involved checking that building occupiers / owners were complying with the RRO, had undertaken ‘suitable and sufficient’ fire risk assessments, that their management of fire safety was sufficiently thorough, and that they had appropriate firefighting and fire detection equipment in place. In my early days I was visiting offices, hotels, shops, factories, and shopping centres.”
Management role
As he progressed to a management role, he assumed responsibility for higherrisk and more complex facilities, such as larger shopping centres, sports stadia, and hospitals, giving him his first experience of the healthcare arena. He said: “As an Inspecting officer, I still dealt with GP practices and other smaller medical facilities, but as I built up my knowledge, I gained sufficient expertise to be able to effectively inspect large hospitals. Under the Regulatory Reform Order, the onus for fire safety compliance is on the Responsible Person. So, as an Inspecting officer going into a hospital, I would report back on my findings to, say, that individual at a Trust, whether via an informal or a formal notification, depending on the level of risk, and what we found. If there were sufficiently serious issues, there would be a possibility of enforcement notices, and, further down the line, a prohibition notice, which could mean closing off part or all of a building, or restricting its use. Fortunately, I never had to go down that route with a healthcare facility.”
I asked who had been present in healthcare premises when fire safety meetings or site visits were conducted. Richard Parker-Wood said: “It was occasionally the Fire Safety Adviser, but in the NHS was mainly the Fire Safety manager / Fire Safety officer.” He went on to explain, in answer to my next question – on the level of experience Fire Safety managers in healthcare typically possess – that, ‘historically’, many such personnel were former Fire & Rescue Service personnel. However, this trend that had started to wane as his spell with the Humberside Fire & Rescue Service went on. He said: “The Fire Safety managers who had previously been with a fire service had a high level of knowledge regarding operations and the communication side of things, and knew what to expect during a fire incident. They were thus well able to effectively manage a fire should one occur. Latterly, I found myself dealing with a much younger clientele – in terms of Fire Safety managers / officers. These tended to be very well educated, and had all the necessary information and tools at their disposal. It was just that lack of actual on-site experience that could occasionally result in communication problems.”
Good back-up
Fortunately, Richard Parker-Wood acknowledged, most Fire Safety managers had the greater experience and knowledge of a Fire Safety adviser to call on. He explained: “Fire Safety advisers in NHS Trusts typically deal with the technical, policy, and practical issues, and are in control of elements including fire risk assessments, staff training, development, and implementation packages. I would expect the Fire Safety adviser to have sound technical knowledge around the key guidance and legislation and its application. Indeed, a Fire Safety manager doesn’t necessarily need to have comprehensive fire safety competencies, provided they have access to suitable fire safety advice around them, which is where the Fire Safety adviser comes in.”
Here I switched focus by asking Richard Parker-Wood about PPL Training’s reasons for recruiting him. He said: “PPL had undertaken research into some of the most prevalent fire safety-related issues, and of course IHEEM had issued some safety bulletins on topics including fire / smoke dampers and fire doors. The company felt there was an opportunity – in fact almost an obligation – to begin offering courses on some of the key fire safety issues, and Gary Cooper had identified this as part of his future vision for the business. Coincidentally, I had reached a point where it was time to move on, and the importance of fire safety training really resonated with me. I felt I had the passion to bring it to life as a trainer.”
Fitting out
Richard Parker-Wood took up his new role at PPL around the same time that the company began fitting out Unit 8 with classrooms on the first floor, and the practical training area on the ground floor. It began offering fire safety training courses last April. I asked him about some of the key facilities within the practical training area. He said: “PPL’s aim – as in all our buildings – was to create an environment where delegates could handle all the major components they would encounter in a real building. Starting with fire doors, the practical training area features a range of fire doors with different fire resistance ratings and smoke stopping capabilities, and a variety of glazing systems, plus some of the associated hardware and components. There are doors with excellent structural integrity, and some damaged and worn doors which would not be fit for purpose in a large hospital. There is also a range of motorised and mechanical fire and smoke dampers, with different methods of operation as regards the fusible links, and examples of both good and poor fitting and operation. We also have examples of fire-stopping – from the very good to the very bad, to clearly demonstrate to delegates good and bad practice in the fire-stopping of pipes, cables, or anything else that they will encounter.”.
Richard Parker-Wood’s experience was that firestopping wasn’t always done well. I asked him who the onus falls on to ensure that it is undertaken to a high standard. He said: “I would say it’s the responsibility of everyone involved – from initial design, all the way through to installation and sign-off. Any fire-stopping put into a building should be inspected at more than one stage to ensure that it is ‘suitable and sufficient’.”
Fire safety training courses
I next asked him to detail some of the key fire safety training courses PPL Training is already offering. He said: “The range of courses will be continuously expanded, but currently, for example, we’re offering a one-day Fire Safety Responsible Person Introduction course, with one version specifically for healthcare, and a second for the commercial world. We also offer a one-day Fire Door Survey and Inspection course, which we see as relevant both to Estates & Facilities personnel responsible for fire door maintenance, and heads of department in, say, an acute or district hospital, as well as fire wardens involved in fire safety checks.” Richard Parker-Wood said that while fire doors weren’t – in his experience – intentionally neglected in healthcare premises, especially given the number of them in some large hospitals, ‘people just probably take them for granted’.
He elaborated: “To the uninitiated a fire door is just a way in and way out of a building, whereas those more educated on their function know they are a form of fire engineering, and integral to an effective fire compartment. Fire doors may also require smoke-stopping capabilities depending on their location and the inherent risk, which is down to the engineering of the hardware. These capabilities and, for example, 30 or 60-minute fire resistance, are designed and manufactured in in the factory.
“Many of the problems with fire doors in healthcare settings,” he continued, “are a result of the impact damage they suffer from trolleys, beds, and people walking into them. People in such environments tend to use beds or anything of that nature to open the doors, rather than opening them first and then taking the bed or trolley through. Fire doors thus need to be designed with features such as edge protection to protect them, especially in high traffic areas.”
Fire and smoke damper courses
Another fire safety course PPL Training offers is on Fire and Smoke Damper Inspection; it focuses – among other areas – on ensuring that such devices – whose correct operation is key to preventing fire and smoke spread through a building’s ventilation system – are functioning correctly. The fire safety training area includes ceilings where fire dampers above access panels are almost hidden behind other M&E services, simulating the access challenges some healthcare engineers maintaining such devices will encounter.
There is also a one-day Fire Stopping Survey & Inspection course, and a threeday Fire Safety Technical Awareness course, which Richard Parker-Wood explained would give an excellent grounding to those who had perhaps just been given responsibility for fire safety, but had little prior knowledge or expertise. As part of this course, delegates would not only learn about fire-stopping, fire doors, compartmentation, and fire and smoke dampers, but also about associated areas such as emergency and escape lighting and fire alarms.
Updating of guidance and legislation
Our discussion next moved to the updating of current fire safety legislation and guidance. Richard Parker-Wood noted in particular that the Building Safety Act, which gained Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, introduced a new Building Safety Regulator (BSR), to oversee the safety and performance of all buildings, with a special focus on high-rise buildings, and whose job it will be ‘to promote competence and organisational capability within the sector, including for building control professionals and tradespeople’. The BSR will regulate all buildings with seven or more storeys, or that are 18 metres or higher, and either have at least two residential units, or are hospitals or care homes (during design and construction). Also new under the Act is a National Construction Products Regulator (NRCP), who will ‘oversee a more effective construction products regulatory regime, and lead and co-ordinate market surveillance and enforcement in this sector across the UK’.
Clear lines of responsibility
The Act also stipulates that ‘Dutyholders’ such as the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor will be required to manage building safety risks, ‘with clear lines of responsibility during the design, construction, and completion, of all buildings’, while ‘Accountable Persons’ will need to demonstrate that they have ‘effective, proportionate measures in place to manage building safety risks in the higher-risk buildings for which they are responsible’. Those failing to meet their obligations may face criminal charges. Richard Parker-Wood added: “The Regulatory Reform Order 2005 is also being strengthened, with greater emphasis on the roles of the Responsible and Accountable Persons.” For residential premises in a higher-risk building (defined as a building in England that is at least 18 metres in height, or with at least seven storeys and containing at least two residential units), ‘RPs’ will be required to ‘take reasonable steps to ascertain if there is an Accountable Person in relation to the premises, and co-operate with them to enable them to carry out their duties under the Building Safety Bill’. The strengthening of the RRO will take account of the findings of the fire safety failings that contributed to the Grenfell Tower fire.
‘More important than ever’
My interviewee said as our discussion ended: “Our view at PPL Training is that it is now more important than ever to get the fire safety message out there – particularly in a high-risk environment such as healthcare, and the range of fire safety training courses we offer will not only reflect this, but will also evolve on an ongoing basis to ensure that we take into account changing legislation and guidance. Since we launched our first fire safety training courses last April, demand and interest in them has been high, and the likelihood for this year is that we will offer a combination of one and three-day courses on a six-weekly cycle to ensure that we can provide the right training to those who need it in this key area for healthcare personnel. The facilities we have here and in Slough will enable us to offer an unrivalled mix of classroom and practical training on all aspects of fire safety at a time when the focus on it has never been stronger.