Fire Risk Assessment for Care Homes: UK Assessor Guide

Care homes are among the highest-risk premises you will assess. The combination of sleeping occupants, limited mobility, cognitive impairment, and 24-hour staffing creates a fire safety profile that demands more from your assessment than any standard commercial premises.

This guide covers the specific requirements, common hazards, and regulatory framework you need when assessing care homes and supported living facilities in England and Wales.

Why Care Homes Carry Higher Risk

The risk factors are compounding:

• Sleeping occupants with reduced awareness. Many residents have dementia, hearing impairment, or reduced consciousness. They may not wake to an alarm or may become confused and disoriented.
• Limited mobility. Residents may use wheelchairs, walking frames, or be bedbound. Evacuation is slow and staff-dependent.
• Progressive horizontal evacuation. Rather than full building evacuation, care homes typically use a "stay put" policy with progressive horizontal evacuation — moving residents to an adjacent fire compartment. This relies on compartmentation being intact and staff knowing the procedure.
• 24-hour electrical load. Profiling beds, hoists, medical equipment, charging stations, and laundry facilities create continuous electrical demand.
• Oxygen and medical gases. Supplemental oxygen significantly increases fire risk where present.

Regulatory Framework

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to care homes as non-domestic premises. The responsible person (typically the registered manager or provider) must carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) registers and inspects care homes in England. CQC inspectors check fire safety documentation during inspections. An inadequate or outdated fire risk assessment is a regulatory finding that can affect the home's rating.

The Health and Safety Executive has published specific guidance for residential care premises: "Fire safety risk assessment: residential care premises" (available on gov.uk). This supplements PAS 79:2020 with care-home-specific guidance.

Detection Standards

Care homes typically require a Category L1 fire detection system — the highest level, covering all areas including bedrooms, corridors, plant rooms, and storage. This is because residents are sleeping, have reduced awareness, and evacuation takes significantly longer than in premises where occupants are awake and mobile.

Your assessment should verify:

• System category matches L1 (or has been risk-assessed to a lower level with documented justification)
• All areas are covered including roof voids, linen stores, and laundry rooms
• System is Grade A (BS 5839-1 compliant addressable system, not standalone detectors)
• Weekly alarm tests are recorded
• Six-monthly professional servicing is up to date
• Manual call points are located at exits

For comparison, most HMO fire risk assessments require LD2 detection. Care homes need the full L1 coverage because evacuation dependency on staff makes early warning critical.

Means of Escape and Evacuation

Progressive horizontal evacuation

Most care homes use a horizontal evacuation strategy: move residents into a protected compartment on the same floor rather than evacuating the building. This requires:

• At least two fire compartments per floor (typically 30-minute fire-resisting construction)
• Fire doors between compartments rated to FD30S minimum
• Each compartment must have an independent means of escape
• Refuge areas large enough for the number of residents

Your assessment must verify that compartmentation is intact: check fire doors, fire-stopping around service penetrations, and any walls that form compartment boundaries.

Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs)

Each resident with a mobility or cognitive impairment should have a documented PEEP. Your assessment should check:

• PEEPs exist for all residents who need them
• PEEPs are reviewed when a resident's condition changes
• Staff are trained on individual PEEPs
• Night-time staffing is sufficient to implement PEEPs

Night staffing

Fire safety is only as good as the staff response. Your assessment should record night-time staffing levels and evaluate whether they are sufficient to:

• Respond to the alarm within a reasonable time
• Implement progressive horizontal evacuation
• Account for all residents

Common Care Home Hazards

Laundry rooms. Commercial tumble dryers and washing machines generate heat and lint. Laundry rooms should be separate fire compartments with self-closing fire doors.

Kitchens. Commercial kitchens in care homes produce significant fire risk from cooking oils, extraction systems, and continuous use. Check extraction ductwork cleaning records.

Electrical distribution. With 24-hour electrical load across profiling beds, hoists, and medical equipment, electrical faults are a primary ignition source. Check the date of the last Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR).

Oxygen storage and use. Where residents use supplemental oxygen, your assessment must identify where oxygen is stored, how it is managed, and whether staff understand the increased fire risk. Oxygen itself is not flammable, but it dramatically increases the intensity and speed of any fire.

Smoking. If the home permits smoking, check that designated smoking areas are safely managed — non-combustible furniture, appropriate disposal, and supervision arrangements for residents who smoke unsupervised.

Review Frequency

Most enforcing authorities and the CQC expect care home fire risk assessments to be reviewed every 6 months, not annually. The higher risk profile and potential for rapid changes in occupancy, resident acuity, and staffing justify the shorter interval.

Use our review date calculator to determine the appropriate interval for your specific assessment.

Action Plans for Care Homes

Care home action plans require particular care around priority timescales. An immediate priority finding in a care home — such as a compromised compartment wall or a disabled fire detection system — carries life-safety implications that may require interim protective measures while permanent remediation is arranged.

Document interim measures clearly: "Until the compartment wall breach is repaired, the night manager must conduct hourly checks of the affected area between 2200 and 0600."

Summary

Care home assessments demand the highest standard of thoroughness. L1 detection, intact compartmentation for horizontal evacuation, PEEPs for vulnerable residents, and 6-monthly reviews. Your report needs to reflect the complexity and risk level.

For guidance on structuring your report, see our PAS 79 guide. To check fire doors during your assessment, use our free fire door inspection checklist.

AssessKit is being built with care home assessment features — including occupancy recording, detection category tracking, and PEEP documentation support. Join the waitlist for early access.

Sources

• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 — UK Legislation
• Fire safety risk assessment: residential care premises — GOV.UK
• PAS 79:2020 — BSI
• BS 5839-1 — BSI