Fire Aware: Transforming Fire Safety Culture and Accountability Post-Grenfell

While there was an undisputable need for change in the science and regulation of fire safety, there was also a need to ensure those using those rules and regulations recognised that using them in the spirit in which they had been written was equally important. The Grenfell Inquiry told of systemic failings in the regulatory and commercial sectors invoking the race to the bottom in many of the contributing issues that combined to create the disaster. In the case of Grenfell Tower, these failings spread wider than just the contractors carrying out refurbishment works. 

Fire Aware recognised that focusing only on the construction industry left out a wide spectrum of duty holders, so created an organisation that is open to any business with a fire safety duty of care. And critically, the organisation is open to clients as well as suppliers. There is much evidence in the fire sector of clients offsetting their responsibility to subcontractor’s and specialists assuming that their duty of care transfers to the supplier via the appointment. 

There is also evidence that clients separate the responsibility of choosing suppliers from the budgetary workings of a business, and effectively can engage the race to the bottom while believing their risk is covered. Fire Aware therefore has been created to include clients and suppliers who are prepared to procure and trade responsibly under one umbrella, giving all within its membership an identity of businesses trading accountably. 

This is a huge USP in the post Grenfell era as this attitude was previously an invisible investment. Identifying this corporate ethic and uniting it with many other businesses who think the same way, provides an easily recognisable marque for the public to understand. 

Due to the bandwidth of companies who carry a duty of care, this marque can be seen in many different settings, becoming a common signal to the public that the holder is being tested on its behaviours. And in creating this unity and making it visible, it becomes a condition of sale in the minds of the purchaser making it more difficult for those who do not subscribe, to compete with those that do. This is how culture changes. 

By identifying responsible businesses and giving the purchaser the choice. And by extending the USP to the purchaser in return for making that choice, the marque rises vertically up the supply chain until it emerges into the public conscience. 

 Fire Aware is a charter-based organisation. It is based on a series of charters that are designed to promote responsible corporate strategies in the design, delivery and management of an environment that holds a duty of care. 

There are many charters that have been created to match different types of business discipline and there has been input into these from existing members to ensure they reflect the industry view on where the problems exist within each sector.

 Compliance with the charter conditions comes in two stages in that an applicant must initially prove to the organisation that they can provide the services they promote. Accreditations, certifications, insurances and client references are required to be submitted and approved before the applicant member is allowed to join the organisation.

Once in membership, the company must via the charter compliance portal, demonstrate how they are weaving the conditions of their chosen charter into their business. Evidence must be provided in the form of detailed descriptions and documents that substantiate the explanations.

 On completion of this process the member business is marked as Charter Compliant on the Fire Aware members page, but only until the end of the years membership, where the system resets and the member must repeat the process but this time, demonstrating improvement on the responses of the previous year. 

This process is designed to make responsible trade a tangible corporate strategy not just an aspirational notion. Since launch in late 2021 the organisation has accrued nearly 200 UK based members of many different disciplines. 

The members can be viewed geographically on a map with a description of services displayed. Due to the band width of membership, clients can find all of their fire safety suppliers in one place with the reassurance that they are on the map only because their corporate behaviour is being monitored. 

The organisation is also working closely with The Home Office as part of their Industry Steering Group and has members sitting on various review panels within the BSi Standards Review Committee. 

The use of Fire Aware as a positive social benefit has been included in the Best Practice section of the Considerate Constructors Scheme. There has been much interest from the insurance sector in Fire Aware’s ability to de risk the design, construction and management of public environments. 

Fire Aware is also working with organisations such as PASC which will bring its value into the world of self catering’s fire safety obligations. Fire Aware has the ability to change culture, much in the same way that the CCS changed the image of construction over the last 20 years. 

By giving those companies and individuals with the integrity to only do the right thing a common identity, the organisation has provided the public with trust mark in an industry where much faith has been lost. This process can only support regulatory compliance and help the statutory authorities navigate the difficult landscape the fire sector can be. 

 Fire Aware is not about what you do as a business specifically. Its more about how you behave when doing it, and the more responsibility we can bring into the sector, the quicker cultural change will follow.