New national guidance set to improve the safety of people with care needs

New fire standard guidance launched this week thanks to innovative work by Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service is set to improve the safety of people living at home with care needs. 

The new guidance for the technology enabled care sector (TEC) focuses on improving the standards of community alarm provision for people who rely on it to live safely and independently at home.  

It aims to ensure not only that people have a community alarm linked to a smoke detector fitted in their homes to protect them against fire risk, but that crucially the alarm is also monitored by an alarm receiving centre whose staff are trained to deal with calls and work with fire and rescue service first responders correctly.  

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service's Prevention team has been at the forefront of a national special interest group which developed the new guidance.  

Cllr Margaret Dewsbury, Cabinet Member for Communities and Partnerships and Chair of Norfolk Fire Authority, said, "Inspectors recently gave particular praise to our fire and rescue service for its great work in leading multi-agency fatal fire reviews. 

"This guidance clearly shows how the learning from these reviews is being proactively used to help make some of the most vulnerable people in our communities safer and better protected - not just in Norfolk but across the country." 

Assistive technology is vital in helping the increasing number of people with care needs to live better lives at home. The new fire standard aims to establish a consistent, high-quality and standardised approach to community alarms to make sure those who rely on them can have confidence they will get the very best help in an emergency.  

Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service's Prevention team, which is led by Group Manager Terry Pinto, has played a key role in leading this work with the TEC Services Association (TSA), which is the industry body for TEC and the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). The county council's Assistive Technology team, which is part of Adult Social Care, have also been part of the work. The guidance was launched at the ITEC conference organised by the TSA in Birmingham.