Fire Safety Advisor

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Job Overview

The role of the Fire Safety Adviser is to provide competent fire safety advice, inline with current Legislation and guidance, to the Trust. The advice provided is to ensure that the Trust meets its legislative requirements, maintains compliance and provides a safe environment, free from fire, for its staff, patients and members of the public.

Main duties of the job:

• To uphold the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005, as amended.
• To maintain statutory requirements dictated by HTM Firecode.
• To provide specialist advice on all aspects of Fire Safety, legal and technical requirements to the Trust and as necessary to other stakeholders.
• To support training functions, producing, organising and delivering training where necessary.
• Ensure all persons and property are protected from risk of Fire.
• Undertake investigation of fire incidents and compile detailed reports as required.
• Any other Fire Safety role, as agreed with the Fire Safety Manager.

Working for our organisation

North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award-winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.

North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti-discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all underrepresented groups.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities:

• Carrying out inspections, risk assessments, audits & research.
• The post holder will be the specialist in carrying out suitable and sufficient Fire Risk Assessments, in line with Trust policy in compliance of all statutory agreements and HTM part K, providing recommendations to overcome recorded failures or to make improvements.
• The inspection of contractor activities with regard to Fire Safety.
• Investigate and report on the cause of any Fire related incidents.
• Investigate and report on all fire alarm activations and proactively look at reducing UwFS and False alarms across the NBT Estate.
• Routine monitoring and measuring of fire safety performance and statistics.
• Monitoring of the provision, maintenance and effectiveness of fire equipment and protection.
• Liaise with external agencies such as Fire and Rescue Services, in their role as Enforcing Authority; Building Control; Health and Safety Executive etc., and prepare reports/comments to external bodies such as architects on new buildings/alterations.

Provide Fire Safety Advice And Guidance To:

• Senior management in all statutory compliance, strategy and policy matters.
• Estates technical staff on the interpretation and compliance of all fire legislation.
• Contractors and Capital Projects teams carrying out work throughout the organisation.
• Department/ward managers.
• Colleagues as a Fire Safety representative at various meetings.

Fire Safety Training:

• Design, develop, prepare and deliver a wide range of fire safety training to all staff throughout the organisation specific to their individual need and departmental requirements, in line with the Trust's Training needs Analysis.
• Where necessary, record attendees, feedback information and outcomes on the NBT systems.
• Where necessary, organise training dates, times and locations with all wards/departments to ensure appropriate training is delivered to all staff.
• Where necessary, support wards/departments with the execution of fire safety drills.

Administration Activities:

• Attendance at Fire Safety Meetings.
• Prepare and compile reports related to fire safety as requested by Fire Safety Management Team.
• Prepare and compile reports relating to Fire Safety condition of buildings.
• Compile reports with recommendations related to the safety from Fire and escape provisions of new building proposals and alterations to existing buildings.
• Prepare/revise in conjunction with Fire committee colleagues the Fire Safety policy.
• Maintain/manage record keeping for staff Fire training.
• Provide statistical reports for staff training, Fire alarms, Fire incidents for managers.
• Support in the preparation and data input of the annual Fire report.
• Where necessary, prepare, design and review all training materials used in the training of all staff.
• Liaise with external bodies such as fire and rescue services.

Emergency Response:

• The post holder is to attend/respond, where possible, to all Fire alarm actuations.
• Supervise the activities during emergency situations.
• Where practically possible, attend emergency incidents outside normal working hours.

Person specification:

Shortlisting criteria:

• Masters degree equivalent professional qualification in discipline relating to fire safety.
• Fire risk assessor training and competence.
• NEBOSH, L4 Diploma or equivalent fire certificate.
• HTM fire risk assessors training.
• HTM 05-03 Park K HTM Firecode certifications – HTM 05-01, 05-02, 05-03.
• Training qualification.
• Member of the national association of healthcare fire officers, Institute of Fire Engineers, Institute of Fire Safety Managers, Institute of Fire Prevention Officers or equivalent.
• Experience at working as a fire advisor/fire manager.
• Experience of working in a large organisation.
• Experience of working within a complex premises.
• Experience of developing and implementing Strategies and Policies.
• Experience of working at corporate/senior level and influencing strategic direction.
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team.
• Experience of developing and delivering training to all levels of staff including senior managers.
• Experience with working with Office tools and other software packages.
• Experience of managing own workload and that of others.
• Ability to problem solve.
• Good Communicator.
• High levels of personal motivation, pragmatism and innovation and to ensure any advice given is realistic and appropriate.
• Strong role model with enthusiasm for managing fire safety.
• Able to work on own initiative.

If you apply for this vacancy and have not received a communication from North Bristol NHS Trust within three weeks of the closing date, please assume that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.

Please note that North Bristol NHS Trust does not reimburse travel expenses relating to interview attendance.

If you feel you meet the requirements of the Disability Act / Two Ticks scheme and require further support/advice, please contact us on tel 0117 414 1151.

North Bristol NHS Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

The successful applicant(s) will normally commence at the minimum of the scale unless they have previous NHS service at the same band. Progression through the scale is by annual increments.

At North Bristol Trust (NBT), we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT’s workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.

Please note that stringent pre-employment checks are undertaken on all successful applicants prior to commencement in post.