Lead Fire Risk Assessor South

The difference you will make as Lead Fire Risk Assessor:

In this role you will deliver an excellent fire risk assessment service within domestic housing and properties where housing has responsibility. You will undertake surveys and manage a small team of fire risk assessors within a regional patch, ensuring adherence to health and safety legislation and procedures. Ideally, you will take a co-operative lead in the strategic direction and delivery of the fire risk assessment programme. You will ensure best practice methods are used in the execution of the fire risk assessments and be fully responsible for the quality of service in respect of fire risk assessments, keeping up to date with all current fire legislation and applying it to assessments.

About You:

• Experience of working as a fire risk assessor for residential housing and care and support schemes and evidence of applying PAS 79.
• Minimum of 2 - 3 years experience of undertaking fire risk assessments (low/medium risk), with experience in residential fire risk assessments.
• Minimum practical experience of 20+ fire risk assessments in high-risk buildings.
• Ability to carry out site visits and physical inspections of work, including accessing loft spaces by means of ladders.
• High understanding of risk mitigation and how it should be applied.
• NEBOSH Fire Certificate/Diploma or Certified in Applied Fire Risk Assessment (previously FRA and Fire Safety Management) or equivalent with ability to meet the proposed Accountable person role competence requirements under the Building Safety Act.
• EQF level 3-4 i.e. Level 4 Diploma in Fire Safety or equivalent, ASFP Level 3 in Passive Fire Protection or equivalent.
• Membership of Third Party Accreditation Scheme i.e., Institute of Fire Engineers MIFE or equivalent.

Why Riverside?

At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives. We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.

Working With Us, You’ll Enjoy:

• Competitive pay & generous pension
• 25 days holidays plus bank holidays
• Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
• A wide range of benefits

Diversity And Inclusion At Riverside:

We are inclusive. At Riverside, we value diversity in all its forms. We foster a workplace where all individuals are respected, empowered, and heard. Our commitment to inclusivity drives our success and enriches the lives of our customers and colleagues. This role also falls under our Ethnic Diversity guaranteed interview scheme. If you are ethnically diverse and demonstrate you meet the minimum criteria for the role, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Job Purpose:

To deliver an excellent fire risk assessment service within domestic housing and properties where housing has responsibility. To undertake surveys and manage a small team of fire risk assessors within a regional patch and ensure adherence to health and safety legislation and procedures. To take a co-operative lead in the strategic direction and delivery of the fire risk assessment programme. To ensure best practice methods are used in the execution of the fire risk assessments. To be fully responsible for the quality of service in respect of fire risk assessments and to keep up to date with all current fire legislation and apply to assessments.

Role Requires You To:

• Manage a small team of fire risk assessors and fire door inspectors within a regional patch, providing supervision, guidance and training.
• Develop the team of fire risk assessors/fire door inspectors to gain skills as required through training under supervision, until they are able to demonstrate individual competency to the highest level to undertake low/medium risk buildings.
• Work closely with Planner/scheduler and manage workload and performance of the team.
• Provide fire safety reports where required to support site specific management arrangements to include application of fire hazard control measures.
• Investigate and report on all fire incidents and provide recommendations to improve fire safety.
• Carry out a type 1, 3 and 4 fire risk assessment programme in domestic housing, care and support schemes and in properties where housing has responsibility such as community halls.
• Identify hazards and risks associated with fire in general and specialist buildings and processes.
• Report fire risk issues including any directly related to awareness of reporting arrangements for residents and occupants.
• Evaluate existing fire risk assessments including appropriateness for the risk.
• Audit management of fire safety systems.
• Recommend controls to manage residual risks, including where necessary in higher risk situations temporary controls that might be required until a permanent control is implemented.
• Liaise with the Fire Risk Assessment Manager and Senior Fire Risk Assessor to deliver risk assessments in line with the Fire Safety Management System.
• Management and coordination of contractors required to support destructive inspections as part of the type 4 fire risk assessment process.
• Ensure that all making good of intrusive survey complies to fire safety standards and is of a high quality.
• Provide concise and sufficiently detailed fire risk assessments for all type 1, 3 and 4 assessments.
• Carry out surveys as per the fire risk assessment programme and following any major works carried out on properties.
• Carry out pre-occupation and post-occupation surveys as part of the handover process for new build properties.
• Carry out inspections of all new build properties to ensure compliance with the RRO (Fire Safety) Regulations, Building Regulations and other associated legislation.
• During or following assessments, provide advice to managers and staff to assist them in the fulfilment of their responsibilities and therefore organisational compliance with legislative requirements and where appropriate internal standards and best practice.
• Conduct site visits to liaise with residents where appropriate to the benefit of the council.
• Support and provide advice to frontline workers in carrying out personal centred fire risk assessments (PCFRA) and personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPS) on residents identified as needing support in an evacuation.
• Keep abreast of relevant fire safety related legislation and good practice, in order to provide advice to enhance compliance and maintain fire risk assessor competency requirements through training and updates of legislation.
• Carry out post inspections and quality assurance necessary remedial action following fire risk assessments.
• Support the Fire Safety Manager and Fire Risk Assessment Manager to manage the completion of fire safety actions in terms of management of the delivery of required works via the contractor.
• Investigate and report on all fire incidents and provide recommendations to improve fire safety.
• Develop and maintain effective internal relationships creating a supporting and assisting attitude to foster and promote a positive risk management and safety culture, maintaining the highest possible internal and external customer satisfaction.

Person Specification:

Essential:

• Experience of working as a fire risk assessor for residential housing and care and support schemes and evidence of applying PAS 79.
• Minimum of 2 - 3 years experience of undertaking fire risk assessments (low/medium risk), with experience in residential fire risk assessments.
• Minimum practical experience of 20+ fire risk assessments in high-risk buildings.
• Ability to carry out site visits and physical inspections of work, including accessing loft spaces by means of ladders.
• High understanding of risk mitigation and how it should be applied.
• NEBOSH Fire Certificate/Diploma or Certified in Applied Fire Risk Assessment (previously FRA and Fire Safety Management) or equivalent with ability to meet the proposed Accountable person role competence requirements under the Building Safety Act.
• EQF level 3-4 i.e. Level 4 Diploma in Fire Safety or equivalent, ASFP Level 3 in Passive Fire Protection or equivalent.
• Membership of Third Party Accreditation Scheme i.e., Institute of Fire Engineers MIFE or equivalent.
• In-depth knowledge of Fire & Building / Structural Safety within Social Housing, including government and industry guidance, British standards, building regulations and the requirements of Fire Safety Order 2005 (RRO), Fire Safety Act 2022 and British standards, Approved Document B.
• High levels of literacy and excellent communication skills with a diverse range of people.
• Ability to co-ordinate and manage internal and external stakeholders, including statutory organisations, with good presentation skills.
• An awareness of personal emergency evacuation plans and who they are for and when they should be used and an understanding of the different types of evacuation strategies including simultaneous evacuation, planned evacuation, progressive horizontal evacuation and zoned evacuation.
• Customer focused and an ability to present reports and data and to clearly explain to and influence a wide range of people in regard to fire safety and its management.
• Ability to use various IT systems, to interrogate database information to produce risk-based programmes of works and to update the database as work items are completed.
• Excellent team player with the ability to work under pressure, deliver to strict deadlines and manage conflicting priorities.

Desirable:

• Working for company BAFE Accreditation SP205 3rd party accreditation.
• Experience in the maintenance and testing of fire safety systems and record keeping.

About Us:

Riverside is one of the UK’s leading not-for-profit social housing and regeneration organisations, owning or managing around 75,000 homes from Irvine to Kent. We are a leading provider of supported housing services, particularly for those affected by homelessness, and our track record of transforming lives and revitalising neighbourhoods dates back over 90 years. We have plans to build over 15,000 affordable homes over the next decade.

Our Values and Behaviours:

Creating an Inclusive Environment.