5. Safety case report: safety management system
If you are responsible for an occupied, high-rise residential building, you should have systems in place for managing building safety risks. This is called a safety management system (SMS). Your safety case report should reference and provide an overview of your SMS. The amount of detail to include will vary, but generally, you should provide information under the following headings:
- roles and responsibilities of key personnel and functions relating to building safety
- ensuring key personnel and any contractors used have the necessary competency – skills, knowledge, experience, and behaviours
- performance monitoring
- review
Also provide information on:
- risk assessment
- maintenance
- management of change
- planning for emergencies (if a building safety incident happened at the building)
Visit Safety management systems for more detailed information.
Change management
Describe how changes to the building are managed. Include the process for deciding whether a change will have an impact on the building safety risks, and therefore the safety case report. Change management will form part of your SMS.
Think about both the impact of a change once complete, and any impact a change may have during implementation. Examples include building work or temporary changes to control measures or emergency arrangements.
You can also use examples of effective change management:
"As part of a planned asbestos removal programme the riser doors in the communal corridors of a building were being replaced.
The block was built in the 1950s. The fire strategy was not available to check that these doors were required to maintain the compartmentation of the escape route. It was identified that the flats were separated from the riser by a solid masonry wall and service penetrations were fire stopped giving appropriate compartmentation.
Future impact of change
The specification of the doors was developed to allow at least 30 minutes fire protection (in line with Approved Document B) to protect the escape route from the service riser space. The new riser door sets were certified FD30S by the manufacturer and were installed by a certified installer registered with a UKAS accredited certification body. Relevant certificates and photographic records were retained of the door certification labels so that this could be verified for future fire risk assessments.
Impact during works
As the asbestos containing doors were removed, they were bagged and disposed of appropriately without damaging the asbestos lining. By ensuring only one door was removed at a time, the risk of fire spread during the project was minimised, and no riser door openings were left unprotected overnight.
Residents were provided with a summary of the work and the reasons for it."
Visit Safety management systems for more detailed information on change management.
Emergency arrangements
Describe the emergency arrangements for occupants of the building. The arrangements should take account of the presence and integrity of prevention and protective measures in place. Where appropriate, the report should also describe how the residents' profile has been considered. Relevant factors may include ability to self-evacuate, cognitive impairment, or where their first language is not English.
The report should also explain how you have communicated the emergency arrangements to residents, and where appropriate, to the emergency services.