The 7 Steps to Ensure Safety Case Report Success

When dawn breaks on the 1st April 2024, you'd be forgiven if you have your legged pulled by a few well devised pranks. It's that's time of year.

I find it always raises a chuckle when we feel we've been caught by these jesters and can share the levity with a smile and shake of the head. It's healthy.

However, if you have accountability for occupied High Rise Buildings (HRBs), in England, please don't be hoodwinked and fooled by the rhetoric surrounding the need to have a physical, static, Safety Case Reports in place from 1st April 2024.

"What?!" you may say.

"You're wrong" you say. "The legislation states it very clearly" "And anyways we've already paid providers ￡10,000s/￡100,000s to provide us Safety Case Reports, so we are all compliant thanks."

Well done you. Then i suggest you don't read the rest of this article and i wish you the best of luck.

If you're reading on then i'd like to share with you 7 practical steps to ensure you consider the Safety Case Report in the context of what you should be trying to achieve, and what the real interpretation of the Building Safety Act intends.

And not just a, very, expensive, piece of paper.

I'll offer a solution, which will SAVE you- as the Principal Accountable Person (PAP)- a SIGNIFICANT amount of money. It will also provide a PROPORTIONATE solution to identifying and mitigating relevant risks in those key buildings.

Xmas is over, but in essence 'A Safety Case Report is for life (of the HRB) not just for April 1st!'

I'll explain.

Firstly though Safety Cases are not a new thing. They have been prevalent in high risk industries such as aviation, nuclear, and oil for some time. However they are a new concept to the Built Environment. In fact, it was through Dame Judith Hackitt's affinity with the Oil Industry that this largely became a recommendation from the post Grenfell enquiry.

I agree with the concept- not fully sold on mandating 'high rise' as 'high risk' (but that's a whole separate debate).

So it's understandable that a 'new' concept to the management of HRBs can be perplexing. And, to me, we should be open to a 'new' approach to how we solve these challenges. That defines progress.

So let's jump in. Where do we start?

Well, hopefully you've already registered your HRB and submitted the KBI and followed the advice i provided to get your HRBs Match Fit for these new Regulations. Here's the link if you want to check back: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/10-step-guide-hrb-compliance-mastery-graham-oliphant/

We're going to unravel the hot potato of the Safety Case process now.

1) Start with your SMS- Develop a 'Safety Management System'

At an Organisational level you'll already have a H&S policy which will no doubt have a Business continuity policy and some contingency planning included. You'll also have a Fire Risk Management strategy, likely linked with BS9997 (hopefully!)

From this you can draw down to integrate the scenario planning paying particular interest to the two main areas:

1- Risk of fire spread

2- Structural integrity

Ensure you adopt a Claim-Argument-Evidence approach.

A number of the Claims and top level Arguments will be largely generic albeit proportional to the HRB and it's setting (have you got a kindergarden on the ground floor, or an electricity sub station next door).

However the Evidence, which you'll need to, well, evidence, your argument and claim, will need to be specific to the HRB and need to be current. So things such as the latest series of your Reg 10 fire door checks.

Looking at the more challenging areas to pin down, such as the 'resident engagement', i'd start by simplifying this. Sure, you need a Resident Engagement Policy document- a strategy, but then how are you going to actually carry this through. What can you use as evidence? You are going to need to speak with, and listen to the residents, they are central to this and probably some of the best people who understand the building- so bring them onboard and enfranchise them in the process.

This then forms another pillar of your SMS. As with all good SMSs keep it under constant review following a PDCA cycle: Plan-Do-Check-Act process.

2) 'Mind the GAP'- Undertake a GAP analysis

You need to know what you have and what you're missing. Then take steps 'as far as is reasonably practicable' to fill the gaps, or have mitigation in place. And demonstrate the steps and anticipated timeline.

Again, this is not about creating risk free buildings. They do not exist.

It's about demonstrating to the BSR that you understand the risks (principally relating to fire and structural) and you have a effective system in place for addressing them. Not necessarily that you've addressed them, as buildings are complex systems and finances and the nuances of legislation (Leaseholder Protection Regs, Developer Pledge, Section 20 requirements) need to be considered.

Almost think of this in terms of a SWOT analysis from a Governance point of view.

If you are a Local Authority have you fully considered your duty under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 when it comes to effective scenario planning?

What if, you discover you have endemic structural issues? Or you have aged LPS blocks? What provision and planning do you have in place if you needed to decant a HRB (again this could be due to a gas explosion, major flood, as well as a significant fire or structural issue)?.

Have you considered risk eventualities? Are you confident you could respond to them?

This is an area that really interest me, with my background in the Fire Rescue Service, and i do feel there is a real opportunity now to explore how we make Safety Cases far more robust by having some sensible and proportionate scenario planning with the PAP/Landlord and partner agencies.

You can have the best and most glossy policy document, but can you put that in to practice at 3am on a cold wet evening when there is high anxiety and 100s of families all wanting reassurance and assistance.

Do DM me if you'd like to discuss this further for your Organisation

3) Establish and nurture Ecosystem working

What's your IT solution for addressing this? Excel on steroids? An even bigger Sharepoint?

How can all the parties that need input and visibility to develop the Safety case- and continue to manage it going forward.

My dad was a mechanical engineer. He was quite meticulous. I remember him helping me hang a mirror, and it required a number of calculations, pencil markings, string (dad's always seem to have 'string'! Where do you even buy that from now?) and numerous adjustments. But the end product was great. Albeit it took the best part of a day and 3 cups of tea.

Similarly he would always use a manual screwdriver, even when building Ikea furniture. "You get more control" he'd always say. Which i kind of agree, but when you've got dozens of long screws, i'd power them in with a battery powered screwdriver in a fraction of the time being careful with the torque as they tightened, and the result was pretty indistinguishable, and no RSI!

The point being, we get comfortable with what we're used to.

When we look at scale- large portfolios of HRBs- and what's required- surely we need to consider a 'new' way of working.

What if you could make use of an 'off-the-shelf' SaaS (Software as a service) platform that allowed for your staff, consultants, you for oversight, BSMs, to all have open access in a protected joint working environment, which also protected and tracked your audit trail? Oh, and allowed you the functionality to generate 'ON DEMAND' Safety Case reports, always reporting the most recent 'live' status of the HRB safety case?

4) Assurance framework linked

We do know the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) will charge ￡144/hour +VAT for reviewing your safety case report.

That's ￡144/hour for each one of your HRBs

This is a precondition before they issue a Building Assessment Certificate- your 'rosette'- that you can then proudly display in the HRB.

The BSR will be scouring each report to ensure they are satisfied that you have an effective safety management system in place and are mitigating the risks of fire spread and structural integrity. The Government guidance also states the other requirements such as how you are managing communication with residents and reporting safety occurrences.

But, what if you reverse engineered this, and designed your safety case structure to report on the status of each of the 'marking criteria' that the BSR would be looking for? Imagine how much time this would save the BSR- and therefore how many multiples of ￡144 you would save across each HRB report submitted?

I'm not talking about gaming the system here, i'm talking about understanding first what you should be looking to achieve and what is required- understanding the brief. That's working smart.

Our solution is linked with the evolving assurance framework.

5) On DEMAND generation of the Safety Case Report

ON-DEMAND generation of your safety case report. You read correctly.

I mention this twice to highlight how significant this feature is!

And how much money- and potential liability- this will save you.

Think of how an EPC (Electrical Performance Certificate) works. If you are the landlord it is a legal requirement, so you commission one, pay for it, and hey presto your compliant for up to 10 years.

However, the next week you decide to replace and upgrade all the lightbulbs in the property. This then alters your EPC rating, favourably. Do you then request and pay for another EPC? No, highly unlikely. Why? Well, because it lasts for 10 years and i'm already compliant so 'i don't need to'.

So what use does the EPC serve? Purely a compliance tick box.

Now, the risks involved and the sums of money involved are significantly higher when we refer to safety case reports and HRBs. But i do see across the Built Environment a concerning similarity to the EPC situation.

The rush to get a Safety Case Report before the 1st April. Compliance sorted.

How are you going to reproduce the Safety case report?

Will you pay again each time you need to reproduce it?

Now the Building Safety Act is a gruesome piece of wieldy legislation- a bag of spaghetti- the 'BREXIT for the Built Environment' and its easy to be forgiven for getting confused. Let me share some sections for you to consider, to make my point:

Pretty emphatic right? You need a Safety Case Report.... the HSE even stressing how urgent after the 1st October this is. So, you think, what am i talking about then?

We then look at the Government guidance published on 19 Sept 2023

Clearly indicating that you will need the facility to be able to reproduce an updated safety case report over time.

A static, one off, PDF report will simply not cut it.

What if you could have access to an intuitive SaaS platform that sits alongside your systems - like a mini 'Cloud' - where you can have the relevant Safety Case workings, with hyperlinks to live documents, AND, the 'on demand' generation of the safety case report? So you will ALWAYS have the safety case report representing the LIVE, CURRENT, status of the HRB?

6) Portability of the audit trail

Think carefully about how you can create an online environment where you can retain the integrity of your data relating to your Safety Case development.

What happens when one of your BSMs or Building Safety Team move on? We know there is high churn of staff across both the property management sector and within the Fire Industry at present. The BSR have indicated that they will adopt a risk based focus on what HRBs they prioritise- typically calling in Tranche 1 HRBs first. This may mean if you have Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 HRBs they may not be requested to be reviewed for some 2-3 years!

Ask yourself how many BSMs will have turned over between now and 3 years? I'd suggest the average lifespan being 9-12 months, so you may have had 3 different people working on that HRB. How many key documents and the audit trail of decision making and activity will be lost within individual inboxes?

Can Excel and Sharepoint alone allow you to transfer the 'safety case' to an accountable person for review? Those are going to be some pretty onerous 'we-transfer files'.

What if you had access to a much cleaner, off-the-shelf, 'ecosystem' specifically designed to address the development of your safety cases- and allowed for the 'on demand' generation of your safety case report?

This would foster collaborative working, lessen the volume of independent emails and pdfs and everyone getting lost in endless version control.

It would also future-proof your audit trail (your DIGITAL GOLDEN THERAD) - as one person leaves the organisation and a new person joins, they simply plug in and pick up where the other person left off.

When you need to share this will the BSR you simply provide a login access and/or generate the safety case report.

7) Wrap in Professional Consultancy support

A degree of external, independent professional support i do think is required.

And it should be proportional to your needs as a Business- are you still 're-tooling' to develop an inhouse team to resolve your Safety Case solutions, and therefore need more focused support? Or are you well established for resource and competencies inhouse to manage the heavy lifting?

Dependent on your situation and the levels of complexities of your HRBs then the degree of professional fire consultancy support should be considered to complement.

From the consideration of professional indemnity insurance and contracting with a Partner who knows what is required can save you significant time and cost in the mid to long term also.

So, The Safety case report is not the goal in itself.

It is the output- the executive summary- of the safety case development and demonstration of your safety management system. This should be your focus.

The key being to have the ability, when requested to generate a safety case report, which reflects the current 'live' status of the HRB.

• For ALL occupied HRBs (not just tranche 1 this year, tranche 2 2025 ...)
• From 1st April 2024

You'll have 28 days notice and this meets the statutory requirement from 1st April 2024

My intention is to have the opportunity to work with you to educate and coach your inhouse team so they can confidently take over and maintain the safety case going forward, then stepping back, but in the background should you need future support or advice again. Bringing some of the 'consultative' approach back to Fire Consultancy.

Drop me a DM if you'd like to have a chat