Tenant safety sparks collaborative action

The Fire Safety and Sustaining Tenancies and Empowering People Support (STEPS) teams have been working in collaboration to improve tenant safety in their homes.

Claire James , Head of Supporting Customers and Tenancies blogs about the experience and the learnings the teams have taken away from it.

In October 2022, it was identified that there needed to be a process in place for undertaking Person Centric Fire Risk Assessments (PCFRAs) while further development was undertaken to improve Trivallis’ systems; and implement an automated schedule of PCFRAs linked to tenancy audits.

PCFRAs help to identify tenants that may be at a greater risk from fire in their homes, due to their abilities to respond to and escape a fire.

To meet this need, the Fire Safety team and STEPS team worked together to develop a training and support programme that enabled the STEPS team to complete the PCFRAs process.

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What we did:

In house training and guidance on PCFRAs was developed and delivered by the Fire Safety team towards the end of 2022. The STEPS team completed the training in November 2022, allowing for members of the STEPS team to go ahead and complete the assessments.

There were 113 homes identified in high-risk blocks in Pen Dinas, Maerdy Road Flats, Heol y Ffynon and Rhiwddar House.

The STEPS team then completed the assessments of the homes and sent them on to the Fire Safety team who were then able to identify any areas of immediate concern and provide further support to ensure tenants were safe.

Why was it needed?

Working with vulnerable tenants is a key priority for us. Issues like hearing loss, lack of mobility and enhanced risk factors can increase the risks associated with fire.

In October, a paper was provided to the Health & Safety Forum on Trivallis’ progress of undertaking PCFRAs. It looked at how we would improve our management of cases until further development was undertaken on our systems.

The Health & Safety Forum endorsed a proposal for the STEPS team to complete the outstanding PCFRAs in high-risk blocks (those with a risk score greater than 38). As the STEPS team already had existing knowledge of using the systems, they were identified as the best team to support. This ensured a full assessment of tenant needs could be carried out to identify any actions that needed to be taken to ensure they were safe.

What were the outcomes?

85% (96) of the 113 homes that were identified, now have an up-to-date PCFRA in place as you can see from the chart, below:

As a result of the PCFRAs being completed, 24 tenants were identified as being high risk and have since been visited. 16 of these tenants have been supplied with equipment to reduce the risk, including 10 customers who are hard of hearing and may not be able to respond to a fire alarm without the necessary additional equipment. The remaining tenants are currently in the process of receiving support.

Next Steps:

Neighbourhood Managers are now following up on those who did not answer and taking any action deemed necessary to ensure that safety needs are met.

Our Neighbourhood Managers and Sheltered Scheme Coordinators will also be receiving the PCFRA training so that they are able to support with completing PCFRAs in the future.

Team collaboration has been key to ensuring that these homes have a PCFRA in place and tenants are much safer in their homes. Having the Fire Safety team and STEPS team working closely together has made a real difference and it continues to have an impact. This is a positive step for Trivallis!