Authorising Engineer (Fire)

Once appointed an AE undertakes an annual AE audit assessing the standard and compliance of the fire safety measures across the Estate and the competence of the Fire Safety Team. These audits are usually completed annually and include a review of all relevant documentation including maintenance records and current FRAs as well as a site assessment to identify all areas of non-compliance. Each audit includes a comprehensive audit report setting out the current status of all fire safety systems, all significant findings and the necessary actions to rectify these.

The other key roles carried out by an AE during their appointment include:

• Providing expert oversight of the fire safety management and advising the healthcare provider on how this can be improved.
• Ensuring compliance with the statutory fire legislation, healthcare fire safety guidance (specifically the HTM suite of documents) and all relevant British Standards, Codes of Practice and industry best practice.
• Monitoring and authorising the competency of the healthcare provider's fire safety management structure and the members of the Fire Safety Team. This includes reviewing the competencies of individual members of the team and ensuring that they are suitably experienced and are receiving the correct training.
• Providing independent assurance to the Board and senior management that the fire safety is being adequately and compliantly managed, that all relevant policies and processes are in place and that all risks are being correctly identified and controlled.
• Providing support to the healthcare provider on project works including input to fire strategies and fire safety design advice relating to all areas of active and passive fire protection. As part of this the AE will help support risk-based justifications where these are necessary, understanding that the constraints of healthcare Estates and sites often means that new build and maintenance works must involve balancing patient safety, clinical care and fire safety risks. An AE is able to ensure that all variations from a strict-code compliant design are correctly documented, approved and managed.

By appointing an AE(Fire), healthcare providers can demonstrate to regulators and enforcing authorities their commitment to ensuring the fire safety across their Estates is managed and maintained to the highest of standards.