CareHomeDeskCareHomeDeskThe National Fire Protection Guidance recommends an FRA review every 12 months for residential care, or immediately following any material change to the building, its use, or its occupants.
Fire risk assessments are living documents, not one-off certificates. For residential care premises, best practice guidance points to a full review at least every 12 months, reflecting the higher sleeping-risk classification of the building and the vulnerability of the resident population. An FRA that has not been reviewed within the last year should be treated as out of date regardless of how thorough it was when first written.
The 12-month cycle is a maximum, not a target. An FRA must be reviewed immediately following any material change: a refurbishment or extension, a change to the layout of escape routes, a change in resident dependency levels or the introduction of residents who cannot self-evacuate, the installation of new fire safety systems, or any fire incident or near miss on the premises. Waiting for the annual review date after such a change leaves the assessment legally unsound in the interim.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to keep the assessment under review. An FRA that predates a significant change to the building or its occupants no longer reflects the actual risk and will not stand up to scrutiny following an incident or an enforcement visit. In practice, an outdated FRA is treated the same as having no FRA at all.
A review does not always require a full re-assessment from scratch, but it must be a genuine reassessment of hazards, control measures and the action plan, carried out or overseen by a competent person. It should check whether previous action points have been closed out, whether staffing levels and evacuation strategy remain appropriate, and whether any new hazards -- such as changes to storage, equipment or building fabric -- have emerged since the last assessment.
Every review, whether scheduled or triggered by a change, should be dated, signed by the person carrying it out, and retained alongside the previous versions rather than simply overwriting them. This creates an audit trail showing a consistent pattern of active management, which is exactly what CQC inspectors and Fire and Rescue Service officers look for when assessing whether fire safety is being taken seriously.
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