The Church of England Pensions Board is a registered charity that has operated the Church's Housing Assistance for the Retired Ministry (CHARM) since it came into operation in 1983. The objective of the scheme is to assist retired clergy and church workers vacating tied housing with retirement accommodation.
There are seven supported housing schemes around the country in the Midlands, West Sussex, Devon, Gloucestershire, Surrey, North Yorkshire and Lancashire. Each has approximately 30 self-contained flats for retired members of the clergy. In addition, all of them have large kitchens where communal meals are prepared, chapels, small offices, dining rooms and most of them also have residents’ lounges.
Under the Regulatory Fire Safety Order 2005 it is a requirement for all employers or owners of premises to carry out a fire risk assessment (FRA) for every workplace or premises for which they are responsible.
The Pensions Board engaged Safelincs, the approved supplier of fire safety products on the Parish Buying website, which was able to provide a very reasonable quotation to have each of the sites assessed for fire safety.
One of Safelincs’ professional fire risk assessors visited each of the seven locations, undertook a site analysis, recorded the findings and explained them to the person with responsibility for each site. The assessments looked at measures to reduce the risk of fire on the premises, reducing any potential spread of fire and the effective means of escape should a fire break out. Hazards were identified and eliminated or reduced.
A written FRA report was produced along with the necessary forms to allow each site to update its report in the future and to document any corrective actions that were carried out. The Church of England Pensions Board is now assured that every element of fire safety on each of its sites has been professionally assessed.
Ian Grace, Supported Housing Operations Manager for the Church of England Pensions Board commented: "Safelincs staff were courteous, easy to do business with and completed the work in a timely fashion."
[showInJargonBuster] => N [showInSearch] => Y [jargonBuster] => [metaDescription] => [metaKeywords] => [CSS] => [TopBar] => Case Study - Church of England Pensions Board [snippetType] => 0 )