Consultation launched on fire safety design for schools

The Department for Education is seeking views on a revised version of the Building Bulletin 100 design guide for fire safety in schools.

The revised guide is based on the feedback the department received from the technical review of the guide. It contains updated and expanded advice on: compliance with Building Regulations Part B (Fire Safety); school-specific fire risks; property protection; and fire safety management. It also covers boarding accommodation for the first time.

The government is proposing to make sprinklers mandatory in new schools above 11m, special education needs schools and boarding schools.  

Insurer Zurich Municipal has long called for mandatory sprinklers in all new and major refurbished schools, regardless of the building’s height.

Commenting on the proposals, Tilden Watson, Head of Education at Zurich Municipal, said: “The government’s proposals are a step in the right direction but still leave the vast majority of schools and pupils exposed to blazes.
 
“By limiting sprinklers to schools above 11m, the government is effectively writing off a significant proportion of the school estate.  This will create a two-tier system of safety, which is arbitrary and ill-thought through.
 
“As predominantly single-story buildings, primary schools will be hardest hit, especially as they already suffer nearly twice the rate of blazes as secondary schools.     
 
“Pupil safety and education will become a lottery based on school height.  
Parents are likely to be concerned that their children’s lives are being measured in metres.”  
 
He added: “School fires cause major disruption to children’s education, with repairs leading to months or even years of upheaval. They also result in the loss of spaces which local communities rely on out of school hours. Unless Ministers bring England into line with other parts of the UK, where sprinklers are mandatory, large fires will continue to blight children’s education, already severely disrupted by the pandemic, and put lives at risk.”

The consultation closes on 17 August 2021.