Fire safety and evacuation plan

Code Hamsters (Simple Platform Work Limited)
Version 1.0, approved 13 October 2026 by Mathew Long, Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). Next review: October 2027, or sooner after any incident or change in the law or guidance.

If you discover a fire: raise the alarm, get everyone out, call 999. Do not stop to collect belongings and do not go back in.

1. Who is responsible

• Our sessions run in rooms we hire. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the organisation that controls the building is the responsible person for its fire risk assessment, alarm, emergency lighting, extinguishers, signs and escape routes.
• Code Hamsters is responsible for what we bring and what we do: our equipment, our activities, and getting the children in our care out safely. We cooperate with the venue and follow its fire procedures.
• Mathew Long is responsible for this plan. The tutor leading a session is in charge of evacuating the group.

2. Before we use a venue

Before the first session at any venue, and at the start of every term, we:

• ask the venue to confirm that it has a current fire risk assessment and that the alarm is tested
• get the venue’s fire procedure and complete the venue sheet in section 9
• walk the escape routes from our room, including the route to use if the nearest exit is blocked
• check that the routes and final exits are unlocked and clear at the time of day our sessions run
• find the nearest alarm call point and the assembly point
• check how the alarm sounds, and whether it can be heard and seen in our room and the toilets
• agree a personal plan for any child or tutor who needs help to get out (section 6)

3. At every session

• The tutor checks that the exits from the room are clear and unlocked.
• The register, a charged phone and any emergency medication are kept together by the door.
• Bags, coats and cables are kept out of the way of the door and the route out.
• At the first session of each term, and whenever a new child joins, the tutor tells the group what the alarm sounds like, where to go and what to do, and walks the route with them.

4. If the alarm sounds or you discover a fire

1. Raise the alarm at the nearest call point if it is not already sounding, and shout “Fire”.
2. Stop. Tell the children to stand up, leave everything, and line up at the door. Laptops, bags and coats stay behind.
3. Take the register, your phone and any emergency medication.
4. Check the toilets on your route if a child is out of the room. Do not go back or go further into the building to look.
5. Lead the group out by the nearest safe route, walking, with the tutor last out of the room. Close doors behind you. Do not use lifts. If there is smoke on the route, turn round and use the other one.
6. Go to the assembly point and keep the group together, away from the building and from vehicles.
7. Call the register. Count the children.
8. Call 999 and ask for the fire service, unless you are certain the venue has done so. Give the venue’s full address.
9. If anyone is missing, tell the fire service and the venue’s fire marshal straight away: who, and where they were last seen. Do not go back in.
10. Stay out until the fire service or the venue’s responsible person says it is safe. If the building cannot be used again that evening, phone parents and carers to collect their children from the assembly point, and hand each child over as normal.

Tutors only use a fire extinguisher if they have been trained, the fire is very small, and it is between them and no child. Getting the children out always comes first.

5. If a child’s clothing catches fire

Stop them running, get them to drop to the floor and roll, and smother the flames with a coat or fire blanket. Cool any burn under cool running water for 20 minutes and call 999.

6. Children and adults who need help to get out

We follow the government’s guidance on means of escape for disabled people. Our plan never relies on the fire service to get a child out.

• The registration form parents and carers complete when they book asks whether a child would need any help in an emergency. This includes children with a physical disability, a hearing or sight impairment, a learning difficulty, autism, anxiety, or a condition such as asthma that could slow them down. We do not assume a child cannot get out on their own, and we do not assume they can.
• Where help is needed, we agree a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) with the child and their parent or carer before their first session. It is written for that child, in that room, and says who helps, how, by which route, and with what equipment.
• We choose a room that everyone in the group can leave without using stairs wherever possible. If a child could not leave the room we are offered safely, we ask the venue for a different room before the child starts.
• A child who cannot hear the alarm is told and guided by the tutor. A child who cannot see the route, or who is frightened by the alarm, stays next to the tutor.
• If a venue has refuges, a child is never left in one alone, and never left to wait for the fire service.
• We do not carry a child downstairs or use an evacuation chair unless it is in their plan and the adults doing it have been trained.
• The plan is practised with the child, and reviewed every term and whenever their needs or the room change.
• Tutors and visitors who would need help are offered a plan in the same way.

7. Preventing fire

• Chargers and leads are checked before every session. Damaged ones are not used.
• We use the chargers supplied for each device, and do not cover laptops or chargers while they are in use.
• Nothing is left charging in an empty room or overnight at a venue.
• Damaged or swollen batteries are taken out of use immediately and disposed of safely.
• We do not chain extension leads together or overload sockets.
• Our sessions do not involve naked flames or soldering.
• Fire doors are kept shut and never wedged open. Nothing is stored in corridors or in front of exits.
• All equipment is switched off and unplugged at the end of the session.

8. Training, practice and review

• Every tutor is trained in this plan and walks the venue’s routes before their first session there.
• We walk the escape route with each group at the first session of every term, so it is practised at least every six months, and we take part in any drill the venue runs while we are there.
• We record the date of each briefing and practice, how long it took, and anything that needs to change.
• This plan is reviewed every year, after any alarm or fire, and whenever the venue, room or group changes.
• If we ever take on premises of our own, we will become the responsible person and will have a fire risk assessment carried out before opening by a competent fire risk assessor, chosen using the National Fire Chiefs Council’s guidance on finding a fire risk assessor.

9. Venue fire information

Print and complete for each venue. The tutor keeps it with the register.

Record of briefings and practice