Autumn Meeting 16.11.07

The session started with a discussion about Safe Evacuation Policies with Ian Bell (Fire Safety Officer, Wakefield). Ian is employed by Human Resources and bought in by schools; he is responsible for liaising with building managers on fire safety. He does fire risk assessments and produces written reports after his visits. He works alongside the designated building representative who should have 'experience, training and knowledge.' Fire officers are required to do spot checks on buildings. Policies should be reviewed annually or when something changes.
Fire regulations changed in October '06 and fire certificates were scrapped. The onus is now on the 'owner' of the building to evacuate safely.
There was a long discussion with Ian ranging through
- communication in safe areas - who do you contact?
- planning for safe evacuation before buildings are designed, few Advisory Teachers have in put in architecture/planning departments.
- PEEPs Personal emergency evacuation plans
- fire safety lifts
- testing fire doors once the alarms are activated, can individual children open them manually?
- fire risk assessments for residential settings
- the storage and signage for oxygen cylinders

Ian did tell us that he has an arrangement with Chubb for door stops and he is able to train in the safe use of Evac chairs. He directed us to
www.firesafetyguides.communities.gov.uk for a free download from the website.

Linda Darwent from North Yorks shared their draft PEEP and will keep us up to date with developments. We were most impressed with the draft and many members are keen to see the final version. The draft is certainly better than anything else people had seen so far. Linda also described her manual handling training and Wendy Stafekis highly recommended the North Yorks approach.

Eileen Warburton circulated several publications from the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign following Neurological Network Day she attended in London with representatives from our local Occupational Therapy Service. These included the second edition of the 'Inclusive Education' book and the 'Wheelchair provision' publication. The 'PPUK Learning behaviour Toolkit' was circulated and discussed along with the guides for families, recent diagnosis and ways to support. Eileen also shared the 'Paediatric Therapy in School' file that has now been finalised. There are plans to add swimming, manual handling, SALT and ICT competencies.

Anne Morris showed us Digital Brain's 'I'll go first' CD which is a planning and review tool for use with disabled children. it is available from the Children's Society at a cost of £25. She has also had contact with Mary Whitby from AQA and Ivan Lewis MP about access arrangements for an AAC user in Year 10. Lyn Clarke has also written to AQA for similar reasons, Margaret Graham had warned them that there was a similar case in the Wakefield area.

Jean Bean lead a discussion on the checking and replacement of slings. Checks should be logged and information should be comprehensive as slings are part of lifting equipment. Sue Perutz reported problems with labels that had faded and slings that had been withdrawn. Linda says that replacement labels can be purchased. She also told us that Sue Coulter is moving to York and will be working with Sue Perutz.

As usual it was a full and interesting day with lively debate and the swapping of ideas and resources. The next meeting will be on 14.03.08. The focus will be on risk assessments for swimming (Sue Ayres, Eileen Warburton, Jean Beam) and communication activities with very young children and free ICT resources (Lyn Clarke). Please bring a memory stick to the next meeting