Fire safety guidance - existing high rise domestic buildings and specialised housing and similar premises: impact and effectiveness

Appendix C: Depth interview topic guides

Topic Guide: High Rise housing providers

Discussion Guide

Scottish Government

Assessment of the Guidance for High Domestic Rise Buildings

18.1.21 - Final

Introduction

• Welcome to the session
• Introduction by moderator and explanation of Market Research Society Code of Conduct.
• Describe background to research: The Scottish Government issued Guidance on Fire Safety in High Rise Domestic Buildings just over a year ago (December 2019). The production of the guidance was a recommendation from the Ministerial Working Group which was set up in response to the Grenfell tragedy in 2017. The overarching aim of this research is to get your views on the guidance, understand how the guidance is being used on the ground, the impact it has had and whether there are any obstacles to its implementation. It would also be helpful to determine if improvements need to be made to the guidance.
• Zoom: The discussion will be recorded – so I don't have to take notes. It will only be used for the purposes of this research project. Check permissions for this.
• Confidential – nothing you say will be attributed to you or your organisation.
• Reiterate GDPR rules if required: Withdraw at any time, only share what you are comfortable with

Background warm up

• Description of organisation
  • Tenure of stock (private, local authority, housing association, mixed - specify)
  • Number of and dwellings in management
  • Type of dwellings in management – maisonettes, self-contained, HMOs…
• Respondent
  • Job title
  • Role
  • Responsibility for building management and fire safety
• How is fire safety managed within the organisation?
  • Overseen by committee/board
  • Dedicated team member
  • Part of team member's role – probe on how much of the role
  • Tenant involvement/responsibility

Review of the Guidance

Awareness

• When did you become aware of the Practical Guidance for Fire Safety in High Rise Domestic Buildings?
• How did you become aware of the Fire Safety Guidance?
• Initial impressions? Spontaneous then prompt on

- the content, coverage, accessibility, distribution/promotion

Use

• Are you using the Guidance – if not what do you use?
• What were you using before the single source of Guidance was published?
• Talk me through how are you using the Fire Safety Guidance in your organisation?
• Prompt and explore each of:

- Dissemination within the organisation

• How are you ensuring the right people are made aware of the guidance?

- Review and updating policies and procedures

• Responsibility/support
• Priorities
• Which policies and procedures?
• Engaging with tenants and residents on fire safety

- Undertaking risk assessments and acting on findings

• Responsibility/support
• Priorities
• Which policies and procedures?
• Developing action plans
• Implementing action plans

The Fire Safety Risk Assessment

Let's focus on the Fire Safety Risk Assessment section of the Guidance now (appendix 2).

• Before we set up our discussion today, were you aware of the Fire Safety Risk Assessment template within the guidance? [Check – this may have answered above]
• Did you carry out fire safety risk assessments prior to the guidance being published?
• Has the guidance prompted you to review your existing risk assessments?
• If you did not carry out assessments previously, has the Guidance prompted you to do so now?

• If you had done a fire safety risk assessment before, how did you go about it?

- Undertaken the assessment yourself

- Worked with a fellow team member

- Allocated a member of your team to undertake an assessment

- Commissioned an external assessor to undertake an assessment

- If you used an external assessor, did you use one who is 3^rd party certificated or registered with a professional body?

Overall views on the Fire Risk Assessment template

• Overall, how helpful would you say the Fire Safety Risk Assessment template is?
• Are there any aspects of the Risk Assessment as a whole that you feel could be improved?
• Overall, how robust do you feel the approach to Fire Safety Risk Assessment set out within the Guidance is? Why do you say that?

Impact of the Guidance

• Overall, how helpful would you say the Fire Safety Guidance is?
• Is there anything in the guidance that is unhelpful?
• Have you experienced any barriers to using the guidance and/or implementing changes based on it?
• What sort of impact has the guidance had on the management of fire safety more generally for your organisation?
• Has the guidance helped you to develop a fire safety policy if you didn't already have on in place?
• Have you used the guidance to resolve any particular fire safety issues?
• Are there any aspects of the Fire Safety Guidance as a whole that you feel could be improved? Spontaneous, then prompt and explore each of

- Awareness raising about the Guidance and its contents, including the risk assessment

- Clarity /understandability of the requirements – In general? Specific topics, sections?

- Additional information - Which sections/topics would benefit from further explanation?

- Training – has the guidance prompted you to reconsider your organisations fire safety training requirements?

- Support and tools

- Layout /format

- Length

• What would be the benefit/disbenefit of moving towards mandatory guidance or legislation, following the approach adopted in England? (where risk assessments of common areas are required by law)
• Is this something that you feel is needed? Why / why not?

Wrap up (5 minutes)

• To sum up, how valuable has the Guidance been to you, since its introduction at the end of last year/ will it be to you over coming months?
• Is there anything you think the Scottish Government should consider modifying about the Guidance which would make it more useful to you?

Thank and close

Topic guide: Stakeholders

Discussion Guide

Scottish Government

Assessment of the Guidance for High Domestic Rise Buildings and Guidance for Specialised Housing

Stakeholders Interviews

02.02.21 Final

Introduction

• Welcome to the session
• Introduction by moderator and explanation of Market Research Society Code of Conduct.
• Describe background to research: The Scottish Government issued Guidance on Fire Safety around a year ago: this covered High Rise Domestic Buildings (published December 2019) and Existing Specialised Housing (published January 2020). The production of the guidance was a recommendation from the Ministerial Working Group which was set up in response to the Grenfell tragedy in 2017.

Progressive Partnership has been appointed by the Scottish Government to undertake an evaluation of the guidance, now that it has been in place for a year. The overarching aim of this research is collate views on the Guidance, understand how it is being used on the ground, understand the impact it has had, whether there are any obstacles to its implementation; and determine if any improvements need to be made to the guidance.

• Zoom: The discussion will be recorded – so I don't have to take notes. It will only be used for the purposes of this research project. Check permissions for this.
• Confidential – nothing you say will be attributed to you or your organisation.
• Reiterate GDPR rules if required: Withdraw at any time, only share what you are comfortable with.

Background to fire safety policy/ position statements/ regulation within the organisation/ etc.

• Description of organisation
  • Representative/membership: profile of members, number of members, and so on
  • Regulatory body: who is regulated
• Respondent
  • Job title
  • Role
  • Responsibility for: policy (health, wellbeing and fire safety?) / operational issues/ related matters

Once the organisation's/respondent's roles have been established the questions can be tailored appropriately. Role is likely to be concerned with: policy development on behalf of membership; responding to Government consultations on behalf of membership; advising/consulting/lobbying government/the Parliament on policy/strategy; providing training and other types of support to members in response to new legislation and guidance; auditing/regulating providers. For brevity, this is referred to as "policy development" from this point on in the discussion guide.

Policy development within the organisation

• How is the responsibility for policy development managed within the organisation?
• Responsibility of the respondent
• Part of broader role/only role - clarify
• Committee/board oversight
• Explore mechanism for this
• Members' determine/input to policy
• Explore mechanism for this
• Other
• Explore

Role in development of the Guidance

• Were you involved in the Scottish Government Ministerial Working Group (MWG) on Building and Fire Safety?

If Yes. Could you describe the role you played in that working group? Probe on

• Which aspects of the Review involved with?
• Contribution made to the MWG's work?

• All: Did you/your organisation consult your membership on the Draft Guidance for High Rise Domestic Buildings and/ or Existing Specialised Housing?

If Yes - Which? Probe on

• Level, profile of and nature of responses received
• Did anything within the responses surprise you? In terms of what was said, the strength of feeling…

If No - Why was that?

Awareness

Those Who Said No To Both The Above

• When did you become aware of the Practical Guidance for Fire Safety in High Rise Domestic Buildings?
• And the Practical Guidance for Fire Safety in specialised housing?

All

• And when the Fire Safety Guidance was launched, how did you become aware it was available?
• And what about your members – do you have a feel for how they became aware of the Guidance?

For both – spontaneous, then explore channels and events such as

- Emails from Scottish Government

- Launch events

- Trade press

- Social media

- Professional associations

- Representative organisations (including details of any actions undertaken the respondent's organisation)

• How effective has this dissemination been - for yourself and your membership?

- What worked well?

- What could be improved?

- Barriers?

Views on the Guidance

• Let's have a wee chat about your impressions of the published Guidance.

Let's start with the Guidance on High Rise Domestic Buildings (published December 2019). Spontaneous then Prompt on

- The content, coverage, accessibility, distribution/promotion

- Were there any obvious additions /changes /omissions that especially pleased or concerned you?

• Has there been any feedback from your members about the Guidance on High Rise Domestic Buildings: positive, neutral, negative?

- Probe on issues being raised

• And what were your initial thoughts on the Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing (published January 2020). Spontaneous then Prompt on

- The content, coverage, accessibility, distribution/promotion

- Were there any obvious additions /changes /omissions that especially pleased or concerned you?

• Was there any initial feedback from your members about the Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing: positive, neutral, negative?

- Probe on issues being raised

Overall views on the Fire Risk Assessment template

Thinking specifically about the Risk Assessments within the Guidance for a moment. Thinking first about the Premises-based Fire-Safety Risk Assessment.

• Overall, how helpful would you say the Fire Safety Risk Assessment template is?
• Are there any aspects of the Risk Assessment as a whole that you feel could be improved?
• Overall, how robust do you feel the approach to Fire Safety Risk Assessment set out within the Guidance is? Why do you say that?

And turning to the Person-Centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment.

• Overall, how helpful would you say the Person-centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment template is?
• Are there any aspects of the Risk Assessment as a whole that you feel could be improved?
• Overall, how robust do you feel the approach to Person-centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment set out within the Guidance is? Why do you say that?

Use made of the Guidance

• Are you using the Guidance on High Rise Domestic Buildings within your organisation for any purpose?

If Yes – Could you explain how you are using the Guidance within the organisation? Probe

• Development of training modules
• Support tools
• Consultation services to members/others
• Regulation and audit
• In discussion/lobbying/etc. of government
• Other
• Are you using the Guidance for Existing Specialised Housing within your organisation for any purpose?

If Yes – Could you explain how you are using the Guidance within the organisation? Probe

• Development of training modules
• Support tools
• Consultation services to members/others
• Regulation and audit
• In discussion/lobbying/etc. of government
• Other

Impact of the Guidance

• Pulling all of this together, overall, how helpful would you say the Fire Safety Guidance is?
• Is there anything in the guidance that is unhelpful?
• Do you think (or have you had any feedback from members) that there may be barriers to using the guidance and/or implementing changes based on it?
• What sort of impact would you expect the guidance to have on the management of fire safety within organisations providing housing and care?
• Do you think the guidance documents will support organisations to develop a fire safety policy if they don't already have on in place?
• Are there any aspects of the Fire Safety Guidance as a whole that you feel could be improved? Spontaneous, then prompt and explore each of

- Awareness raising about the Guidance and its contents, including the risk assessment

- Clarity /understandability of the requirements – In general? Specific topics, sections?

- Additional information - Which sections/topics would benefit from further explanation?

- Training – has the guidance prompted you to reconsider your organisations fire safety training requirements?

- Support and tools

- Layout /format

- Length

• What would be the benefit/disbenefit of moving towards mandatory guidance or legislation, following the approach adopted in England? (where risk assessments of common areas are required by law)
• Is this something that you feel is needed? Why / why not?

Wrap up (5 minutes)

• Is there anything you think the Scottish Government should consider modifying about the Guidance which would make it more useful to you?

Thank and close

Topic Guide: Specialised housing providers

Discussion Guide - Organisations

Scottish Government

Assessment of the Guidance for Specialised Housing

25^th January 2021 - Final

Introduction

• Welcome to the session
• Introduction by moderator and explanation of Market Research Society Code of Conduct.
• Describe background to research: The Scottish Government issued Guidance on Fire Safety for Existing Specialised Housing a year ago (January 2020). The production of the guidance was a recommendation from the Ministerial Working Group which was set up in response to the Grenfell tragedy in 2017. The overarching aim of this research is to get your views on the guidance, understand how the guidance is being used on the ground, the impact it has had and whether there are any obstacles to its implementation. It would also be helpful to determine if improvements need to be made to the guidance.
• Zoom: The discussion will be recorded – so I don't have to take notes. It will only be used for the purposes of this research project. Check permissions for this.
• Confidential – nothing you say will be attributed to you or your organisation.
• Reiterate GDPR rules if required: withdraw at any time, only share what you are comfortable with

Background warm up

• Description of organisation
  • Tenure of stock (private, local authority, housing association, mixed - specify)
  • Number of dwellings in management
  • Type of dwellings in management – maisonettes, self-contained, HMOs.
  • Type and level of care/support service provided
• Respondent
  • Job title
  • Role
  • Responsibility for building management/care provision and fire safety
• How is fire safety managed within the organisation?
  • Overseen by committee/board
  • Dedicated team member
  • Part of team member's role – probe on how much of the role
  • Resident involvement/responsibility
  • If housing and care services are delivered by different organisations, is there good cooperation and coordination on fire safety

Review of the Guidance

Awareness

• When did you become aware of the Practical Guidance for Fire Safety in specialised housing?
• How did you become aware of the Practical Fire Safety Guidance?
• Initial impressions? Spontaneous then prompt on

- the content, coverage, accessibility, distribution/promotion

Use

• Are you using the Guidance – if not what do you use?
• What were you using before the single source of Guidance was published?
• Talk me through how you are using the Practical Fire Safety Guidance in your organisation?
• Prompt and explore each of:

- Dissemination within the organisation

- How are you ensuring the right people are made aware of the guidance?

- Review and updating policies and procedures

• Responsibility/support
• Priorities
• Which policies and procedures?
• Engaging with residents on fire safety
• Do you use the matrix of responsibilities to help clarify roles and responsibilities in your fire safety policy? (Annex 6)

- Undertaking risk assessments and acting on findings

• Responsibility/support
• Priorities
• Developing action plans
• Implementing action plans

The Fire Safety Risk Assessments

Let's focus on the Risk Assessment content of the Guidance now.

• Before we set up our discussion today, were you aware of the Person-Centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment and the Premises Based Fire Safety Risk Assessment [Check – this may have answered above]
• Did you carry out premises-based risk assessments prior to the Guidance being published?
• Did you carry out person-centred risk assessments prior to the Guidance being published?
• Has the guidance prompted you to review your existing risk assessments (if so, which ones)?
• If you did not carry out assessments previously, has the Guidance prompted you to do so now?
• If you had done either type of risk assessment before, how did you go about it (must be clear on which type of assessment is being discussed)?

- Undertake the assessment yourself

- Work with a fellow team member

- Allocate a member of your team to undertake an assessment

- Commission an external assessor to undertake an assessment (premises based)

- If you used an external assessor, did you use one who is 3^rd party certificated or registered with a professional body? (premises based)

• Overall, how helpful would you say the Fire Safety Risk Assessment templates are (Annex 3 and 5)?
• Are there any aspects of the Risk Assessment guidance or templates that you feel could be improved?
• Overall, how robust do you feel the approach to Fire Safety Risk Assessment set out within the Guidance is? Why do you say that?

Person-Centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment

• Do you use the template supplied or a different template?
• If you use the template supplied, is the structure of the template helpful? Why do you say that?
• Is the supporting guidance sufficient to help you to undertake the person-centred risk assessment? Why do you say that? Spontaneous then prompt for

- Hazard factors included

- Individual circumstances identified

- Risk levels and actions

• Do you feel you have sufficient knowledge of individual residents to complete the person-centred FSRA? Why do you say that?
• At the end of the assessment, you are asked to select an overall 'risk level'. How easy or difficult do you think it would be to determine the risk level, based on using the guidance and the template?
• How well placed do you feel to produce an action plan to address any issues that might be identified in the risk assessment?

Premises-based Fire Safety Risk Assessment

• Do you use the template supplied or a different template?
• If you use the template supplied, is the structure of the template helpful? Why do you say that?
• Is the supporting guidance sufficient to help you to undertake the premises-based risk assessment? Why do you say that? Spontaneous then prompt for

- Potential causes of fire

- Evaluation of risk and adequacy of existing fire safety measures

- Formulating an Improvement Plan

• Do feel you have sufficient knowledge of the building, occupancy and management arrangements to complete the premises-centred risk assessment? Why do you say that?
• How well placed do you feel to produce an improvement plan to address any issues that might be identified in the premises-based risk assessment or would you rely on an external risk assessor to do this?

Impact of the Guidance

• Overall, how helpful would you say the Practical Fire Safety Guidance is?
• Is there anything in the guidance that is unhelpful?
• Have you experienced any barriers to using the guidance and/or implementing changes based on it?
• What sort of impact has the guidance had on the management of fire safety more generally for your organisation?
• Has the guidance helped you to develop a fire safety policy if you didn't already have on in place?
• Have you used the guidance to resolve any particular fire safety issues in your premises?
• Are there any aspects of the Practical Fire Safety Guidance as a whole that you feel could be improved? Spontaneous, then prompt and explore each of

- Awareness raising about the Guidance and its contents, including the risk assessments

- Clarity /understandability of the requirements – In general? Specific topics, sections?

- Additional information - Which sections/topics would benefit from further explanation?

- Training – has the guidance prompted you to reconsider your organisations fire safety training requirements?

- Support and tools

- Layout /format

- Length

• What would be the benefit/disbenefit of moving towards mandatory guidance or legislation, following the approach adopted in England? (where premises based risk assessments of common areas are required by law)

- Is this something that you feel is needed? Why / why not?

Wrap up (5 minutes)

• To sum up, how valuable has the Guidance been to you, since its introduction last year/ will it be to you over coming months?
• Is there anything you think the Scottish Government should consider modifying about the Guidance which would make it more useful to you?

Thank and close

Topic Guide: Informal/unpaid carers

Discussion Guide – General Public/Carers

Scottish Government

Assessment of the Guidance For specialised Housing

18.1.21 Final – Revised 20.1.21

Introduction

• Welcome to the session
• Introduction by moderator and explanation of Market Research Society Code of Conduct.
• Describe background to research: The Scottish Government issued Guidance on Fire Safety for Existing Specialised Housing around a year ago (January 2020). This was in response to the Grenfell tragedy in 2017. The overarching aim of this research is to get your views on the relevant sections of the Guidance – particularly the person-centred risk assessment. The guidance is aimed primarily at organisations which provide specialised housing and care/support and much of the content is, by necessity, technical. However, some parts, particularly the guidance on person-centred risk assessment (Part 1), will be of interest to friends, family or volunteers who provide care or support for people in general needs housing. We would be interested to know if you find any of the guidance useful.
• Zoom: The discussion will be recorded – so I don't have to take notes. It will only be used for the purposes of this research project. Check permissions for this.
• Confidential – nothing you say will be attributed to you.
• Reiterate GDPR rules if required: withdraw at any time, only share what you are comfortable with

Background warm up

• Tell me a little bit about yourself – where you live? Do you work? Family?
• And can you tell me a bit about the person you care for – relationship, type of care requirements, sole carer/ paid carer as well, do they live with you or in their own home? Do they live alone?
• Housing – where do they live - type of accommodation (house/flat, tenure), nearby

Previous awareness / actions in relation to fire safety

• Have you previously given consideration to fire safety for the person you care for?
• If yes, what have you done? E.g. conducted a risk assessment, had a professional risk assessment (e.g. from a housing or professional care provider), arranged a home fire safety visit from SFRS, installed fire safety devices such as smoke alarms, made changes to property to reduce risk, etc.
• Have you talked to the person you care for about fire safety?
• Are you aware of any sources of information on fire safety/prevention? What are these? Are you aware of any specifically for people providing care to a vulnerable person?
• Where would you look for this type of information? Who would you expect to provide it?
• What are your views on the availability of information on fire safety/prevention?

Review of the Guidance

• Before taking part in this research, were you aware of the Practical Fire Safety Guidance for Specialised Housing (and similar premises) and that it would be useful to people providing care?

- If so, when did you become aware of the Practical Fire Safety Guidance?

- How did you become aware of the Practical Fire Safety Guidance?

• If previously aware of the fire safety guidance – did you read and/or use it?

- If no – why not?

- If yes – how did you use it?

• If previously read guidance - What were your initial impressions? Spontaneous then prompt on content, coverage, accessibility (easy to read)
• If not previously read guidance - What were your initial impressions of the guidance that we sent you? Spontaneous then prompt on content, coverage, accessibility (easy to read)

The Fire Safety Risk Assessments

Let's focus on the Person-Centred Risk Assessment section of the Guidance now (Annexe 3).

• Before we set up our discussion today, were you aware of a Person-Centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment? [Check – this may have answered above]
• And had you used it at all – in whole or in part?

I'd like to now chat through the Person-centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment and Part 1 of the guidance that explains this risk assessment.

Show Screen with Part 1 and risk assessment

Person-Centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment

• Having read Part 1 of the guidance, in general, who do think this part of the guidance is aimed at – professionals or unpaid carers. Why do you say that?
• Would you say that the guidance applies to you in your current role?
• Do you consider that the person you care for is/or may potentially be at high risk of fire in their home – why do you say that?
• Do you consider yourself a 'suitable person' to carry out a person-centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment? Why/why not? If not, who should carry out the assessment?

Let's now look at the risk assessment itself.

• Have you ever completed anything like this before? If yes, what? How did you find it?
• Is the guidance helpful/easy to follow? Why do you say that?
• Is the structure of the template helpful/easy to follow? Why do you say that?
• Let's look at a few of the hazards listed here. For each there is a range of circumstances that might apply. How clear are you which would apply to the person you care for? Why?
• It asks for details of existing control measures – what does that mean?
• The assessment process requires you to take action if something is an outstanding risk – do you feel well-placed to do that? What might prevent you from taking action?
• At the end, it asks for an overall 'risk level'. How easy or difficult to you think it would be to come up with that assessment, based on using the guidance and the template?
• How well placed to do feel to produce an action plan to address any issues that might be identified in the risk assessment?
• Are there any aspects of the person-centred risk assessment guidance that you feel could be improved? Spontaneous, then prompt and explore each of

- Raising awareness of the Guidance and its contents, including person centred risk assessment

- Clarity /understandability of the requirements – In general? Specific topics, sections?

- Support and tools

- Layout /format

- Length

Impact of the Guidance

• Overall, how helpful would you say the guidance for a Person-Centred Fire Safety Risk Assessment is?
• What would be the main factors that might put you off or stop you from doing a person-centred risk assessment? Is there anything that you think might prevent other people from doing it?

Wrap up (5 minutes)

• To sum up, how valuable do you think guidance like this is to people who care for someone in their home?
• Is there anything you think the Scottish Government should consider modifying about the Guidance which would make it more useful to you?

Thank and close