Fire safety for academy
trusts & multi-academy trusts.
Consistent across every site, from £295.
An academy trust carries legal accountability for fire safety across every school in the trust, including buildings the central team rarely sets foot in. We work with trust boards, estates leads, and business managers across the North West to bring consistency to fire risk assessment across a portfolio, with one standard of documentation, one point of contact, and assurance the board can put in front of an auditor.
Who is the Responsible Person in a trust?
In an academy trust the legal duty sits centrally, even though the work happens locally.
The academy trust is the employer and the Responsible Person for fire safety across all of its academies. The trust board holds ultimate accountability and cannot delegate the legal duty away, only the day-to-day management of it.
Trusts typically delegate fire safety management to headteachers, site managers, or a central estates lead. That is sensible, but the board remains legally accountable, which is why central oversight of every school's assessment matters.
When a school joins the trust it brings whatever fire safety documentation it had as a maintained school, often inconsistent or out of date. The trust inherits that position on day one and needs to bring it up to a single standard.
Trustees are expected to assure themselves that statutory duties are met. A consistent set of current fire risk assessments across the estate is the clearest evidence the board can hold for that purpose.
The problems we
hear most often
Fire safety across a trust is usually held by a central operations or estates lead managing many sites at once. These are the gaps we find most regularly across a portfolio.
"Every school in our trust has a fire risk assessment from a different provider, in a different format, of variable quality. We cannot compare them or assure the board."
This is the single most common position we find in multi-academy trusts. Schools join with whatever they had, and the trust ends up with a patchwork that is impossible to oversee. We reassess across the portfolio to a single standard and format, so the board can see the whole estate at a glance and act on a consistent action log.
"A school joined the trust recently and we have no idea whether its fire safety documentation is current or adequate."
Onboarding a converting school means inheriting its risk position, including any gaps. We carry out a fresh assessment as part of bringing the school into the trust, giving you a clean, documented baseline rather than an inherited unknown that surfaces at the worst possible moment.
"Our trust is being audited, or the board has asked for assurance on statutory compliance, and fire safety is one of the areas we need to evidence."
Trustees and auditors increasingly expect evidence that estate-related statutory duties are met. A consistent set of current fire risk assessments, with a central action log showing what has been done and what is outstanding, is exactly the assurance that satisfies an audit or a board challenge.
What makes a trust
different to assess
Assessing a trust is not the same as assessing a single school. The challenge is consistency, oversight, and a building stock that varies enormously across the estate.
Buildings of every era
A trust's schools span Victorian buildings, post-war blocks, PFI sites, and new academy builds, each with different fire safety characteristics. A consistent assessment approach is what allows the central team to compare risk fairly across very different buildings.
Visibility across the estate
The board is accountable for sites the central team rarely visits. Without a consistent format and a central action log, it is very difficult to know which schools are compliant and which carry open risk. Consistency is the point, not just the individual reports.
Converting schools
Each school that joins brings its own history and its own documentation. The interface between a school's pre-conversion arrangements and the trust's standard is where risk hides, and it needs to be closed deliberately as part of joining.
Catering, lettings, sites teams
Trusts often run catering, lettings, and site management centrally or through shared contracts. Those arrangements introduce fire risks that cross school boundaries and are easy to miss when each school is looked at in isolation.
From report to remediation
A pile of assessments is not assurance. The value to a trust is in tracking actions to completion across the estate. We structure reporting so the central team can prioritise spend and evidence progress to the board.
Prioritising across schools
A trust has finite estates budget and many competing demands. Assessments scored and prioritised on a consistent basis let leadership direct fire safety spend to the highest risks first, across the whole portfolio rather than school by school.
A framework approach — one provider across your estate
For trusts managing fire safety across several schools, a single provider working to one standard removes the patchwork problem at source. We can work across your portfolio on a planned, rolling basis, with consistent documentation, a central action log, and one point of contact for your operations or estates team. That gives the board the assurance it needs and gives your central team a single, comparable picture of risk across every school. Talk to us about a framework arrangement for your trust.
Three services.
One standard across your estate.
Fire risk assessments, fire door inspections, and fire safety training, delivered consistently across every school in your trust by one accountable provider.
Fire risk assessments
From £295 per assessmentSite-specific assessments for every school in the trust, delivered to one consistent standard and format so the board can oversee the whole estate. Central action log, prioritised remediation, and documentation suitable for audit.
- Every school assessed to a single consistent standard
- Central action log across the whole portfolio
- Consistent scoring so risks compare fairly across sites
- Onboarding assessments for converting schools
- Documentation suitable for trust audit and board assurance
- Planned, rolling programme across the estate
Fire door inspections
From £14 per doorFire doors across a trust are rarely recorded consistently. We inspect to one standard across your schools and give the central team a comparable, photographed condition record for every door.
- Frame, leaf, intumescent seals, hinges & hardware
- Self-closing devices and smoke seals
- Consistent recording across every school
- Photographic evidence per door
- Prioritised remedial recommendations for budgeting
Fire safety training
From £395 per sessionPractical, on-site training delivered consistently across your schools, so staff in every part of the trust work to the same standard.
- Fire marshal training for staff at each school
- Consistent content across the trust
- Hands-on extinguisher use on a live fire
- Out-of-hours and lettings staff training
- Certificates issued to all attendees
The framework
trusts are accountable within
An academy trust answers to fire safety law, to the Department for Education and ESFA, and to its own board, and fire safety documentation has to satisfy all three.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to every academy as non-domestic premises, and names the trust as the Responsible Person. The trust must ensure a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment exists for each school, that identified measures are implemented, and that records are kept. Because the duty sits centrally, the board needs visibility of every school's position, not just confidence that someone locally is dealing with it.
The Academy Trust Handbook and the DfE's Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS) guidance set out the trust's responsibilities for managing its estate safely, including statutory compliance. Auditors and the ESFA expect trusts to be able to evidence that estate-related duties, fire safety among them, are being met across the portfolio.
The DfE's Building Bulletin 100 (BB100) remains the reference document fire authorities use when assessing school fire safety. Assessments across the trust that align with BB100 carry more weight with an inspector and give the board a defensible, recognised basis for its assurance.
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Always appliesNames the trust as Responsible Person across all its academies. Requires a suitable and sufficient assessment for each. Failure can result in unlimited fines or prohibition of a building.
Academy Trust Handbook
GovernanceSets out the trust's accountability for managing its estate and meeting statutory duties. The board is expected to assure itself that fire safety compliance is in place across all schools.
Good Estate Management for Schools
DfE guidanceDfE guidance on managing the school estate safely and compliantly, including fire safety. The reference point for estates leads and central operations teams.
DfE Building Bulletin 100 (BB100)
Schools guidanceThe primary fire safety reference for school buildings. Assessments aligned to BB100 give the trust a recognised, defensible basis for board assurance.
Experience you can
put in a report.
Tim founded Fletcher Risk Management to bring genuine expertise and personal accountability to fire safety consultancy in the North West. With more than 30 years in the fire industry, he has assessed schools and academies of every age and type across the region. He understands what a trust actually needs, which is not just a report per school but a consistent, comparable picture of risk across the estate that the board can stand behind. When you book with Fletcher Risk, Tim carries out the work.
- ABBE Level 4 Diploma in Fire Risk Assessment
- NEBOSH National General Certificate
- FPA Fire Safety Management Certificate
- Member — Fire Protection Association
Sam oversees operations and documentation, which is exactly what matters to a trust managing fire safety across many schools at once. Sam's operational background means we can run a rolling programme across your portfolio with consistent documentation, a central action log, and a single point of contact for your operations or estates team.
- ABBE Level 4 Certificate in Fire Risk Assessment
- Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- 10+ years fire safety experience
"We have engaged Fletcher Risk Management to carry out surveys on a number of our sites for a very important client. The work produced exceeded our expectations by far. I would definitely recommend using this company." — Marie Morgan · EIS Ltd ★★★★★
"Without doubt one of the best and most professional businesses I have used for our Fire Risk Assessment. Tim Fletcher is a highly regarded professional in his field. Don't take a chance — protect your staff, protect your building."
"We have engaged Fletcher Risk Management to carry out surveys on a number of our sites. I would never hesitate to send Tim — always professional, friendly and accommodating. The work exceeded our expectations."
"Thorough, professional, and excellent value. The report was clear and the action points prioritised in a way that made it easy to know exactly what to tackle first. Would recommend without hesitation."
Bring consistency
across your trust.
Whether you are onboarding a new school, replacing a patchwork of providers, or evidencing compliance to your board, we can work across your estate to one standard. Call us for an honest conversation about a framework arrangement, with no obligation.