Love Goes To Building On Fire

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



That phrase ‘Building On Fire’ in the UK pretty much conjures up thoughts of the London Grenfell Tower tragedy 14th June 2017, in which 72 people, including a stillborn birth perished, needlessly.



Originally tower blocks such as these were designed with fire safety in mind. In most cases, each flat was totally self-contained, sealed by concrete in most cases. Fire could not spread, this was a design feature. 

Improvement works, often with great intentions, to improve energy efficiency or aesthetics, can often introduce new fire hazards or new means for fire to accelerate, through new voids between dwellings or into them.

Often capital works are initially well planned, with regard to fire safety. Often if these works are cut back or only initial phases are completed, this is where opportunity for fire risks can be introduced. Alternatively, if a robust fire risk assessment regime is not in place, or maybe one is in place but reports are not actively closed out, problems and likelihood of risk to residents may result. I know the ICT systems are out there to record regular FRA’s and what follow up actions are required & taken. There’s plenty of them.

A new TPAS course, has been put together to try to address some of the problem areas above. ‘Resident Engagement in Building Safety’ runs on the 31st October 2018. This will cover:

•    How to support residents to understand building safety
•    Ways to involve residents in decision making with a focus on Multi Storey Blocks
•    How to share key information clearly and transparently
•    What types of support and resources deliver meaningful engagement
•    How to engage vulnerable residents successfully 

This course is designed for staff, board members and councilors or anyone who has an interest in, or responsibility for, resident engagement in building safety.

Lets work together landlords and residents, to make these tower blocks safer.

Read about the TPAS course here - https://www.tpas.org.uk/tpas-events/show/252 - I urge tower block tenants, landlords and contractors involved with tower block capital/planned works, to check it out. This course will do more than just raise awareness, this will potentially save lives. Just one more life lost as a result of lax fire safety, is one too many IMHO.

Additional dates this course runs are:

• Thu 31st Jan 2019, 10:00am - 4:00pm Exeter 
• Thu 7th Feb 2019, 10:00am - 4:00pm Birmingham  
• Thu 21st Feb 2019, 10:00am - 4:00pm Manchester 
• Thu 28th Feb 2019, 10:00am - 4:00pm London  

Book early! 

Related Post: Never mind your digital firewall, are you working on your human one? 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Talking Heads – Love Goes To Building On Fire.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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London Thunder

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy




Manchester and London are two of my very favourite cities and a particular couple that will not be beaten by terrorists, racists, malpractice, or austerity. These have been an unbelievable few weeks in terms of sad events and needless death, injury and damage.

You like me I am sure was truly horrified to see the Grenfell tower fire unfold, with such terrible loss of life, 79 people and displacement of residents. An incident that every landlord dreads and everyone I work with take very seriously in terms of fire risk assessments (FRA’s) and general communal block safety.

Of course, accurate up to date FRA’s do not guarantee complete and absolute safety, but these are structured to detect issues and failures, which can lead to increased risk of incidents such as this tragic one. Clearly too, as highlighted at Grenfell, quality and specification of materials is also crucial. Since last week, every single one of my clients I am working with, are giving FRA’s in their stock, additional attention and board members with management are very focused on this area. The eye is on the ball, so to speak.

Use of qualified experts is key and also additional emphasis during and after completion of major cladding and insulation works. While residents are generally involved in consultations, the recent tragedy puts additional emphasis on this aspect. Fast action to remedy issues found is key.

From a systems point of view, how do you manage and store your Social Housing Fire Risk Assessments? As an RSL, can you evidence how you keep your residents in tower blocks as safe as possible?

FRA’s in my system mind, are filed in a similar place to that other hot potato of socialhousing, and that is Gas Servicing (LGSR). I am still amazed so many organisations, even big ones, of over 5,000 homes, still often still resort to Excel or manual means. While this can be effective with conscientious staff and meticulous record keeping, it’s far from fool proof.  Rows & cells can easily be moved, hidden, deleted or corrupted.

Many landlords will no doubt now find that the previous focus on efficient gas servicing and in particular, integrating these regular and essential checks with integrated system, will now be the next drive coming from the regulator. It’s obvious too that it all makes sense. Integrated systems can ensure that all blocks and communal areas can be evidenced as having recent and adequate checks, safe materials, with exceptions and anomalies easily reported, flagged up and tasked to appropriate staff.

Integrated reporting can be managed so much easier, as can cross-referencing assessment data, images etc with other means of categorisation. I.E. Need category, composition of residents, leaseholders, shared owners etc. The latter is useful where improvement works are found necessary and in-depth consultations will need additional organisation.

Within most Integrated Housing Management Systems, attributes or components can be easily configured to record relevant information, dates, inspection name, findings, areas to examine and photo records evidencing survey. Where the attribute/component can be placed in a planned or cyclical cycle, a regular plan can schedule weekly, monthly or annual levels of survey easily.

If you have flexible mobile forms, that can collect the info, it should be an easy job to configure simple forms and interface seamlessly to attributes.

Use of a standalone database or application is not ideal, but can be better than a badly (cell protected) spreadsheet.

Social landlords can do all they can to ensure their blocks and communal areas are safe. It is also down to honest contractors, to use the safe and legal materials specified and take all reasonable safety precautions. As we have seen, hundreds of innocent people’s lives depend on everyone doing the right thing and not cutting any unnecessary corners. No doubt, the planned inquiry/inquest will hopefully reach conclusions on exactly what happened here. There will no doubt be many lessons for everyone to learn here.     

The Grenfell fire JustGiving page is here - https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/categories/emergencies/grenfell-tower-fire

Related Post: Recognise your business change projects 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Foals - London Thunder.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 ,365Agile," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain,#InternetOfTenants, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,AirWatch,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos, Asprey e-state pro,ActiveHousing,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview,Agile365, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,Civica Genero,Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact 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tender,OpenHousing,Opti-time,Oracle,Orchard,Optitime DRS,Outsource and outsourcing,OpenContractor,ORS,OneServe, PIMMS Data Systems, Paloma,performance management systems,PfH, Pick,PIMMS,pimms4communities, Planned maintenance,People Value,Plus, Peoplevalue, PM,Progress,Promaster,Proval,Pyramid,PRINCE2,prince,Pamwin,PlanForm, Propoints, Pro-Points,predictive analytics for housing, QL,QLX,Quiss,Qlikview, QueryView,Queryview reporting,Registered Providers,Registered Social Landlord,Rent Increase Freezes,Repairfinder,Reporting,Reports,ROCC,RobotAutomation,Rave Technologies (India) PVT Limited, Rocket,RPs,RSL,Reality,ReAct,reidmark,RM865, Saffron,SAP,Scots, "Social Housing IT",Social Housing ICT, Scottish,Scenario, Scotland,SDM,sector,TonySmithHou,Safron,Server Virtualisation,servicing, Servitor,Sharepoint, Simdel,Simdell,SimPro,Sim Pro,Slash and Burn,Social Media,Software,SQL Open Housing,SQL Reporting Services,SQL reporting services,SQL Server,Star rating,Stores and Stock,Strategic Asset 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