Testing of the emergency egress plan is necessary to ensure that it has met the objectives established at the initial review. Once implemented, regular reviews are required to ensure that the plan continues to deliver and remains appropriate to deal with changes in circumstances.
This section will help to meet the following aims of the document:
Some examples of changes that could require alterations to the emergency egress plan include:
Regular reviews will ensure that management have continuing confidence in the plan and will indicate the need for amendment or redesign.
The organisation will need to decide on the frequency of reviews and come up with appropriate methods for reviewing the plan.The aim of each review is to come up with required actions and have these assigned to individuals for action within an agreed timeframe. If serious defects with the plan are identified, it will be necessary to react quickly to ensure that safe egress is maintained for all.
To enable reviews to be carried out, it is necessary to have access to the measurements outlined in Section 7. An assessment will need to be made of the accuracy of the information gathered through these measurements.
Techniques that can be used to assist with reviews include:
The outcome of the review process should be a continually evolving and increasingly robust emergency evacuation plan. A further desired outcome from regular reviewing should also be the identification and implementation of good practice and improvements in technology.
The review process described above will normally be carried out by those who developed and implemented the emergency egress plan. It will also be necessary to have the plan independently audited periodically. This has the benefits of enabling a fresh look to take place, of allowing other ideas to come forward and of giving some rigour to the checking process. Independent audits should be carried out to an agreed timeframe, perhaps one year after implementation and then at longer intervals subsequently. The independent review could be carried out by someone responsible for safe egress in another branch of the organisation, for example, or through a reciprocal arrangement with an unrelated organisation. Alternatively, it may prove beneficial to engage the services of a health and safety or fire safety professional to carry out the audit. As with any review feedback, it is important that senior management are aware of performance, that people are given responsibility to act on recommendations and that appropriate resources are available to make necessary changes.