Sound the alarm

One of the most regular routines in a daycare setting should come as a surprise to everyone. Mary Evans looks at good practice for fire drills and fire safety

Early years managers have to use all their ingenuity to ensure that the phrase 'familiarity breeds contempt' is never attached to their setting's fire drills. While they must hold regular fire practices, they should never become so run of the mill that the staff and children take them for granted.

Under the Children Act regulations, managers of settings must keep a statement of the procedures to be followed in the event of a fire. But in nurseries, having sessional care and using many part-time employees, how do you guarantee that everyone - children, staff and visitors - knows what to do?

The answer lies in holding regular but random fire drills and subjecting them to reflective practice, in the best traditions of the early years sector, so that the process is observed and improvements are identified and implemented.

The National Daycare Standards say that early years settings should take the advice of their local fire safety officer when drawing up their fire safety procedures and agree the frequency of fire drills with the officer.

'We don't go longer than six weeks without a fire drill,' says Judy Fletcher, proprietor of Julyns Day Care Nursery in Wimborne, Dorset. 'Anyone can call a fire drill: the staff or parents or a visitor. Otherwise, if it was just me, I would always know. We even have a visiting NVQ assessor who sets off the alarm. 'We keep a check in the log book, because some children only come once a week, so we need to check that we are running drills on different days at different times so everyone is familiar with them.'

Working on the same principle, the Handkerchief Nursery, Kegworth, uses a bold painting of a fire to trigger a drill. The fire painting is left somewhere around the building and whoever finds it has to sound the alarm (see box). Senior nursery nurse Natalie Searson says, 'People can look quite shocked when they have discovered the "fire" and have to raise the alarm, but it means we all know how to respond. Drills are held once a month unless we have a new member of staff arrive, in which case they are held more regularly. All our staff have done a fire drill in their first week. They need to know the procedure.'

On the record

At Staunton-Montessori School, Staunton-in-the-Vale, Nottingham, records of each fire drill are recorded in a log showing the time taken to vacate the building as well as any untoward incidents and any experience gained that could help towards future improvements, says headteacher Robert Staunton.

As a result of the process of observing, recording and reflecting, the school moved its assembly point from the car park to a secure area of the garden away from the main building. The local community liaison officer from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service also visited the school to talk to the children about fire and safety.

'The first time we run a fire drill with a new child they can get a little worried,' says Judy Fletcher. 'But the other children will say, "This is what is happening; this is what we do". We will talk it all through afterwards and say, "It was a practice. We hadn't burned the dinner". If we have an influx of new children we run drills until they are used to them.'

Duties in the event of a fire drill and a fire are allocated according to seniority of staff. So the person in charge on the day takes the register, while the second in command does the sweep through the building to make sure everyone is out.

'Staff and parents sign in when they arrive and sign out when they leave. These attendance sheets and the register are taken out so we make sure all the adults and children can be accounted for,' says Natalie Searson. 'Also, every room has a fire whistle that is blown and in every room there are clear signs so that everyone, including any visitors or parents, knows what to do.'

The nursery has a large, wheeled cot into which all the babies can be placed so during a fire practice they can be wheeled outdoors quickly. At Staunton-Montessori school, a cordless telephone is on hand so that the senior person on duty can take it out to call the emergency services as the building is vacated.

As for other routines, settings need to make regular checks on their fire extinguishers and enter those checks in the fire logs. 'Originally we rented accommodation at the local community centre,' says Judy Fletcher. 'The landlord had to keep checks on the fire extinguishers, but for our own peace of mind and for our records we used to go round and double-check them ourselves.'

Fire drill procedure at Handkerchief Nursery, Kegworth

• On finding a fire, raise the alarm.
• Immediately evacuate the building using the nearest safe exit.
• Nursery officers will pick up the registers.
• Staff will lead the children out in an orderly manner and should assemble on the tennis court.
• The officer in charge or proprietor will check all areas including toilets, staff room and baby changing areas.
• Close all doors behind you as you proceed out.
• Dial 999 and ask for the fire service. Do not replace the handset until the fire service confirms our address.
• Check the register to ensure all children are accounted for.
• Account for all staff and any other adults in the building.
• Only if it is not dangerous and if you are sure you can do it quickly and safely, attempt to put out the fire using the appropriate firefighting equipment, which can be found hanging next to all fire exits.
• Parents, visitors and trainees will be instructed on fire drill procedures:

Fire drills will be held at regular and random intervals, with no regard to any conditions existing inside or outside the nursery premises, such as rain, snow, frost, mealtimes, light or darkness, busy or quiet, parents or visitors on site.

Any parent or member of staff can initiate a fire drill at any time, after consultation with the nursery manager, by placing the 'fire painting' (to be found in reception) in any part of the nursery. The drill will take place as soon as the 'fire painting' is discovered by anyone. A record will be made of the date, the time and duration of the drill, numbers of staff and children that were present.

A manager's view

Man aboard

It's important for managers to encourage men to work in the sector, says Mairi Maciver Clark

Spotting men in the largely female ranks of the childcare sector is akin to a hobby for many nursery managers and owners who, I've discovered, share similar views and experiences when it comes to employing male childcarers:

• Men have a crucial part to play in early years care and education.
• Without making the salaries better, what man is going to work with us?
• Having a man as part of our team would ensure a different perspective.
• I employ a couple of men and apart from some teething problems, largely due to parents' attitudes, having them in the team is working beautifully. The children love them.
• A lot of the mothers at my nursery have had bad experiences of men and would benefit from meeting good, reliable male childcarers.
• I have never had an application from a man, qualified or unqualified.
• My only male member of staff is likely to go on to train as a teacher leaving us back where we started.
• Most working patterns keep men away from their families for long hours - working 36 hours a week in a nursery would ensure they have time with their own families.

Less than 2 per cent of our early years workforce is male, and like it or not, childcare is still seen as 'women's work' and most men would never dream of joining the sector. It's time we worked on what is preventing or discouraging men from embarking on a career in the early years.

Having more male childcarers would bring enormous benefits, not least providing positive male role models for young children. Increasingly children are growing up in one-parent households, and all too often the first caring male they meet is in secondary school.

Pay is an obvious deterrent to men, but so too is gender stereotyping and indirect discrimination. Too often throughout the childcare sector, we celebrate differences in culture, but not gender. And there's no doubt that early years settings are prone to be all too feminine and not male friendly in culture and attitude.

As employers, we should promote the early years sector as a great career choice for both men and women. Granted there is still the problem of pay, and we can only increase salaries within our means, but we must do more to value diversity, rather than merely indulging in the rhetoric of equality.

We need to consider how we can 'sell' the job in advertisements when we next recruit, arrange for boys to do work experience in our nurseries, network with parents and raise the issue among our umbrella organisations, local authorities and trainers.