Evacuation Chair Operator and Assistant Course

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the ‘responsible person’ (e.g. the building owner or employer) has to ensure that everyone (whether an employee or visitor) can be evacuated safely from the building during an emergency. Evacuation chairs are one way the ‘responsible person’ can comply with this legal requirement, making evacuation chair training a legal requirement.

Note:

The Medical Devices Directive (93/42/EEC) classify evacuation chairs as a Class 1 Medical Device, alongside wheelchairs, hospital beds, etc. As such they fall under the requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER). This means there is a legal obligation on equipment providers to ensure adequate staff training, as well as servicing of the equipment, to ensure that the equipment can be operated safely during emergency situations.

Course syllabus includes:

• History behind evacuation chairs.
• Legislation relating to evacuation chairs.
• Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP).
• Disability awareness.
• Disability evacuation etiquette.
• Moving, lifting & handling techniques.
• Postural issues to avoid injuries to the chair operator.
• Practical skills with evacuation chairs.
• Transferring from a wheelchair into an evacuation chair and back.

Course Type:

• Practical, face to face training (maximum of 6 learners to 1 instructor).

Certificate:

• In most cases evacuation of people using typical evacuation chair is a two-person task, so having an assistant is a significant physical and psychological advantage for all involved, not least the evacuee!
• For those who attend the course and whom, in our (or their) opinion, are not competent to be regarded as an evacuation chair operator, we offer the option for them to be certified as an evacuation chair assistant.
• Certificates will be issued at the discretion of the trainer depending on the level of competence and ability demonstrated during the course. (e.g. those who physically cannot control the decent of a loaded evacuation chair safely may be certified as an assistant rather than an operator).
• Upon successful completion of the evacuation chair training course and assessments, you will receive the following course certificate issued by Chris Garland Training:
  • Evacuation Chair Operator Certificate, or Evacuation Chair Assistant Certificate.

Course duration:

• Approximately 4 guided learning hours.

Time:

• Please note the exact times for your course booking.

Test:

• Multiple-Choice Question paper:
  • You need to score 70% to achieve a pass.
• Practical assessment:
  • You need to score 100% to achieve a pass.

Pre-requisites:

Personnel:

• No prior experience or evacuation chair training is required for this course.
• A reasonable level of physical fitness & strength is required to use the chairs safely (despite what some manufacturers claim!).
• Those with back problems, mobility issues or of a nervous disposition will find this course challenging.
• Evacuation chair operators of a petite stature (under approx 5’5″/165cm) tend to ensure a swift delivery of the evacuee to the bottom of the stairs & as such may prefer to be certified as an evacuation chair assistant rather than operator.

Evacuation Chairs:

• We highly recommend that during courses run at your venue, we use your evacuation equipment where possible. This provides staff with hands-on knowledge of (and confidence in) the available equipment.
• For insurance purposes we will need a copy of the current maintenance certificate for any of your evacuation chairs that you’d like to use during your course. Maintenance certificates must be with us no later than one (1) week prior to the date of your course. Unless less than 12 months old, if your evacuation chairs haven’t been serviced in the last 11 months, we won’t be able use them during the course.
• If you don’t have a chair available for use, for an additional charge of just £50, we can bring a popular model of evacuation chair for use during the course. If you wish to use our evacuation chair, please ensure that you advise us when arranging your course booking.

Candidates:

• All courses have a minimum and maximum number of candidates that we can take on a course.
  • Minimum: We need a minimum of 3 candidates booked on an open/scheduled course for the course to run. Click here for more details.
  • Maximum: To ensure your safety at the top of the stairs, we can only take a maximum of 8 candidates per course. Should you have more than 8 candidates for the course, we’d need to run separate courses. Please contact us to discuss holding a private course.

Geographical coverage:

• This evacuation chair training is available to candidates across the UK. We can deliver it outside the UK but the protocols that we teach to meet current UK guidelines.

Venue:

• Open Courses: These run at our training centre in Knutsford, Cheshire.
• Private Courses: Why not arrange to have a private courses run at your workplace? Simply fill in our quote builder tool to request a quotation.
  • We can run this course for you at your premises anywhere in the country with a maximum of 8 people per course. Naturally you’ll also need to have a suitable staircase at your premises that we can use during the course.
  • Please note that as the chairs descend the stairs there will be some fine rubber “crumb” which rubs off the chairs’ rubber belts. This does not normally leave a mark & can be brushed/vacuumed away. Should you wish us to protect your stairs further we can use masking tape, etc, to protect the nosing of the stairs.
  • If you wish to make use of the our evacuation chairs, please ensure you advise us when arranging your course.

Joining instructions:

• Visit this page to read the course joining instructions.
• Where your course is not being run at our main training centre, you’ll also receive an email with additional joining instructions including the venue address.