Evacuation Sledge Training

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 sledges are one way the ‘responsible person’ can comply with this legal requirement.

Note:

The Medical Devices Directive (93/42/EEC) classify evacuation chairs, sledges, etc 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.

*For those who attend the course and whom, in their or our opinion, are not suitable or competent to be regarded as an evacuation sledge operator, we offer the option for them to potentially be certified as an evacuation sledge assistant. In most cases evacuation of people using typical evacuation sledge is a two-person task, so having an assistant is a significant physical and psychological advantage for all involved, not least the evacuee!

Course syllabus includes:

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

Course Type:

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

Certificate:

• Following successful completion of the course and assessments, you will receive the following course certificate issued by Chris Garland Training:
  • Evacuation Sledge Operator, or Evacuation Sledge Assistant.

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 is required for this course.
• A reasonable level of physical fitness & strength is required to use the sledges safely.
• Those with back problems, mobility issues or of a nervous disposition will find this course challenging.
• Evacuation sledge 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 sledge assistant rather than operator.

Equipment:

• 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 sledges 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 sledges 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 sledge available for use, for an additional charge of just £50, we can bring a popular model of evacuation sledge for use during the course. If you wish to use our evacuation sledge, 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 qualification 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.
  • If you wish to make use of the our evacuation sledges, 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.