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Waking watches must only be temporary fix, say fire chiefs
Buildings with waking watches should look to replace patrols with a more permanent cost-effective solution “as soon as possible”, fire chiefs have said.
New guidance from the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) recommended that responsible persons should make a plan “within a month” to move away from around-the-clock patrols.
“Where a waking watch is implemented, it should only act as an immediate solution,” the fourth edition of the NFCC’s Simultaneous Evacuation Guidance (SEG) said.
A “permanent sustainable solution”, such as sprinklers or common fire alarms, should be sought, the guidance said.
The NFCC, which represents all fire and rescue authorities in England, said a key aim of the guidance is to put an “end to risk averse ‘one size fits all’ application of onsite staffing (waking watches or evacuation management) when this is disproportionate to the risk”.
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It added: “Interim measures are not a substitute for remediation, and remedial work should be progressed as quickly as possible.”
Waking watches often involve patrols of buildings by third-party firms and have been used extensively in high-risk blocks since the Grenfell Tower fire.
However, many residents have suffered a heavy financial and mental impact from having to pay and rely on costly waking watches, while seeing delays to their buildings being fixed.
The new SEG acknowledged that “increased insurance costs and financial uncertainty about the cost of works and interim measures” are having “unacceptable impacts on mental health and well-being”.
The guidance added: “This is exacerbated when there is an extended use of waking watch rather than timely remediation to address the issues, or swift installation of a common fire alarm system or a more sustainable mitigation measure, such as a sprinkler system if appropriate, which has been evidenced as being far more cost effective.”
The government has sought to tackle the issue of “excessive” waking watch costs. In January it launched a £27m fund aimed at protecting leaseholders from the “disgraceful misuse of rip-off” waking watches.
This came on top of the £35m Waking Watch Relief Fund that was launched in December 2020.
Official figures published in October 2020 showed that on average, leaseholders in at-risk blocks were paying a collective £11,361 a month for waking watches. This equated to £137 a month per leaseholder.
However, latest figures suggested that waking watches are becoming less prevalent. Data from English fire and rescue services showed that buildings known to have a waking watch (of all heights) fell by nearly 63% between June 2021 and March 2022 – from 773 to 288.
“I’m really pleased to see this tracking down, and hope this trend will continue,” said Mark Hardingham, chair of the NFCC.
In previous guidance, the NFCC had said leaseholders should be allowed to carry out their own waking watch patrols as long as those who carry out the watch are adequately trained.
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