Safety – A Care Home Sector Perspective with Phil Clarke

Overview

Keeping care homes safe is essential, but it’s also important that these places feel like home. As a safety professional, how do you balance legal compliance with dignity, independence, and comfort for residents?

This article outlines real-world actions and easy-to-follow advice from experienced professionals in the field. If you manage, support, or advise on safety in care settings, this guide is for you.

A Care Home Sector Perspective with Phil Clarke

1. Review Your Fire Safety Through a “Home First” Lens

Walk your premises as if you live there. Ask: “Would I want my loved one living here?” Then review safety from that human perspective.

Key steps:

• Check decorations, furniture, and layout for both comfort and fire risk.
• Identify places where safety measures feel too clinical.
• Find ways to adapt (e.g. fire-retardant materials, safer arrangements).

Tip: Balance risk reduction with resident well-being, especially around holidays when extra items like lights and décor appear.

2. Build Trust in Your Team (and From Your Team)

Develop a culture where your team can ask questions and make informed decisions, not only follow orders.

How to do it:

• Use questions to guide, not commands: “What advice could you give?”
• Support decisions, then debrief together.
• Let new team members shadow experienced ones before working solo.
• Encourage your team to “check in” with you, even if they’re confident.

Result: Your team will grow faster and make better safety calls on their own.

3. Improve Your Incident Investigation Approach

Make investigations learning-focused, not blame-focused.

Steps:

• Review current procedures. Are they too formal or too reactive?
• Create a checklist to ensure learnings are shared with all sites.
• Use online tools (e.g. Teams) but also plan occasional in-person debriefs.
• Share both what went wrong and what worked well.

Bonus: Test your findings against other homes. Can you roll out improvements everywhere?

4. Understand the Business to Be Heard

Learn how your organisation works, earns money, and measures success.

Key things to ask:

• What are our occupancy rates?
• What’s the average cost of an incident?
• What do our facilities teams prioritise?

Use this knowledge to:

• Speak the same language as senior leaders.
• Propose cost-effective, realistic safety changes.
• Show how safety adds value, not just cost.

5. Plan for Better Interventions, Inside and Outside Work

Use a calm, helpful tone when spotting unsafe behaviour. Choose when and how to act.

At work:

• Ask people to “pause and review” instead of shouting “stop!”
• Use curiosity instead of blame: “Can I ask how you’re planning to finish this task?”

In public:

• Only step in if the risk is serious and immediate.
• Consider your role: if it’s not your site, be respectful and careful.
• If you do speak up, be polite, clear, and brief.

6. Train Less, Educate More

Move away from “tick-box training” and toward real education.

Try this:

• Focus on why safety matters, not just what to do.
• Run short, scenario-based sessions where staff solve problems.
• Build decision-making skills, not just compliance.

Example: Instead of a 2-hour manual handling class, ask staff how they’d move furniture in a tight space, then review solutions together.

7. Start Small, Then Build a Safety Culture

Before launching big “safety culture” campaigns, fix the basics.

Checklist:

• Are risk assessments clear, useful, and site-specific?
• Are procedures up to date and followed daily?
• Is the training recorded and practical?
• Are staff confident in reporting concerns?

Tip: A flashy culture campaign is worthless if no one reads the fire evacuation plan.

 8. If You’re a Lone Safety Pro. Act Like the Head of Safety

Own your authority. Even if you’re the only one, your voice matters.

Do this:

• Introduce yourself clearly to teams as the decision-maker on safety.
• Network outside your organisation (join local groups, online communities).
• Find a “work friend” at your level in another department to bounce ideas off.

9. Reflect Regularly and Stay Curious

Take time each month to step back and ask:

• What worked this month?
• What didn’t?
• What could we try differently next time?

Use tools such as:

• Team retrospectives
• Short surveys
• Voice notes to yourself (then play them back!)

Tip: Consider joining or starting a local safety meet-up, even if it’s only for coffee and shared stories.

10. Consider Going Further in Your Learning

Action:

If you have a degree or professional experience, explore a professional doctorate or PhD in health and safety.

Why it matters:

• It helps bring real academic thinking to everyday safety.
• You’ll build evidence-based practices.
• You’ll raise the standard for our whole profession.

Resources:

• Look into programmes from UK universities.
• Student Finance England may offer loans.
• Reach out to experienced pros for advice.

Final Thought

Whether you’re managing one home or supporting 150, remember:

• Residents come first.
• Your team needs trust, not pressure.
• Safety isn’t about saying “no.” It’s about asking, “How can we do this safely?”

Want Help Bringing These Actions to Life?

At Risk Fluent, we help safety leaders turn complex challenges into clear, human solutions. Whether you want training, mentoring, or fire strategy support. We’re here.