Introduction to Fire Safety Management

The board must recognise its role in engaging 
the active participation of workers in improving 
safety and risk management
. Effective safety risk 
management requires the active participation of 
employees. Many successful organisations actively 
promote and support employee involvement and 
consultation. Employees at all levels should become 
actively involved in all aspects of a safety manage-
ment system.
5. 
Current best practice is that boards appoint one 
of their number to be the ‘safety director’
. By 
appointing a ‘safety director’ there will be a board 
member who can ensure that fi re and health and 
safety risk management issues are properly ad-
dressed throughout the organisation.
It is important that the role of the safety director should 
not detract either from the responsibilities of other direct-
ors for specifi c areas of fi re and health and safety risk 
management or from the safety responsibilities of the 
board as a whole.
Figure 3.1
The responsibility for safety management 
starts and stops in the board room

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Organising for safety
39
Directors and senior managers often carry out the 
function of the top-level executive. In order to achieve 
this, directors and senior managers will need to establish 
the policy and put in place and monitor the detailed 
organisation and arrangements section of the safety 
policy.
As the top level of management, directors and senior 
managers are responsible for putting in place arrange-
ments to support a positive safety culture including:
➤
Establishing the methods of management 
control
throughout the organisation
➤
Securing 
effective