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Evacuation Chair Training
Half a day on the chair on the landing. Buying one is a decision; using one on a real staircase with somebody in it is a skill, and nobody acquires it by reading the sticker.
About this course
Lifts do not work in a fire. That single fact is what puts an evacuation chair on a stairwell landing, and it is also what makes the chair useless if the people who will need to operate it have never touched one.
This half day is practical from the start. Operators unfold the chair, learn the straps and the brake, get a colleague into it, and take it down real stairs under supervision, repeatedly, until it stops feeling alarming. We train on your own chairs, in your own stairwell, because chairs differ and stairwells differ more.
It also covers the part people skip: the personal emergency evacuation plan. A chair with no named operators, no agreed refuge point and no plan for who fetches it is a piece of equipment rather than an arrangement. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts the duty on the responsible person to make sure disabled people can leave the building, and the chair is only one part of meeting it.
Communication gets time too. The person in the chair is in the most vulnerable position in the building and has usually never been in one either. How they are spoken to before and during the descent makes a substantial difference to how it goes.
- Why lifts are not used in an evacuation, and what that means for anybody who cannot use stairs
- The responsible person's duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
- Personal emergency evacuation plans: what one contains and who writes it
- Refuge points, communication systems and how long is reasonable to wait in one
- The parts of an evacuation chair: straps, brake, handles, tracks and folding mechanism
- Deploying the chair quickly and safely from its wall bracket
- Transferring a person into the chair, safely and with dignity
- Descending a staircase, including half landings, turns and doorways
- Talking to the person in the chair, before and throughout
- Storing, inspecting and servicing the chair, and how often
How completing this course helps you
- An Acadame certificate in Evacuation Chair Training
- Named, practised operators rather than a chair and a hope
- Evacuation plans that work for the people who need them most
- Evidence for your fire risk assessment that the arrangement has been tested
Who should attend?
Nominated evacuation chair operators, fire wardens and marshals, facilities and building management staff, receptionists and security teams, school and college staff, and anyone named in a personal emergency evacuation plan. Also useful for the responsible person who has to sign the fire risk assessment.
Entry requirements. None. It assumes no previous training and it is written for the people doing the work rather than the people writing the policy.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Part of a bigger arrangement
A chair is equipment. An evacuation plan is the arrangement
Evacuation chairs are often bought after a fire risk assessment flags a gap, mounted on a landing, and then left. That closes the gap on paper and not in the building.
What actually makes it work is a short list: named operators who have practised, a backup for every one of them because people are on holiday, an agreed refuge point with a way to communicate from it, a plan for who fetches the chair, and a personal emergency evacuation plan for anybody who needs one.
Train the operators and run the arrangement through a drill. It is the only way to find out whether the refuge point is reachable, whether the chair fits the turn on the half landing, and whether anybody actually knows the plan.
Write the plans
A personal emergency evacuation plan for anybody who cannot self evacuate, plus a generic plan for visitors.
Train the operators
This half day, on your own chairs and your own stairs, with a backup named for every operator.
Drill it
Include the chair in a fire drill. Paper arrangements fail in ways that only show up on the stairs.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
The duty and the plan
- Why lifts are not used and what follows from that
- The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the responsible person
- Personal emergency evacuation plans and generic plans
- Refuge points, communication and realistic waiting times
- Who fetches the chair, who operates it, and who is the backup
The chair
- Types of evacuation chair and how they differ
- Deploying the chair from its bracket
- Straps, brake, handles and tracks
- Pre use checks
- Storage, inspection and servicing intervals
The descent
- Transferring a person into the chair safely and with dignity
- Talking to the person before and during the descent
- Descending a straight flight, then half landings and turns
- Doorways, thresholds and corridors
- Two operator working and when it is needed
- Getting clear of the building and handing over
Method of assessment
How Evacuation Chair Training is assessed
Practical observation throughout. This is a hands on session and it is assessed as one.
Practical descent
Every operator deploys the chair, transfers a colleague into it, and takes it down a full staircase under supervision. Repeated until it is smooth rather than survived.
Role reversal
Operators also sit in the chair and are taken down. It changes how people communicate afterwards more than any amount of being told to.
Certificate
An Acadame certificate on completion, with a recommended annual refresh. Skills and confidence with a chair fade quickly if it is never touched.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Classroom
Tutor-led at one of our centres, with everything provided.
Ask us to open a classroom date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
Arrange this course
There are no scheduled dates for this course at the moment. It is normally arranged around you.
Tell us roughly when you need it and how many people are going, and we will come back with dates and a price.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run Evacuation Chair Training at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
Evacuation Chair Training FAQs
No named course is required. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the responsible person to make sure everyone can leave the building safely, including disabled people, and to provide adequate training. If your arrangement relies on an evacuation chair, training the operators is how that duty is met in practice.
More than you think. Two named operators becomes zero the week they are both away. Most buildings need a handful per floor or per shift, with backups, so that there is always somebody on site who has used the chair.
Yes, and we would rather. Chairs vary in how they deploy, strap and brake, and stairwells vary in turns, widths and doorways. Training on a generic chair in a generic stairwell teaches the idea but not your building.
Annually. It is a practical skill under pressure and it fades fast. Many buildings pair the refresher with a fire drill so the whole arrangement gets tested at the same time.
Acadame. It is general awareness training rather than a regulated qualification, which is the right shape for this subject: it is built around what your people actually do and it can be adapted to your own equipment, substances and procedures. Where a regulated qualification is what you need instead, we will say so and point you at it.
Yes, anywhere in the UK, and it is usually the better option. Training on your own equipment, in your own building, with your own procedures in front of people, transfers to the job in a way a generic venue does not.
Up to twelve on a standard session. For practical subjects we will talk through numbers with you, because a room of twenty watching two people practise is not training.
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