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Level 6 Diploma Advanced Fire Safety Design
The degree level competence qualification for the fire engineer, senior fire risk assessor or building safety manager working on complex and higher-risk buildings: fire strategies, compartmentation, external walls, safety cases and the Building Safety Act. Assessed on the buildings and reports you already work on. No classroom and no exam.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 6 Advanced Fire Safety Design and Building Risk Management different
About this qualification
The Level 6 Diploma in Advanced Fire Safety Design and Building Risk Management is the degree level competence qualification for people who design, review and manage fire safety in complex and higher-risk buildings: fire engineers and consultants, senior fire risk assessors moving beyond standard premises, building safety managers, and the people who advise accountable persons and principal designers. It is not taught. It records, against ProQual's standards, the work you already do: producing fire strategy reports, reviewing fire risk assessments against the strategy, verifying compartmentation and external wall performance against design intent, evaluating higher-risk buildings under the Building Safety Act, building safety case arguments, and the professional practice and ethics that go with it.
It is awarded by ProQual AB, an Ofqual regulated awarding organisation, under qualification number 610/7431/7. It is new, on the register from May 2026, and it was written for the competence expectations that came with the Building Safety Act: gateways, the golden thread, defect disclosure and safety cases. Seven mandatory units, no options, 92 credits. GQA Qualifications do not offer a fire safety qualification at this level, which is why it is ProQual.
Assessment is a portfolio of evidence from the buildings and reports you work on, written evaluations where a unit asks for analysis, an observation where it adds something, and professional discussions with your assessor, most of it live and online by Zoom or Teams. There is no fixed duration: you register any week and finish as quickly as your projects produce the evidence.
- Nothing new, if you already produce and review fire strategies for complex buildings. The qualification records what you do rather than teaching it
- How to evidence fire safety design competence: what a strategy report, a compartmentation survey, an external wall appraisal and a safety case contribution each prove
- Where your practice is thin against the seven units, from performance based analysis and HAZID to the ethics of a cost against safety decision
- Whether you meet the entry requirement, and where to build from if you do not yet hold a Level 4 in fire safety
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 6 Diploma in Advanced Fire Safety Design and Building Risk Management, certificated by ProQual
- Degree level evidence of competence in the work the Building Safety Regulator expects of fire safety professionals on higher-risk buildings
- A portfolio of strategy reports, verification surveys, risk appraisals and safety case work that stands in front of clients, accountable persons and principal designers
- A structured record of professional practice, ethics and continuing professional development that professional bodies ask to see
Who is it for?
Fire engineers and fire safety consultants, senior fire risk assessors who work on complex buildings and want to move beyond standard fire risk assessment, building safety managers and building safety case leads, and fire safety advisers in housing, healthcare, education, facilities and construction who hold a Level 4 fire safety qualification and work on higher-risk or complex buildings now.
Entry requirements. This one has a real entry requirement. ProQual ask that you are 18 or over and hold a current Level 4 qualification on the Regulated Qualifications Framework in a fire safety related subject, such as a Level 4 Certificate in Fire Risk Assessment. You also need live work to evidence from: fire strategies, compartmentation or external wall reviews, higher-risk building work, safety case input. If you assess fire risk in low and medium risk premises and hold a Level 3, such as the NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety, that is the place to build from and this is not yet the honest fit. The initial assessment below confirms this before you pay anything.
Ready to find out if you qualify?
The initial assessment takes a couple of minutes and nothing is typed: you click through what you do and what you can evidence, and it tells you the pathway, the level and what to gather. Or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Initial assessment
Check you qualify, in a couple of minutes
Nothing to type. Click through what you do, whether you work on complex and higher-risk buildings, whether you hold the Level 4 fire safety qualification ProQual ask for, and what you can evidence, and it shows you the evidence your assessor will ask for against each of the seven units. It is about what you can evidence, not a test: anything you cannot evidence yet is something we plan with you and your employer. These answers are your initial assessment, and you can email yourself a PDF of it.
The online check needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us what you do and we will run the initial assessment with you over the phone.
What you evidence
The units behind the qualification
Seven mandatory units and no options, worth 92 credits: five at Level 6 and two at Level 5. 540 guided learning hours, 915 hours total qualification time. It is a new qualification, on the Ofqual register from May 2026, so the unit list is current; your assessor confirms it on registration. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from the buildings, strategies and reviews you already work on.
The seven units everyone completes (92 credits)
- T/652/1461 Produce fire safety strategy reports in accordance with design intent (Level 6, 90 GLH)
- A/652/1463 Evaluate fire safety design intent and internal fire spread performance in complex buildings (Level 6, 90)
- D/652/1464 Critically appraise external fire spread risk in external wall systems (Level 6, 85)
- F/652/1465 Evaluate fire safety design in higher-risk buildings (Level 6, 90)
- H/652/1466 Analyse fire safety risk using performance-based and process safety principles (Level 6, 85)
- Y/652/1462 Review fire risk assessments and fire strategy outputs to ensure fire safety performance (Level 5, 75)
- J/652/1467 Professional practice, ethics and continuing professional development in fire safety design and building risk management (Level 5, 25)
No pathways and no options
- The strategy and design units are evidenced from real buildings: establishing design intent from drawings, specifications, approvals and O&M information, then verifying compartmentation, cavity barriers, fire doors and external wall systems against it, with PAS 9980 style methodology for external walls
- The higher-risk building and process safety units cover the Building Safety Act 2022, gateways, the golden thread, defect disclosure, safety case arguments, barrier models, HAZID and cumulative risk
- ProQual publish credits for the qualification as a whole (92) rather than per unit, so the units are shown with guided learning hours. Assessors on this qualification hold Institution of Fire Engineers membership and ten years in an engineering industry, which ProQual require
Method of assessment
Assessment journey
Competence based, which means no exam and no written test. You build a portfolio of evidence from the buildings and reports you already work on, add a written evaluation where a unit asks you to analyse rather than do, and talk the rest through in professional discussions with your assessor, most of it live by Zoom or Teams. The online check above is your initial assessment; there is no separate skills scan.
1. Initial assessment, online
The questions you click through above are your initial assessment. They tell us whether you meet the Level 4 entry requirement, whether your work touches higher-risk and complex buildings, and whether you have enough live projects to evidence the seven units.
2. Register with ProQual
We register you with ProQual AB under qualification number 610/7431/7 once we have seen your Level 4 fire safety certificate. Your assessor plans the seven units around the projects and reviews you have coming up and tells you what to keep from the first week.
3. Evidence from your own projects
Fire strategy reports you produced or reviewed, fire risk assessment reviews and assurance reports, compartmentation survey reports and defect schedules, external wall appraisals, gateway submissions and golden thread information you handled, safety case contributions, HAZID and barrier analyses, your CPD plan and reflective records. Your assessor tells you exactly what each unit needs.
4. Observation, where it adds something
Your assessor watches you work where the work happens: a compartmentation or external wall survey, a design review meeting, a presentation to an accountable person or client, on site or by video call, and records what they see against the standard.
5. Professional discussion
A recorded conversation about why you make the judgements you make. It covers the knowledge criteria a document cannot show: why a performance based solution was justified where guidance did not fit, how test evidence and classification reports apply to the detail you saw, how cumulative defects change the risk, where you drew the ethical line between cost and safety.
6. Certificate
Internal quality assurance, then ProQual issue the certificate. It does not expire and there is no card attached to it. If you are working towards Institution of Fire Engineers membership, the IFE assess that on your own application, and the portfolio you built here is the kind of evidence of competence they ask for.
After the qualification
Building safety roles, and where the IFE fits
There is no card attached to this qualification. What it gives you is degree level evidence of competence in the work the Building Safety Regulator now expects of the people who design, review and manage fire safety in complex and higher-risk buildings: strategy reports, compartmentation and external wall verification, safety case arguments, defect management and the ethics that go with them. That is what a client, an accountable person or a principal designer wants to see before they rely on your judgement.
ProQual wrote the qualification to line up with the competence and continuing professional development expectations of the Institution of Fire Engineers, and require the assessors who assess it to hold IFE membership. Membership itself is assessed by the IFE on your own application; the portfolio you build here is the kind of evidence they ask for. If your role is also the organisation's health and safety lead, the Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice covers that side and we assess it too.
- Institution of Fire Engineers membership applied for by you, assessed by the IFE on your own evidence
- NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety for the people on your team who assess low and medium risk premises
- Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice if you also own the health and safety system
- Interest free instalments and employer invoicing on every qualification
Level 6 Advanced Fire Safety Design and Building Risk Management FAQs
Yes. Level 6 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as a bachelor's degree. This one is a competence qualification rather than an academic one, so it proves you can produce and verify fire safety design on real buildings rather than that you have studied it.
ProQual ask for a current Level 4 qualification on the Regulated Qualifications Framework in a fire safety related subject, and that you are 18 or over. The NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety is a Level 3, so on its own it does not meet it; a Level 4 Certificate in Fire Risk Assessment does. If you hold a fire engineering degree, HNC or HND, or an older qualification you think is equivalent, send it to us and we will check it with ProQual before you register.
ProQual call it a Diploma rather than an NVQ because some of the units ask you to evaluate and analyse as well as do. It is assessed the same way: a portfolio of your own evidence, a written evaluation where a unit asks for analysis, an observation where it adds something and professional discussions with your assessor. There is no exam and no classroom.
People already working on complex and higher-risk buildings: fire engineers and consultants producing strategies, senior fire risk assessors reviewing strategies and verifying compartmentation and external walls, building safety managers and safety case leads, and advisers to accountable persons and principal designers. If your work is fire risk assessment in offices, shops, schools and low rise housing, the NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety or a Level 4 in fire risk assessment is the right level for now.
As long as you take. There is no fixed duration, no cohort and no term dates: you register any week and the qualification is led by you. Someone with a live higher-risk building project, recent strategy reports and a survey file to draw on can finish inside a year alongside the job; if your evidence has to wait for the next project, it takes longer and your assessor plans around it.
Documents you already produce: fire strategy reports, fire risk assessment reviews and assurance reports, compartmentation survey reports and defect schedules, external wall appraisals and the test evidence behind them, gateway submissions and golden thread records, safety case contributions, HAZID and barrier analyses, your CPD plan. Where a unit asks you to analyse, such as how minor defects combine into intolerable risk, you write that about a real building you know. Your assessor maps each item to a unit and tells you what is missing.
No card comes from the qualification itself, and none is needed for the design and assurance work it covers. If you do need a card for site access, the route is the CSCS White Professionally Qualified Person card, which CSCS issue on proof of Institution of Fire Engineers membership at Technician, Graduate, Member or Fellow grade, together with a CITB Managers and Professionals or CIC health and safety test pass. IFE membership is assessed by the IFE on your own application: the qualification was written to line up with their competence and CPD expectations and the portfolio is the kind of evidence they ask for, but the decision is theirs, and Member grade also asks for five years in the fire sector.
Yes. Employers can be invoiced and interest free instalments are available on every qualification. CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and ELCAS funding if you are a service leaver or veteran. We check what applies to you before you commit.
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