Research and analysis

Fire safety: Specialised housing and care homes (executive summary)

Published 22 December 2025

Applies to England

Background

This project was initiated by the Ministry for Housing and Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and then completed and published by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect MHCLG or HSE policy.

Executive summary

Since the inception of sheltered housing during the 1950’s in the UK, a range of specialised housing and care home types have evolved creating a variety of building typologies across the sector in response to societal change. Better health and social care in the post-war years has resulted in people living longer, often associated with more complex needs, disabilities and/or impairments. The increase in life expectancy and the desire of those in their later years to live as independently as possible, for as long as possible has therefore resulted in a spectrum of housing and care options across the sector, providing differing levels of onsite care and support. 

This research considers the different specialised housing and care home typologies which exist in England today and whether the current Building Regulations guidance Approved Document B (ADB) Volume 1 ‘Dwellings’ & Volume 2 ‘Buildings other than Dwellings’1 provide adequate guidance in terms of fire safety for each typology. The research has also reviewed other sector specific guidance and documentation relevant to this sector, which in many cases go into more detail and make recommendations beyond those in ADB, to consider the evidence base and effectiveness for these. The research included a survey of building owners across the typologies, review of relevant guidance and literature on specialist housing in the UK and a review of International regulations to ascertain best practice from a selection of other countries. 

The analysis was carried out based on the following building typologies:

• Retirement housing, also known as retirement living, sheltered housing or independent living, which are age-restricted independent dwellings designed to be ‘care-ready’ for older people;
• Housing with care, also known as extra care, assisted living or integrated retirement communities, are independent dwellings designed for older people where care and support can be provided, as required, to suit resident needs;
• Supported housing type 1, which are independent dwellings designed for people of all ages where support can be provided, as required, to suit resident needs;
• Supported housing type 2, also known as group homes, which are houses or apartments where residents live communally with a shared kitchen, lounge and assisted bathroom, with support provided, as required, to suit resident needs;
• Care homes, also known as nursing homes or specialised care homes, which comprise a series of bedrooms clustered around shared living accommodations, including a dining room and lounge.

Prevalence of fire engineered solutions

Through a series of desktop case study reviews across all of these typologies, surveys completed by operators and detailed interviews with those managing fire safety across the building typologies, this work has uncovered some disconnect between the design of and construction of the buildings under the current ADB and the actual fire safety management of the premises, particularly in relation to evacuation procedures. The prevalence of fire engineered solutions across many of the case studies suggests that ADB does not provide sufficient practical guidance on ways to achieve compliance for the range of typologies in actual use.  

Assistive technology devices

Assistive technology, which assists some residents with hearing or visual impairments when fire alarms are activated, are currently not included within ADB guidance. 

Mobility scooters

Guidance on mobility scooters can currently be found in the NFCC’s ‘Mobility Scooter Guidance for residential buildings’ report, but the ADB does not provide any guidance on the use, charging and storage of mobility scooters within buildings. BS 9991 provides limited advice on the storage and charging for these scooters, but does not differentiate between these and electric wheelchairs. Whilst there have been relatively few recorded instances of fires being caused by mobility scooters, in fire situations these can release large volumes of toxic smoke and generate significant heat outputs. There are also existing concerns about the spread of mobility scooter fires to other scooters due to exponentially increased heat rates.

Clarification of definitions

The research also uncovered the need to provide better clarity around how the various specialist housing and care home typologies are defined in ADB. The current residential classifications differentiate between dwellings and institutional settings, but do not adequately define care in dwellings, for instance flats with habitual specialised care, housing with care and some forms of supported housing. For example, the reference to retirement housing, such as sheltered housing for portions of ADB creates a hybrid scenario between parts of the technical guidance regulations, but ABD is silent on the housing with care and Supported Housing Type 1 typologies, leaving these more open to interpretation and leading to inconsistencies across the sector. One example where this may be important is fire alarms. The specialised housing typologies sit in a ‘grey’ zone between general needs housing and care homes, and a hybrid approach often needs to be taken for both the design and management of these buildings. Independent dwellings currently require a fire alarm system designed to BS 5839-6, but retirement housing and housing with care would be required to have common parts that have an alarm system designed to BS 5839-1. Supported housing type 1 consists of independent dwellings, but is also required to have a fire alarm system designed to BS 5839-6.

Increasing development sizes

The supported housing type 2 and care home typologies fall under Purpose Group 2(a) Residential Institutional.  ABD currently makes specific recommendations for these types that reflect the needs of the residents and the management regime in the building. However, it must be noted that, since the inclusion of means of escape measures relating to care homes in 1992 and the reference to sprinklers in 2006, the scale of care homes now being developed has increased in overall size and number of bedrooms. It is therefore recommended that the assumptions for the current ADB guidance are reviewed to reflect the current situation.

Stay put vs. partial evacuation

The specialised housing typologies within the scope of this report tend to follow the evacuation strategy for ADB Purpose Group 1 for general needs dwellings, which is to utilise a ‘stay put’ policy within the recommended compartmentation guidelines. In practice, however, for retirement housing and housing with care, a level of partial evacuation is often also allowed for by building owners for additional flexibility for evacuation of residents, with cross-corridor compartmentation and phased alarm systems. Under ADB guidance for apartments, cross-corridor doors have not been included to deal with this partial evacuation approach and, with no safe place of refuge away from the corridor, evacuees could obstruct the route needed for effective firefighting. Refuge points within stair cores are likewise not a requirement under ADB for specialised housing typologies but are often provided at the request of the Building Control body.

Evacuation strategies for residential institutional typologies

ADB includes indicative guidance for progressive horizontal evacuation in care homes. However, from industry engagement and experience in the sector further clarity is needed on the provision of protected areas where bedrooms are in a deadend condition and the acceptability of stairs as protected areas sufficient to accommodate the adjacent compartment resident population evacuating. There is no specific mention in ADB of requirements for care home stairs to accommodate vertical evacuation. More evidence is required regarding the determination of the allowable number of bedrooms (currently set at a maximum of 10) within a protected area, utilising predicted staffing levels, time to evacuate a compartment and resident needs.

International comparisons

In addition, through reviewing regulations from a selection of other countries, comparisons have been drawn on alternative approaches to fire safety for specialised housing and care home design. Countries which have a more mature later living market as compared to the UK, often have greater detail around classification for the building typologies, including the levels of need and care associated with each. A more prescriptive, ‘deemed to comply’ approach was also evident where classification of specialist housing and care typologies was evident, particularly in relation to the use of sprinklers, compartmentation, levels of fire resistance and means of escape. Such a robust and consistent approach to building typology classification, firmly grounded in an understanding of operational fire management and staffing realities, could in turn be distilled into a set of more consistent, defined ways to achieve compliance in England, reducing the reliance on fire engineering across the typologies.

Recommendations

Some of the research has proved to be inconclusive due to the range of building typologies as well as the complexity and scope of the project. The variations observed in practice and the limitations of the sample case study visits has resulted in some of the statistical results being indicative and more of a qualitative nature than quantitative. 

Based on the findings outlined within this report, recommendations for further research have been made which include the following:

• Consider if specialised housing should have a separate designation within the technical guidance regulations and review how the route to compliance for each would work.
• Review the effectiveness of evacuation strategies to ascertain the suitability of the current means of escape and compartmentation for modern specialised housing and care homes.
• Review the provision of sprinkler systems in buildings, of all heights and types, in the specialised housing and care home sector.
• Review the safe storage of mobility scooters in terms of level of provision, the design of and technical specification of storage.