Sector-Specific PEEP Guides: Tailored Guidance for Your Industry

Understanding Sector-Specific PEEP Requirements

While the fundamental principles of Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans remain consistent across all settings, different sectors face unique challenges, regulatory requirements, and practical considerations. The nature of the building, the population it serves, and the specific legal framework governing each sector all influence how PEEPs should be developed and implemented.

This comprehensive guide explores PEEP requirements across five key sectors, providing practical insights tailored to the specific circumstances and obligations faced by organisations in each area. Whether you manage a workplace, educational institution, healthcare facility, residential building, or public venue, you’ll find sector-specific guidance to help you meet your legal duties and protect everyone in your care.

Residential Buildings: The 2025 Regulations New

The Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025 represent a major shift in how residential buildings approach emergency evacuation for vulnerable residents. These new requirements came into force on 6 April 2026.

New Legal Requirements from April 2026

The Regulations apply to:

All residential buildings 18 metres (approximately 7 storeys) or higher
Buildings between 11-18 metres with simultaneous evacuation strategies in place

Landlords, building managers, and Responsible Persons must now create Residential PEEPs for “relevant residents” – those who may require assistance to evacuate due to disability, health conditions, or other factors affecting their evacuation ability.

Key Differences from Other Sectors

Unlike workplace or educational PEEPs, Residential PEEPs present unique challenges:

No Designated Assistants: There are no employed staff with a duty to assist. Residents must either self-evacuate, arrange assistance from family or neighbours, or rely on building provisions and Fire Service support.

Voluntary Participation: Residents cannot be compelled to disclose disabilities or participate in the PEEP process. Responsible Persons must encourage engagement but respect resident autonomy.

Person-Centred Fire Risk Assessment (PCFRA): Each Residential PEEP must be based on a PCFRA that assesses the individual resident’s specific risks and needs in relation to the building.

Information Sharing with Fire Service: Responsible Persons must share prescribed information about residents with PEEPs with the local Fire and Rescue Service (with resident consent).

Responsible Person Duties

Under the 2025 Regulations, Responsible Persons must:

Identify relevant residents through proactive engagement (move-in surveys, annual reminders, accessible disclosure processes)
Conduct PCFRAs for each relevant resident, assessing risks specific to their impairment and the building
Implement reasonable and proportionate measures to mitigate identified risks
Create Emergency Evacuation Statements documenting what the resident will do in the event of fire
Share information with Fire and Rescue Service (flat number, floor, degree of assistance needed, whether PEEP exists) – with resident consent
Review PEEPs regularly – minimum annually and when circumstances change

Types of Residential Buildings

Purpose-Built Flats: High-rise blocks with robust compartmentation traditionally used “stay put” strategies, but post-Grenfell scrutiny has led to many adopting simultaneous evacuation. Residential PEEPs must align with the building’s evacuation strategy.

Converted Buildings: Houses converted to flats often have weaker fire protection and typically use simultaneous evacuation, making Residential PEEPs more complex as all residents evacuate at once.

Supported Housing: Schemes for disabled or elderly residents blur the line between residential and care settings. Support staff may assist evacuation, but arrangements must be clear for out-of-hours periods.

Student Accommodation: University halls must provide Residential PEEPs for disabled students. Challenges include night-time evacuations, reduced staff outside term-time, and transient student populations.

Building Provisions Required

To support Residential PEEPs effectively, buildings should have:

Visual Alarm Devices (VADs): For deaf residents in communal areas and, ideally, individual flats
Evacuation Equipment: Evacuation chairs stored accessibly in communal areas
Refuge Points: In buildings designed with them, refuges must have two-way communication systems and be kept clear
Clear Escape Routes: Communal corridors and stairs kept free of obstructions, adequately lit, with accessible door hardware
Building Information: Evacuation strategy, equipment locations, and PEEP information shared with Fire Service and stored securely

Common Challenges

Resident Non-Disclosure: Many residents don’t inform landlords of disabilities due to privacy concerns, stigma, or lack of trust. Building relationships and demonstrating data protection compliance is essential.

Unclear Responsibility: In buildings with multiple stakeholders (freeholder, managing agent, leaseholders), clarifying who is the Responsible Person for PEEP purposes is critical.

Cost Allocation: Determining whether PEEP-related costs fall to the Responsible Person, the individual resident, or all residents via service charge requires careful consideration of what’s “reasonable and proportionate.”

Limited Staffing: Unlike workplaces, residential buildings typically have no or minimal staff, making evacuation assistance arrangements challenging. Solutions include 24/7 concierge, waking watch (interim measure), or clear procedures for Fire Service assistance.

Enforcement and Compliance

Fire and Rescue Authorities enforce the 2025 Regulations. Non-compliance can result in enforcement notices, prohibition notices, prosecution (unlimited fines and/or imprisonment), and civil liability if residents are harmed.

The Building Safety Regulator also oversees compliance for higher-risk buildings (18m+) under the Building Safety Act 2022, with additional sanctions available.

For comprehensive guidance on Residential PEEPs, see our dedicated Residential Buildings page

View Residential Buildings Guide →

Workplace PEEPs: Protecting Employees and Visitors

1) Workplace PEEPs: Protecting Employees and Visitors

Workplaces represent the most common setting where PEEPs are required, and employers have clear legal obligations under both fire safety and equality legislation to ensure disabled employees and visitors can evacuate safely.

Employer Legal Obligations

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, employers must conduct fire risk assessments that specifically consider the needs of employees and visitors with disabilities. The Equality Act 2010 places an additional duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees, which extends explicitly to emergency evacuation procedures.

Employers cannot claim that providing PEEPs is too burdensome or expensive. Employment tribunals have consistently held that the cost of evacuation equipment and training is reasonable compared to the risk to life, and failure to provide adequate PEEPs can result in discrimination claims, significant compensation awards, and reputational damage.

Employers must proactively identify which employees need PEEPs rather than waiting for individuals to request them. This should be part of the recruitment and onboarding process, with regular reviews to identify any changes in employees’ needs.

Office Environments

Modern office buildings present specific PEEP challenges. Open-plan offices may make it easier to identify and assist colleagues, but multi-storey buildings with limited stairwells create bottlenecks during evacuation. Hot-desking and flexible working arrangements complicate matters, as employees may not have a fixed location, making it harder for designated assistants to locate them during an emergency.

Office PEEPs should specify the employee’s usual working location but acknowledge that flexible working may mean they’re elsewhere in the building. Designated assistants should know how to locate the person quickly, perhaps through internal messaging systems or mobile contact before attempting physical search.

Evacuation chairs are the most common solution for office buildings, typically stored on each floor in clearly marked locations. Multiple employees should be trained as designated assistants to account for absence due to meetings, annual leave, or remote working days.

Industrial Settings

Industrial environments such as factories, warehouses, and manufacturing facilities present heightened PEEP challenges due to noise levels that may mask fire alarms, large open spaces where individuals may be widely dispersed, machinery and equipment that creates obstacles during evacuation, and potentially hazardous materials that make swift evacuation more critical.

Industrial PEEPs must account for these factors. Visual alarm beacons are essential in noisy environments, and employees with hearing impairments should have vibrating pagers. Evacuation routes must be kept scrupulously clear of materials and equipment, with regular checks to ensure accessibility is maintained.

For employees with mobility impairments working in single-storey industrial buildings, horizontal evacuation may be straightforward. However, mezzanine levels and multi-storey warehouses require evacuation equipment and trained personnel. Consider whether forklift trucks or pallet movers could be adapted to assist in horizontal evacuation of wheelchair users across large warehouse spaces, though this should only be attempted with proper risk assessment and training.

Retail Premises

Retail environments face the additional complexity of having both staff and customers with disabilities who may need assistance. Staff PEEPs can be developed and practised in advance, but shops must also have procedures for assisting disabled customers during evacuation.

Retail PEEPs should include protocols for staff to quickly identify customers who may need assistance, such as those using mobility aids or accompanied by assistance dogs. Staff should be trained to offer assistance appropriately and know where evacuation equipment is stored.

Shopping centres and large retail complexes should have evacuation chairs available at multiple locations and ensure security and customer service staff receive evacuation assistance training. Information about evacuation procedures for disabled customers should be included in accessibility information and displayed clearly.

Remote and Home Workers

The rise of remote and hybrid working creates new PEEP considerations. Employers retain health and safety duties to employees working from home, though the scope is more limited than for workplace premises.

For employees who work entirely from home, employers should discuss fire safety and ensure the employee has considered home evacuation plans, particularly if their disability affects their ability to evacuate from their home. While employers cannot mandate specific measures in employees’ homes, they should provide information and support.

For hybrid workers who split time between office and home, ensure their workplace PEEP remains current and that designated assistants know their working pattern so they don’t waste time searching for someone who is working remotely that day.

2) Educational Settings: Protecting Students and Staff

Educational institutions have particular responsibilities given their duty of care to children and young people, many of whom may have disabilities or special educational needs.

Schools and Colleges

Schools must create PEEPs for any pupil or staff member who cannot evacuate independently. This includes children with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, learning disabilities, autism spectrum conditions, and mental health conditions that may affect their response to emergencies.

School PEEPs should be developed collaboratively with parents, the child (where age-appropriate), special educational needs coordinators, and relevant teaching and support staff. The plan should be reviewed at least termly or whenever the child’s needs change.

For younger children or those with cognitive disabilities, PEEPs should account for the fact that the child may not understand what is happening during an evacuation and could become distressed or try to run back into the building. Designated assistants should be familiar staff members who have an established relationship with the child.

Schools should practise fire drills that include PEEP implementation, ensuring children become familiar with the procedure in a controlled, non-emergency context. This rehearsal helps reduce anxiety and makes actual emergency evacuations smoother.

Universities and Higher Education

Universities face unique PEEP challenges due to large, dispersed campuses with diverse building types, a transient student population that changes annually, students living both in university accommodation and independently, and a higher expectation of student independence and autonomy.

Universities should have a clear process for students to request PEEPs during enrolment or at any time during their studies. Disability support services typically coordinate PEEP creation, working with estates and facilities management to implement them across campus.

University PEEPs may need to cover multiple buildings if a student attends lectures and seminars across campus. Rather than creating separate PEEPs for each building, consider a master PEEP that outlines the student’s needs and general evacuation method, supplemented by building-specific information about evacuation routes and equipment locations.

Teaching staff should be made aware which students in their classes have PEEPs, though detailed medical information should remain confidential. A simple notification that “Student X may need assistance during evacuation and a designated assistant has been allocated” is usually sufficient.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities bring diverse needs that PEEPs must accommodate. Wheelchair users will need evacuation chairs or refuge areas in multi-storey academic buildings. Students with visual impairments may need a designated assistant to guide them along unfamiliar evacuation routes. Deaf students require visual alarms or other alerting methods. Students with learning disabilities or autism may need clear, simple evacuation instructions and reassurance from familiar staff.

Students with mental health conditions such as severe anxiety may struggle with the chaos and unpredictability of evacuations. Their PEEPs should include strategies such as having a designated meeting point away from crowds, identifying a specific staff member who can provide reassurance, or allowing them to leave early before the main evacuation flow if this can be done safely.

Universities should be particularly attentive to international students with disabilities who may face language barriers in understanding evacuation instructions and may be unfamiliar with UK fire safety procedures.

Staff Considerations

Educational institutions must also provide PEEPs for staff members with disabilities, including teachers, support staff, administrative personnel, and maintenance workers. Staff PEEPs should follow the same principles as workplace PEEPs, with designated assistants drawn from colleagues who work in proximity.

For teachers with disabilities, consider how their PEEP interacts with their responsibility for students during evacuation. A teacher who uses a wheelchair should not be expected to be the last person to leave their classroom if doing so would delay their own evacuation. Additional support staff or nearby teachers should be identified to assist with student evacuation.

Ofsted Requirements

Ofsted inspections assess whether schools have adequate arrangements to keep pupils safe, including during emergencies. Inspectors will expect to see evidence that the school has identified which pupils need PEEPs, created appropriate plans, trained relevant staff, and practised evacuations that include PEEP implementation.

Schools should maintain clear documentation of all PEEPs, training records, and fire drill logs that demonstrate compliance. Failure to provide adequate PEEPs could contribute to a negative Ofsted judgment on the school’s safeguarding arrangements.

3) Healthcare Settings: Patient and Resident Safety

Healthcare facilities face particularly complex PEEP requirements due to the vulnerability of patients and residents, many of whom have limited mobility or are acutely unwell.

Hospitals and Clinics

Hospitals must have comprehensive evacuation plans that account for patients who cannot mobilise independently, including those in beds, wheelchairs, or connected to medical equipment. While horizontal evacuation to adjacent fire compartments is often the preferred initial strategy in hospitals, full evacuation may become necessary in serious incidents.

Hospital evacuation plans should categorise patients by their evacuation needs, such as ambulant patients who can walk unassisted, ambulant patients who need staff guidance or support, patients who can transfer to wheelchairs, patients who require bed evacuation using specialised equipment, and patients in critical care who require complex equipment and clinical monitoring during evacuation.

Individual PEEPs may not be created for every patient given the transient nature of hospital admissions, but ward-level evacuation plans should account for the typical mix of patient needs and ensure adequate equipment and trained staff are available.

For patients with long-term hospital stays or those attending regular outpatient appointments, individual PEEPs become more appropriate. These should be stored in patient records and communicated to all relevant clinical and facilities staff.

Care Homes

Care homes have come under intense scrutiny following several fatal fires where residents with limited mobility could not evacuate safely. Regulatory requirements for care homes are stringent, and the Care Quality Commission assesses fire safety arrangements as part of its inspection regime.

Every care home resident who cannot evacuate independently must have an individual PEEP. Given that most care home residents have some level of mobility impairment, this typically means creating PEEPs for the majority of residents.

Care home PEEPs should detail the resident’s mobility level, whether they can walk with assistance or require a wheelchair, whether they can transfer independently or need hoisting equipment, any cognitive impairment that may affect their understanding of evacuation, and any medical equipment they depend on that must be taken during evacuation.

Care homes must have adequate evacuation equipment, including evacuation chairs, wheelchairs, and potentially evacuation mattresses or sleds for residents who cannot sit upright. All care staff should be trained in evacuation procedures and equipment use, as the staff member on duty at the time of an incident may not be the resident’s usual carer.

Progressive horizontal evacuation is the standard approach in care homes, moving residents through fire doors to adjacent compartments rather than immediately attempting to evacuate the entire building. However, equipment and plans must exist for full evacuation if required.

GP Surgeries and Health Centres

GP surgeries and health centres should have PEEPs for any staff members with disabilities and procedures for assisting disabled patients during evacuation. Unlike hospitals where patients may be bedridden, GP surgery patients are typically ambulant, but some will use wheelchairs or have mobility impairments.

Reception and nursing staff should be trained to identify patients who may need assistance and know how to provide it. Keep evacuation equipment such as wheelchairs readily accessible, and ensure staff know where patients who may need assistance are located within the building (waiting room, consultation rooms, treatment rooms).

For patients with disabilities who attend regular appointments, consider creating a brief PEEP note in their records that can be quickly referenced if needed.

Patient-Specific Needs

Healthcare PEEPs must account for the specific and often complex needs of patients, including those connected to medical equipment such as oxygen, IV lines, or monitoring devices, those with cognitive impairment who may not understand evacuation instructions, those with communication difficulties who cannot easily express their needs during emergencies, and those with conditions that make them medically fragile and at risk during stressful evacuation.

Clinical input is essential when creating healthcare PEEPs to ensure medical needs are properly understood and appropriate measures are planned.

Staff Training Requirements

Healthcare staff require comprehensive training not just in evacuation procedures but in manual handling, equipment operation, and clinical considerations during evacuation. Training should be mandatory and refreshed regularly, with competency assessments to ensure staff can perform evacuations safely.

Healthcare organisations should conduct regular evacuation drills that include moving patients or resident volunteers to test PEEPs in realistic conditions. Drills should be carefully planned to avoid distressing patients but should be rigorous enough to provide genuine assurance that plans work.

4) Residential Buildings: Landlord and Resident Responsibilities

Residential buildings, particularly high-rise blocks, have become a major focus for PEEP requirements following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Flats and Apartments

Landlords, building managers, and management companies responsible for residential buildings must now ensure that residents who cannot evacuate independently have appropriate support arrangements in place.

Under the Building Safety Act 2022 and Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, responsible persons in residential buildings must provide residents with information about evacuation procedures, maintain records of residents who have informed them of a need for assistance during evacuation, and ensure appropriate arrangements are in place to assist these residents.

Residential PEEPs differ from workplace PEEPs in that there are no “designated assistants” employed by the building. Instead, arrangements might include identifying whether the resident has family members or carers who would assist them, providing evacuation equipment in communal areas that residents or fire services can use, ensuring firefighters have advance information about residents who need assistance, and in some cases, arranging for waking watch or concierge services to check on vulnerable residents during evacuations.

Supported Housing

Supported housing schemes for people with disabilities or older people require particularly robust PEEP arrangements. These settings combine elements of both residential and care environments, with residents living independently but with access to support staff.

Supported housing PEEPs should clarify what assistance support staff will provide during evacuations, what arrangements exist outside of staffed hours, how emergency services will be informed of residents’ needs, and what equipment is available to assist evacuation.

Providers must ensure they have adequate staffing levels to implement multiple PEEPs simultaneously if an entire building needs to evacuate, and staff must be thoroughly trained in evacuation assistance.

Student Accommodation

Universities and private student accommodation providers must ensure disabled students living in halls of residence have PEEPs that address their residential setting as well as their academic buildings.

Student accommodation PEEPs should account for evacuations occurring at any time, including during the night when students may be asleep, weekends when fewer staff may be present, and holiday periods when the student population is reduced but some students remain in residence.

Residential advisors, wardens, and accommodation staff should be trained in evacuation assistance and know which students have PEEPs. However, relying on student neighbours as designated assistants can be problematic given the transient nature of student populations, so professional staff should be the primary source of assistance.

Landlord Responsibilities

Private landlords and social housing providers must now engage much more proactively with PEEP requirements. Landlords should ask tenants during the tenancy sign-up process whether they have any disabilities or conditions that might affect their ability to evacuate, provide information about evacuation procedures and how to request assistance, and respond promptly to tenants who inform them of a need for evacuation support.

While landlords cannot force tenants to disclose disabilities, they must make it easy for tenants to come forward and must act on information they receive. Failing to provide reasonable evacuation assistance could constitute disability discrimination under the Equality Act.

Building Safety Act Implications

The Building Safety Act creates new legal obligations for higher-risk residential buildings (those at least 18 metres high or seven storeys). Accountable Persons for these buildings must maintain a residents’ engagement strategy, share evacuation information with residents and the fire service, and regularly review and update evacuation arrangements.

These buildings must have an evacuation strategy that considers the needs of all residents, including those with disabilities. The historical “stay put” policy that was widely used in tower blocks has been fundamentally reconsidered following Grenfell, with greater emphasis on ensuring that residents who cannot evacuate independently have clear, practical plans and equipment in place.

5) Public Buildings: Managing Visitors and Events

Public buildings present unique PEEP challenges because the population is constantly changing, and organisations may have limited advance knowledge of who will need assistance.

Theatres and Entertainment Venues

Theatres, cinemas, concert halls, and other entertainment venues must have procedures to assist disabled patrons during evacuation. Venues should identify accessible seating areas and plan how patrons in these areas will evacuate, ensure evacuation routes from accessible seating are genuinely accessible and not obstructed, train front-of-house staff in evacuation assistance procedures, and have evacuation equipment available if the venue has multiple levels.

When patrons book accessible seating, venues should provide information about evacuation procedures and may ask whether the patron will need assistance during an emergency. This information allows staff to plan appropriately.

During performances, designated staff should be aware of where disabled patrons are seated and ready to provide assistance if evacuation becomes necessary. For patrons with hearing impairments, ensure visual alarm systems are visible from accessible seating areas or have staff check these areas directly when an alarm sounds.

Hotels and Hospitality

Hotels must consider the needs of both disabled guests and disabled staff. For guests, hotels should ask about access needs during booking, provide accessible rooms with clear evacuation information, ensure visual alarms are fitted in rooms for deaf guests, and have procedures for staff to check on and assist disabled guests during evacuation.

Hotel evacuation plans should account for guests who may be asleep when an alarm sounds, who may not be familiar with the building layout, who may not speak English as a first language, and who may have been drinking alcohol and have slower reactions.

For guests with significant mobility impairments staying in multi-storey hotels, consider whether they should be accommodated on the ground floor to simplify evacuation. If upper-floor accessible rooms are provided, ensure evacuation equipment and trained staff are available.

Shopping Centres

Large shopping centres and retail complexes must coordinate PEEP arrangements across multiple retail units and common areas. Centre management should provide evacuation equipment in strategic locations, train security and customer service staff in evacuation assistance, ensure accessible refuges are available in multi-storey centres, and communicate with individual retailers about their responsibilities to assist disabled customers and staff.

Shopping centres should include disabled access and evacuation in their emergency planning and conduct regular evacuation drills that include scenarios involving disabled customers needing assistance.

Visitor Management

All public buildings should have visitor management procedures that capture information about visitors who may need evacuation assistance. This could include a question on visitor sign-in forms or tablets asking whether the visitor requires any assistance during an emergency, clear information in reception areas about how to request evacuation assistance, training for reception staff to offer assistance appropriately and know how to implement temporary PEEPs, and a procedure for alerting security or facilities staff when a visitor who needs assistance is in the building.

For buildings with frequent visitors who have disabilities, such as regular customers or service users, consider creating visitor-specific PEEPs that can be quickly accessed whenever that individual visits.

Cross-Sector Best Practices

Regardless of sector, certain best practices apply universally to effective PEEP implementation:

Proactive Identification: Don’t wait for individuals to request PEEPs. Create systems that proactively identify who needs them during onboarding, admission, tenancy sign-up, or visitor registration.

Genuine Consultation: Always develop PEEPs collaboratively with the individuals concerned. Their insight into their own needs and capabilities is essential.

Adequate Resources: Ensure appropriate evacuation equipment is purchased, properly maintained, and accessible when needed. Budget for ongoing equipment inspection and replacement.

Comprehensive Training: Invest in proper training for designated assistants, staff, and anyone who may need to implement PEEPs. Training should include practical hands-on experience with equipment.

Regular Practice: Include PEEPs in fire drills and practice evacuations. This is the only way to identify problems before a real emergency occurs.

Continuous Review: Don’t create PEEPs and forget them. Review them regularly and update immediately when circumstances change.

Clear Documentation: Maintain comprehensive records that demonstrate compliance with legal obligations and show the organisation takes evacuation planning seriously.

Senior Leadership Engagement: Ensure PEEP compliance receives appropriate board-level or senior management attention rather than being delegated entirely to junior staff.

Conclusion: Sector-Specific Approaches Save Lives

While the fundamental goal of PEEPs remains consistent across all sectors – ensuring everyone can evacuate safely regardless of disability – the practical implementation must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each setting.

Workplaces benefit from stable populations and clear employer-employee relationships that facilitate PEEP implementation. Educational institutions must balance duty of care with promoting independence for students with disabilities. Healthcare settings face the complexity of supporting highly vulnerable individuals with acute medical needs. Residential buildings must work with residents who have no obligation to disclose their needs. Public buildings must manage constantly changing populations with limited advance information.

By understanding the specific legal requirements, practical challenges, and best practices relevant to your sector, you can develop PEEP arrangements that are not only legally compliant but genuinely effective in protecting everyone in your care.

Whatever sector you operate in, the investment in proper PEEP arrangements is an investment in safety, dignity, and equality for people with disabilities. The time to act is now – before an emergency exposes gaps in your evacuation planning.