Frequently Asked Questions
Membership
We welcome applications from individuals, organisations, professionals and students involved in the fire safety industry, at all levels of experience. This includes (and isn't limited to) Fire Safety Managers, Fire Risk Managers and Life (Building) Safety Managers.
We aim to process applications as quickly as possible and complete turnaround is usually within 4 weeks, as long as the information you provide is correct. If you need to follow up on a pending application, please contact [email protected].
Yes, you will be asked to pay a joining administration fee when you apply for membership. If your application is approved, you will receive an email requesting payment of your annual membership fee and this can be processed securely online by following the prompts.
When you login to your profile page, you will see a red UPGRADE button which helps you to upgrade using an online form.
You are welcome to renew your IFSM Membership ahead of its expiry date and we know that a number of our members like to do this.
You can either renew it online through the website, or process it with us over the phone.
To renew it through the website:
- Login to the website at https://ifsm.org.uk/my-profile
- Click the VIEW button in the Subscription & Shop Purchases section on the lower left of your profile page.
- Click the Renew now button and follow the steps to checkout and make payment.
To apply for Fellow grade you will need to make sure you have held Member grade with the Institute for at least 8 years. Once you have satisfied this you can call the office on 0330 355 1286.
The office will carry out checks to verify that you have been at Member grade for 8 years before sending out a form to complete and send back to [email protected].
Tiered Fire Risk Assessors Register (TFRAR)
Yes. You need to be a member in a corporate grade i.e. Technician, Associate or Member. Descriptions of these membership grades are available on the Join Us page.
You will first need to become a member of the IFSM if you are not already, then login and apply using the online TFRAR application form. Please read the guidance provided on the Join The Register section of the Fire Risk Assessors page carefully before applying.
You will need to follow the guidance in the Join The Register section of the Fire Risk Assessors page to judge your current level of competency for yourself. To summarise, Tier 1 is for those just starting out in their Fire Risk Assessor career, Tier 2 is for more experienced assessors carrying out less complex to medium complex assessments and Tier 3 is for those individually validated as a competent Fire Risk Assessor by a third party certification body.
We aim to process applications as quickly as possible and complete turnaround is usually within a week, as long as the information you provide is correct. Applications for Tier 2 of the Register can take up to four weeks as the process is considerably more involved.
There are two fees to pay - an application fee and (if successful) an annual fee, which is pro rated depending on the time of year you apply. Current fees can be found in the Join The Register section of the Fire Risk Assessors page. Tier 2 fees are considerably higher than other Tiers, as they cover the increased administration and examination involved.
High Risk / Designated / In-Scope Buildings are those defined from time to time by the Government. There will always be ‘specialist’ High Risk Buildings which require their own specialist Fire Risk Assessors who are competent in their own specialised field.
Currently, there are two active schemes providing third party accreditation. Warrington Certification Ltd. FRACS scheme and BAFE SP 205 Scheme.
Warrington Certification Ltd has two FRACS schemes available, one for individuals and one for companies. Information, application fees and application forms are available on the Warrington Certification website.
BAFE SP 205 is a scheme for companies that employ a number of Fire Risk Assessors and also Fire Risk Assessors who are sole traders (or have their own registered company). There are two Certification Bodies delivering this scheme (NSI and SSAIB) and they will each have a scale of charges, dependant on the work required. Members should remember that Tier 3 is a scheme for individual assessors who have proved their own competence - this can be done through the BAFE SP205 ‘company’ scheme, either by a ‘Nominated Person’ for an organisation applying for the scheme or as an individual tested as a ‘Validator’ under the scheme. At the present time, the scheme does not issue certificates of competence to individuals but the Institute will accept written proof from any of the certification bodies that a named individual has been tested for his/her competence as a Validator or Nominated Person.
There are currently two recognised registers: the IFPO and the IFE.
Training
Yes, the Institute operates a course accreditation scheme. Full details can be found in the Get Your Course Accredited section of the Training Courses page.
The IFSM have a customised qualification which aims to teach the basic underlying principles required to undertake Fire Risk Assessments. We currently have a classroom based course and an online course. Further details, including the syllabus and who to contact, can be found in the IFSM Qualification section of the Training Courses page.
General
The majority of events are open to both members and non-members, however non-members are charged a higher fee to attend. Our online ticket system will let you know if as a non-member you can purchase tickets to an event.
We are always looking for members to get involved. If you think you can help then please get in touch via the Contact page.
Simply login into your account and update the information in your profile. If you encounter any problems or have any questions, please contact us.
Please get in touch via the Contact page.
Please send any technical questions to [email protected] and we will do our best to answer.
We expect all members to undertake CPD and we ask that this is recorded within your online profile, so we can carry out periodic audits to ensure our members' knowledge and skills remain up to date. Our full guidance for CPD is available here.