Resident Engagement Strategy

Building Safety Act

What is the Building Safety Act?

The Building Safety Act is recently implemented legislation in England and Wales, which plays a critical role in ensuring the safety of buildings – particularly residential buildings. In line with the new law, we’re required to keep comprehensive documentation of how the building is designed, built, maintained and changed.

Furthermore, there are additional regulations for tall buildings which include any exceeding 18 meters in height or comprising of 7 or more floors.

What is a Resident Engagement Strategy?

A key part of the new legislation is the establishment of a Resident Engagement Strategy. This strategy sets out how we’ll communicate about building safety decisions, how we’ll collect and use your opinions, and how we’ll measure and review participation in these building safety decisions.

This strategy is for Imperial students residing in accommodation that is managed by Imperial College London. If you are a private tenant living in one of our buildings, or a postgraduate living in GradPad, please contact your building management team for more information.

Our Resident Engagement Strategy for student accommodation

Ensuring your safety is a top priority. We’re committed to keeping you informed about our safety protocols and outline how we plan to communicate any unforeseen circumstances. This encompasses fire safety, electrical safety, structural safety, and security measures.

We’ve asked our residents to share their thoughts on how best to communicate this and have used them to create this strategy. With their input, along with the latest regulations, we’ve come up with three main goals:

  1. To engage
  2. To inform
  3. To empower

Engage

Whether online or in person, you’ll always have access to safety information about your hall.

Engage

Keep connected

We’ll engage with you through our website and various digital platforms, including email and e-Halls, and on local noticeboards, ensuring that information is readily available and easily accessible. If you want to reach out in person, your Hall Management team or Wardens are available.

Quick, decisive actions

We’ll promptly notify you through our digital channels and physical noticeboards about any safety-related issues in your building. We’ll make sure it’s clear, what it means for you and what steps we’re taking to sort things out.

Your opinions matter!

We’re not just here to talk at you, we value your input and will actively seek your involvement in shaping our strategies. Expect emails, talks, and surveys. You can also reach out directly to your wardens and hall staff.

Inform

We'll keep you informed about matters concerning the safety of your home. Throughout the year, various safety-related activities occur in our halls. Much of this involves routine maintenance, like fire door checks and emergency light testing, which won't affect the peace and enjoyment of your home. Occasionally, there may be works that could cause minor disruptions for short periods or require access to your rooms.

Based on survey responses, it seems that most people prefer to receive notifications only about things that directly affect them.

Inform objectives

Relevant updates

To ensure safety messages remain focused and impactful, we will only notify you about safety work that directly affects you.

Unless it is an emergency, we will notify you in a timely manner.

Request information

We are very open about the safety of our halls and the works we carry out in them.

If you have any questions about any measures we have in halls that we have not directly informed you about, then you can request this information from our hall team.

We will provide it to you within a reasonable timeframe which we'll outline depending on the request.

Our commitments

We will inform you directly:

  • When works are required in your room
  • If work being conducted in communal areas are likely to be disruptive whilst you are in your room (eg. in your kitchen or corridor, or window cleaning)

Where larger, longer-term disruptive projects are required, we will work with you to mitigate as much of the disruption as possible. This may include:

  • Scheduling larger projects during holidays
  • Providing you with quiet alternative locations during exams

Empower

We provide you with all the necessary information to keep yourself safe in halls.  Additionally, there are numerous channels available for addressing any questions or concerns you may have regarding hall safety.

Empower

Contact us

In the first instance, you should contact your hall team or Village Manager with your questions or concerns about your building's safety.

You'll find contact details for your halls in your hall reception or can raise a request via the defect form.

Should you be dissatisfied with the way in which your concern has been dealt with, you can make a report to the Director of Residential and Community Services. This form cannot be used for any initial reporting of safety concerns.  

Contribute

We'll review the strategy every year, taking your comments and feedback into consideration. Make sure your voice is heard by participating in our Annual Hall Survey.

Additionally, we'll give you the chance to comment on our strategy during your pre-arrival induction, ensuring you're informed right from the start.

Personal details

Your information will be collected and stored inline with Imperial's privacy policy.

Responsibilities

Keeping our homes safe is on all of us. Below, you'll find what we all need to do to keep things secure.

Responsibilities

Our responsibilities

  • Promptly notify you of any issues detected regarding a property's structure, electrical components, or safety systems.
  • Outline the measures taken to ensure your safety during the repair process.
  • We will provide you with information on fire safety and prevention.
  • We will conduct regular assessments of fire risk.
  • We will regularly test and assess our safety systems, including smoke detectors, fire alarms, emergency lighting, fire doors, and evacuation routes.
  • Mitigate risks during the maintenance of safety systems.
  • Perform regular patrols to ensure escape routes are kept clear and hazardous items in communal areas are promptly removed.
  • Clear emergency exit routes will be clearly identified, and an evacuation plan will be clearly communicated.

Your responsibilities

  • Complete the safety inductions
  • View the appropriate fire safety videos for your hall
  • Read safety materials about your halls (Living Guide)
  • Attend welcome talks from wardens.
  • Understand the evacuation procedures and ensure your guests know the protocols.
  • Keep all fire doors shut.
  • Do not tamper with any safety equipment.
  • Use appliances appropriately and as intended.
  • Report any faults or concerns with equipment.
  • Tell us about any safety concerns you have.

Last updated: April 2024