A care home typically sits under three or four statutory inspection regimes at the same time, and the one that catches people out is LOLER 1998. Every hoist, sling and passenger lift in the building is lifting equipment used to lift people, which places it on the shortest interval in the regulations: thorough examination at intervals not exceeding six months. Add the kitchen and laundry under PUWER 1998, the boiler plant under PSSR 2000, and roof or window access under WAHR 2005, and the picture becomes a schedule rather than a single annual visit.
The good news is that the schedule is predictable once it is written down. What follows is how the regimes divide up a typical care home, and where the avoidable gaps tend to appear.
Which equipment falls under LOLER?
Anything that lifts or lowers a person or a load, and the accessories used with it. In a care home that is a longer list than people expect.
| Equipment | Regime | Maximum interval |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling track hoists | LOLER | 6 months |
| Mobile and standing hoists | LOLER | 6 months |
| Bath and changing table hoists | LOLER | 6 months |
| Slings and spreader bars | LOLER, as accessories | 6 months |
| Passenger lift | LOLER | 6 months |
| Stairlifts and through-floor lifts | LOLER | 6 months |
| Goods or food lift not carrying people | LOLER | 12 months |
Those intervals are the maximums LOLER sets. The alternative is examination in accordance with an examination scheme drawn up by a competent person, which can specify different intervals for a particular item and its duty. Most homes stay on the standard intervals because they are simpler to manage, but the option exists.
Slings are the item most often missed. They are lifting accessories in their own right, examined separately from the hoist they are used with, and that includes spares sitting in a store cupboard if they remain in service. A thorough examination of the hoist does not cover them. Our guidance on patient hoist inspection covers what the examination itself looks at.
What about the kitchen, laundry and maintenance areas?
These sit under PUWER 1998, which applies to work equipment provided for use by employees. Commercial dishwashers, mixers, slicers, laundry washer-extractors, tumble dryers, ironers and any workshop tools are all work equipment.
PUWER does not impose a single fixed interval in the way LOLER does. It requires equipment to be maintained in efficient working order and in good repair, and where safety depends on the installation conditions or the equipment is exposed to conditions causing deterioration, it requires inspection at suitable intervals by a competent person, with a record kept.
In practice the higher risk items are the ones with dangerous parts or significant stored energy: the slicer, the ironer, the dryer, the hoist charging equipment. An annual cycle is common for these, but the interval should follow the risk and the manufacturer's instructions rather than convention.
Does PSSR apply to a care home?
It can, and whether it does depends on the plant rather than on the building being a care home. PSSR 2000 covers pressure systems containing a relevant fluid, and the common candidates in a care setting are steam raising plant in a commercial laundry or kitchen, and compressed air receivers in a maintenance workshop.
Where PSSR applies, the requirement is not simply an examination: the user must have a written scheme of examination drawn up or certified by a competent person, and the examinations then follow the intervals that scheme specifies. The scheme comes first, and the intervals come from it. Our guide on the written scheme of examination explains what one contains.
Whether a particular vessel or system falls within scope turns on the fluid and the stored energy against the thresholds in the regulations. That is a determination for a competent person, and it is worth getting it made explicitly rather than assuming a small plant room is out of scope.
Where does work at height come in?
WAHR 2005 applies wherever there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury, which in a care home usually means maintenance rather than care: changing high level light fittings, accessing a flat roof or plant area, clearing gutters, and window cleaning where it is done in house.
The equipment that goes with that work, including ladders, stepladders, tower scaffolds, harnesses and anchor points, has to be inspected. Personal fall protection equipment in particular needs formal inspection by a competent person at intervals determined by the manufacturer's instructions and the intensity of use, alongside pre-use checks by the person wearing it. Our working at height equipment inspection guide sets out what those inspections cover.
Where the work is contracted out, the contractor's equipment is the contractor's responsibility, but you remain responsible for satisfying yourself that people working on your premises are doing so safely.
What records should you be able to produce?
Each regime has its own record requirement, and they are not interchangeable. Reports of thorough examination under LOLER, records of inspection under PUWER, the written scheme and reports under PSSR, and inspection records for height safety equipment under WAHR all need to be kept and available.
A single register listing every item, its regime, its serial number or unique identifier, its last examination and its next due date is the most practical way to manage this. It turns five separate cycles into one diary, and it makes the state of compliance visible at a glance rather than requiring an archaeology exercise through a filing cabinet.
Care regulators may ask to see evidence that equipment is safe and properly maintained as part of assessing the service. Being able to produce current reports quickly is a reasonable thing to be able to do, whoever is asking.
An independent view across the whole building
Safe-Lee Inspection & Consultancy covers all five regimes, so one provider can pick up the hoists, the lift, the kitchen and laundry equipment, the plant room and the height safety kit, on one schedule rather than four. Lee Charnock, EngTech MSOE MBES, carries out the examinations, and reports are issued in one to two working days.
We carry out no repairs, servicing or equipment sales, which matters in a setting where the same contractor often maintains the hoists and would otherwise be examining their own work. We cover Manchester and the North West from our base in Irlam. To discuss a schedule for your home, see LOLER inspections or get in touch.