Nicola John, Managing Director of FDM – Training & Development, explores why the future of fire door safety depends on practical, assessed competency across the fire door supply chain.
Eight years on from Grenfell, the conversation about fire doors has shifted. Not because we have suddenly discovered that fire doors matter, we always knew that, but because the bar for proving competence is rising. Compliance is no longer something that can be assumed, it has to be evidenced.
That shift affects everyone involved in fire door safety, including installers, inspectors, maintainers, landlords, specifiers and Responsible Persons. The question is no longer simply “have we done enough?” It is “can we show what we did, why we did it and that it was done by competent people, using the right products, installed in the right way and maintained throughout the life of the building?”
Fragmented competence creates systemic risk
For years, fire door competence has been built in fragments: a classroom course here, an on-the-job briefing there, documents to read and sign. The result is often a well-intentioned but under-supported workforce, where compliance becomes a tick-box exercise and knowledge is siloed across a supply chain that does not always speak the same technical language.
The Grenfell Inquiry reinforced how dangerous this fragmentation can be. Fire doors, the last line of defence in compartmentation, can be compromised by small decisions that seem minor in isolation: a closer that is not adjusted correctly, or a hinge changed without understanding the test evidence behind the door set. None of these look like non-compliance in the moment but in a fire they can be the difference between containment and catastrophe.
Why theory is not enough
Much of the industry’s training has historically been weighted towards theory rather than practical application. People may understand regulations in principle yet lack confidence when standing in front of a live fire door, with real tolerances, real frames, real hardware and the pressure to complete work quickly.
If standards are to rise, the way competence is built must evolve. Not just through information and attendance, but through practice, decision-making and assessment. Hands-on training environments that reflect real building contexts allow competence to be developed in conditions that mirror on-site risk. At FDM, this thinking informed the creation of a purpose-built Training Academy, and now a second training centre in partnership with the FPA, designed to make competence practical – because the risk is practical.
Competence across the whole lifecycle
A fire door’s performance is shaped by multiple decisions: specification, procurement, installation, inspection, repair, replacement and record-keeping. When roles are trained in isolation, the industry may achieve pockets of competence but remains systemically vulnerable.
One of the most persistent weaknesses remains maintenance. There is still a tendency towards “we can fix anything”, even when repair compromises certification and performance. Too often, fire doors fail not because the product is wrong, but because they are not installed, inspected or maintained correctly over time. Maintaining performance requires specialist knowledge, yet this remains one of the most under-resourced parts of the lifecycle.
A more robust model is holistic. Compliance is not owned by a single individual or solved by one “golden” product. It is achieved when every link in the chain understands what good looks like and why. Assessment must sit at the heart of competence-building, providing consistency and a clearer basis for accountability.
The Golden Thread is a competence issue
As the sector moves towards traceable, accessible information under the “Golden Thread” of building safety, the challenge is often framed as digital. In reality, it is also a competence issue. A perfect record of poor decisions is not progress. The value lies in understanding which evidence matters, how to avoid inappropriate substitutions and how to maintain performance over time, and then being able to record that work in a way that stands up to scrutiny.
This also changes the profile of skills the industry needs. Paperwork is no longer an afterthought and the ability to evidence work is now part of what it means to be competent.
Confidence as the new compliance
Encouragingly, momentum is building. Over the past 18 months, more than 1,200 professionals from across the fire door supply chain have been trained through FDM programmes, including those influencing product choice, managing estates, certifying work and carrying legal responsibility. Yet the sector still faces a shortage of trained installers, inspectors and maintenance professionals, and scaling capability will take time.
What is clear is that people do not resist higher standards, they resist uncertainty. There is a strong appetite to do the right thing, but it must be supported by training that reflects real-world conditions and provides clarity about what competence looks like for different roles.
The next phase of fire door safety must therefore be about confidence: confidence that a door has been specified, installed, inspected and maintained correctly, and that those decisions can be evidenced. Compliance is no longer a one-off event. It is a continuous, demonstrable system. If we want safer buildings, competence can no longer be treated as an optional extra. It is the foundation that makes every other part of the system work.
