Running the centre
Self-protection plan
A self-protection plan is the document in which the holder of a centre sets out how to prevent and control risks to people and property and how to respond to an emergency, in coordination with civil protection. It is drafted and signed by a qualified technician and countersigned by the holder.
Also known asPAU · emergency plan · evacuation plan · plan de autoprotección
Who needs one
Since 11 October 2026 the national rule in Spain has been the Basic Civil Protection Planning Guideline on self-protection, approved by the Council of Ministers on 6 October and published by Order INT/1068/2026. It replaces the Basic Self-Protection Standard of Royal Decree 393/2007, which stopped applying that same month. Under the old standard, any public residential building with an evacuation height of 28 metres or more, or an occupancy of 2,000 people or more, needed a plan. Annex I of the new guideline only covers public residential use aimed at 100 or more people who cannot evacuate by their own means, such as a care home.
Activities not listed in that annex still have to develop their own self-protection protocols or instruments under whatever rules govern them, and they may use the plan format in Annex II (Annex I, section 2.F). On top of that, the authorities can set stricter thresholds and require a plan where there is a particular risk or vulnerability (section 1.4): a student residence has to check the rules of its region and its town council. Where there is a plan, it is reviewed at least every five years, and existing ones have four years to adapt. Its practical test is the evacuation drill.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that the plan is the job of the technician who signs it. The guideline makes the holder responsible for drawing it up, putting it in place, maintaining and reviewing it, and requires staff to be trained. And plans fail on everyday things: knowing who is sleeping in the building that night, which is what the room rack should say.
Sources
Related terms
- Room rackA room rack is the grid that crosses rooms or people with the days of the month and shows who occupies each bed each night. In student accommodation it usually lives in a reception spreadsheet, and arrivals, departures and nights away are all read from it.
- Evacuation drillAn evacuation drill is a rehearsal in which the emergency plan is set in motion as if the risk were real: the alarm sounds, people leave by the planned routes, a headcount is taken at the assembly point, and afterwards what went wrong and what needs fixing is assessed.