Assess your first aid needs:

What ‘adequate and appropriate’ first aid arrangements are depends on the work you do and where you do it. You’re best placed to understand the nature of your work, so you should assess what your first aid needs are.

You must consider:

• the type of the work you do
• hazards and the likely risk of them causing harm
• the size of your workforce
• work patterns of your staff
• holiday and other absences of those who will be first aiders and appointed persons
• the history of accidents in your business

You might also consider:

• the needs of travelling, remote and lone workers
• how close your sites are to emergency medical services
• whether your employees work on shared or multi-occupancy sites
• first aid for non-employees including members of the public
• support for someone who might be experiencing a mental health issue

Appoint someone to take charge of first aid:

An appointed person is someone who is in charge of your first aid arrangements. This includes looking after the equipment, facilities and calling the emergency services.

You can have more than one appointed person and they don’t need to have any formal training.

An appointed person must always be available whenever people are at work.

First aiders and training:

ou might decide that you need someone trained in first aid, sometimes known as a first aider.

There are no hard and fast rules on how many trained first aiders you should have. It depends on the nature of your work and its location.

First aiders are trained by a competent training provider in:

• emergency first aid at work (EFAW) – at this level they’re qualified to give emergency first aid to someone who is injured or becomes ill while at work
• first aid at work (FAW) – qualified to EFAW level but can also apply first aid to a range of specific injuries and illnesses

First aid training

Use the findings of your first aid needs assessment to decide:

• if you need someone trained in first aid
• what’s an adequate and appropriate level of training
• how many people you train

Keep training up to date with regular refresher courses.