First Aid

Who Should Be First Aid Trained In My Workplace?

How Important is first aid?

First aid is incredibly important within your workplace and should be implemented into any workplace health and safety procedure. There are many reasons for first aid being so important within the workplace. One it saves lives and also first aid has a big impact on someone’s chances of recovery, it can make a big difference between a person having short or longer term complications. Another reason for the importance of having individuals within your workplace first aid trained is that competent first aid trained individuals can reduce the amount of pain experienced by casualties. With that in mind you now may be wondering who and how many should be trained in first aid in your workplace, in this blog I will outline the guidance for this.

Some First Aid Stats

“Surveys carried out by Findababysitter.com, The national “Save a Life Survey” and Mother & Baby Magazine”.

-          140,000 people die each year in situations where first aid could have helped save their lives.

-          Up to 150,000 adults a year could be given a chance to live – if more people knew first aid, that includes thousands of children.

-          41% of people admit that it would take something as severe as the death of a loved one to make them learn first aid.

What’s the Law on the required number of first aiders within a workplace?

The straight forward answer to this question is there is not an exact number, it all depends on the circumstances of the workplace. The HSE recommends that if you work in a company that has 5-50 workers, there should be at least one person first aid trained. A good way to ensure that you have the adequate number of first aid trainers is to carry out a risk assessment. Another common question is how often do you need first aid training, the recommend answer is every 3 years.

Completing a first aider risk assessment

So the overall objective of a risk assessment process is to identify and evaluate hazards, once done then you must figure out how you will remove the hazards or minimize them as much as possible this can be done through control measures. When it comes to first aider risk assessments you want to have shown to the relevant authorities such as your local authorities and the HSE that on your risk assessment you have fairly assessed how many first aiders you believe your organisation should have.

Other Considerations

So you now may have followed the recommendations from the HSE and come to the conclusion that you need 1 first aid trained individual. But what is your plan if that individual is sick or on holiday, do you have another worker in place that has the same level of training for example.

Also your business may have a lot of visitors regularly so how does this then affect your risk assessment; do you need to appoint another first aider just in case. It might be you have a lot of children visitors so it may be useful to have someone trained in paediatric first aid. These are all necessary and important considerations to be reviewed.

Appointing an individual

Is there a difference between an appointed person and a first aider?

So an appointed person is somebody that is in charge of the first aid arrangements for that business. This involves looking after and maintaining the first aid kit and calling an ambulance in the event of an emergency. An appointed person should not attempt first aid that they are not trained in.

A first aider is an individual qualified to give first aid treatment.

It is advised that for workplaces that are high risk with fewer than 5 employees and low risk with employees fewer than 25 that appointing an individual is recommended. It’s important that you have an appointed person in place in case of an emergency.

Further resources

First Aid Requirements Calculator - Use this calculator to work out the first aid requirements for your business.

Also at Libben Health and Safety we have a whole range of health and safety courses including first aid courses such as first aid at work and emergency first aid.