First Aid At Work – What you need to know!!!
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to enable first aid to be given to employees if they are injured or become ill at work.
These Regulations apply to all workplaces including those with five or fewer employees and to the self-employed.
Firstly you will need you do a risk assessment of your first aid needs , this will determine what level of first aid provision you require which includes first aid equipment, facilities and personnel.
The risk assessment must consider:
- The hazards and risks in the workplace, certain areas may be higher risk than others.
- The size of the organisation or are the premises spread out.
- The accident history and ill health cases.
- Relating to employees take into account.
- Do any of your employees work at sites occupied by other employers?
- How many people are employed on site?
- Is there shiftwork or out-of-hours working?
And have you employees:
- Who travel a lot or work alone?
- Who are inexperienced?
- Who have a disability?
- On work experience programme?
Appointed Person or First Aider?
You will need to have someone designated to deal with emergencies!
An appointed person is someone who can take charge in the case of emergencies if a person becomes injured or ill and can call the emergency services and will be responsible for first aid equipment. They may attend a short course but must only deal with what they have been trained. From 1st October 2009 the short courses will be HSE approved as Emergency First Aid At Work (EFAW).
A First Aider is an employee or person who has attended course a HSE Approved First Aid at Work course and hold a current certificate. From the 1st October 2009 these courses will be for duration of three days, changing from the current four day.
First Aid Training Courses - current till 1st October 2009
Appointed Person Training Course – normally courses last for approximately four hours
First Aid at Work courses – Last for 24 hours normally over four days, for existing first aiders the renewal courses are twelve hours over two days
Remember a couple of points ensure the organisation who you are purchasing your training from must be HSE Approved Training Provider and also when you designate a person to be an appointed person or first aider – ensure they will not affect your business if they are needed in an emergency!!!
This is only an overview, Useful links for First Aid are available on the HSE website
Frequently asked questions about the changes in First Aid Training