You need H&S but don’t forget about first aid

First Aid - Amended guidance to the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 comes into force soon, which will see a major change in the training regime for first aid at work (FAW).From 1 October, the mandatory four-day FAW training courses will be reduced to three days, while small businesses will have the option of a one-day course. All qualified workplace first-aiders will still have to undergo a two-day requalification course every three years.

·        First Aid at Work – Minimum 18 hours training

·        Re-qualification course – Minimum 12 hours training

·        Emergency First Aid at Work – Minimum 6 hours training

The new guidance also suggests that refresher training taken annually would be beneficial to first-aiders and their employers, with staff feeling better placed to deal with an incident in their workplace.  To see the list, and for more information on the guideline changes, visit www.hse.gov.uk/firstaid

Companies should review their First Aid needs by conducting a Risk Assessment and then re-assess the First Aid cover they need. 

EMS can provide this service if required.

Written by one of our H&S practitioners

This entry was posted on 16/11/2009 at 05:04 pm and is filed under Current Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.