How to assess your first aid needs?

As an employer you are the best placed person to understand the exact nature of your workplace. This makes you the best person to undertake the first aid needs assessment of your workplace. If you would like some support with this process give us a call and we will happily work through the assessment with you.

The law states that first aid provision must be ‘adequate and appropriate in the circumstances’. This means that you must provide enough first aid equipment (first aid kit), facilities and personnel at all times.

The best way to decide what kit, facilities and how many personnel you need is to carry out a first-aid needs assessment. This will build on your risk assessments and should take into account the circumstances of your business, your team and the hazards and risks that may be present. What you find in the assessment will help you decide what first aid provision you need in place.

Some of the things you need to consider in the assessment are:

• the nature of the work that your business does
• any workplace hazards and risks
• the size of your team and its nature
• your teams working patterns
• planned absences of your team members that will be first aiders or appointed persons
• any accidents that have happened in the past at your workplace

Some other things that you might need to consider are:

• the specific needs of members of your team that work remotely, lone work or travel as part of their role
• how your team is distributed
• if any of your work sites are remote from the emergency services
• if any of your team work on shared or multi occupancy sites
• first-aid arrangements for visitors, customers and members of the public

The Health and Safety Executive have a great range of case studies, which contain scenario-based examples for a broad range of workplaces. Have a look at these to get an idea of the way a first aid needs assessment works.

We recommend that you keep a record of your first aid needs assessment so that you can demonstrate how you decided on your first aid provisions.

You are required, by law, as a minimum to appoint a person to take charge of first aid arrangements. The appointed person will be responsible for looking after any first aid equipment and/or facilities and calling the emergency services as required.