The new First Aid at Work Guidelines for Employers from the Health and Safety Executive are effective from 1st October 2009.  The new type of first aid needs assessment will identify what type of first aid training your first aiders will need, how many first aiders you need and where they should be located.

A First Aid Needs Assessment should consider the following topics:

• the nature of the work, the hazards and the risks
• the nature of the workforce
• the organisation’s history of accidents and illness
• the needs of travelling, remote and lone workers
• work patterns such as shift work
• the distribution of the workforce
• the remoteness of the site from emergency medical services
• employees working on shared or multi-occupied sites
• annual leave and other absences of first aiders
• first-aid provision for non-employees
• the size of the organisation

The Nature of the work, the hazards and the risks >