The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has announced changes to the first aid at work training requirements that are planned to take effect from 1st October 2009.
The HSE has been considering updating and reforming the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 for several years. A review of the system concluded that the basic provisions of the regulations did not need to change but that the training requirements for first aiders, set out in an Approved Code of Practice, needed to be improved.
The main concern was over the current one-day ‘Emergency Aid for Appointed Persons’ course, providing basic emergency training for people nominated or appointed responsible for first aid in the workplace. It is not structured and approved in the same way as other First Aid at Work courses. Other concerns related to apparent anomalies in the existing Code of Practice and matters such as the ratio of trainers to trainees and assessors on first aid courses.
In 2007, the HSE consulted with stakeholders about proposed changes to the Approved Code of Practice and the system of approval for, and monitoring of, first aid organisations and trainers and the structure of first aid training courses.
The consultation exercise resulted in broad agreement on the proposals put forward and, currently, it is planned that a revised Approved Code of Practice will come into effect on 1st October 2009.

The main changes that will affect employers will be;
• a reduction from the four days required for standard First Aid at Work training to three;
• the introduction of a new one day Emergency First Aid at Work course; and
• a recommendation that all first aiders attend an annual basic skill update.

Certificates issued on completion of successful training will be valid for three years. The re-qualification course will remain at two days.

Current training certificates will remain valid until their expiry date, even when that is after 1st October 2009. Employees whose training expires before the beginning of October must seek re-qualification as it becomes due; they should not delay their re-qualification.

As a reminder, the table below, from the Approved Code of Practice, sets out the recommended provision of trained first aid personnel to be available at all times for people at work. The provision in every case is based on an assessment of risk and the number of workers in the workplace.

Where special circumstances apply, such as remoteness from emergency medical services, shift work or sites with many separate buildings, there may need to be more first aid personnel than set out in the table.

Remember too, that the provision of trained first aiders must take account of holiday cover and sickness absence. It is no defence in law that there was no first aid provision in the workplace because the trained first aider was on holiday.

(Courtesy Peninsula Business Services Ltd.)