Check your requirements

What first aid provisions are you required to make for your employees?

People at work can suffer injuries or fall ill. It doesn’t matter whether the injury or the illness is caused by the work they do or not. What is important is that they receive immediate attention and that an ambulance is called in serious cases. First aid at work covers the arrangements you must make to ensure this happens. It can save lives and prevent minor injuries becoming major ones.

The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require you to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to enable first aid to be given to your employees if they are injured or become ill at work. What is adequate and appropriate will depend on the circumstances in your workplace and you should assess what your first aid needs are.

The minimum first-aid provision on any work site is:

1. an appointed person to take charge of first-aid arrangements.
2. a suitably stocked first-aid box.
3. provision of information for employees about the first aid arrangements.

Remember – accidents can happen at any time. First-aid provision needs to be available at all times people are at work.

Many small firms will need to make only the minimum first-aid provision, however, there are factors which might make greater provision necessary.

More information about the requirements for first-aid at work:

Our first aid checklist covers the basic points.

You might need different types of first aid personnel.

Calculate how many first aid personnel you need.