The Health and Safety First Aid Legislation 1981 set out what an employer has to do and this in summary is to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and qualified first aid personnel.
The regulations do not oblige employers to provide first aid for anyone other than their own staff, but employers do have health and safety responsibilities towards non employees. The Health and Safety Commission guidance recommends that organisations such as schools, which provide a service for others, should include them in their risk assessments and provide for them.
In light of their legal responsibilities for those in their care, schools should consider carefully the likely risk to pupils and visitors, and make allowance for them when drawing up policies and deciding on the numbers of first aid personnel.
Where first aid is provided for staff and pupils schools should ensure that:
- Provision for employees does not fall below the required standard;
- Provision for pupils and others complies with other relevant legislation and guidance.
Assessment & Re-assessment of Needs
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1992 requires employers to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to health and safety of their employees at work, and others who may be affected by their undertaking, to identify what measures they need to prevent or control these risks.
The assessment is a continuous process and the governing body or head teacher should regularly review the schools first aid needs to ensure that the provisions set out are adequate. In addition where minimum numbers of trained first aiders are set, these should be monitored to ensure that these standards are being met.
The Information Flow
It is required that the employer or manager with the delegated function must inform all staff, without exception, of the first aid arrangements. This information should include:
- Location of first aid equipment;
- First Aid Facilities
- First Aid Personnel
- Procedures for monitoring and reviewing the schools needs.
The most common way of displaying this information is by having specific first aid notices in staff common rooms, and any literature produced should be clear and easy to understand. Where the school may have several different buildings on site, this first aid information should be displayed in each building. It is also encouraged that any first aid information is included in staff handbooks and is raised at staff/pupil inductions.
Are you Covered?
In the unlikely event that a claim alleging negligence by a member of staff is made it is likely that action will be taken against the employer rather than the employee. Therefore employers should ensure that their insurance policies have the necessary cover to fully protect them should any action arise from the actions of staff acting within their scope of their employment.
