First Aid Needs Assessment (UK)

Every employer must provide first aid that is adequate and appropriate for their workplace. A first aid needs assessment is how you decide what adequate actually means for you: how many first aiders, what kit, and what arrangements, based on the real risks of your work rather than a guess.

What the law requires

The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate first aid equipment, facilities and people so that employees can be given immediate help if they are injured or taken ill at work. To decide what is adequate, you carry out a first aid needs assessment.

The factors to weigh

1. The nature of the work and the hazards, a workshop or site being higher risk than an office.
2. The size of the workforce and how it is spread across shifts and locations.
3. The work pattern, including lone and remote workers.
4. The history of accidents and ill health.
5. The needs of travelling, remote or lone staff, and the distance from emergency services.
6. Any employees with particular health needs.

Appointed persons and first aiders

In the lowest risk, smallest workplaces an appointed person, who takes charge of first aid arrangements and calls the emergency services, may be enough. Higher risk work or larger numbers call for trained first aiders holding a First Aid at Work or Emergency First Aid at Work certificate. The assessment is what justifies the choice you make.

Kit and information

There is no mandatory list of contents, but your kit should reflect the assessment. Everyone should be told who the first aiders or appointed persons are and where the kit is, usually by a notice. Review the arrangements after any change in the work or after an incident.

Get the template

Our first aid needs assessment template, included in membership, gives you a structure to record the factors and the provision you decide on, so you can show it was a considered decision.