First Aid at Work: What Small Businesses Are Legally Required to Have

Under the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, every employer in the UK has to make sure there's adequate first aid provision for staff, whatever the size of the business. There's no exemption for being small. What changes with size is how much provision you need, not whether you need any at all. Here's what that actually means in practice for a small business.

Start with a first aid needs assessment

Before you can say what you need, you're supposed to have worked out what you need, and that means a first aid needs assessment. This doesn't have to be a lengthy document. For most small, low risk workplaces (a typical office, shop, or small service business) it can be a short, common sense look at:

  • The nature of the work and the hazards involved
  • The number of people on site, including visitors where relevant
  • Whether there are any employees with specific health conditions the first aider should know about
  • How spread out the workplace is, and whether there's more than one site or shift pattern
  • How quickly emergency services can reach you

A higher risk workplace (construction, manufacturing, anywhere with machinery or hazardous substances) needs a more thorough assessment and generally more first aid cover than a low risk office of the same size.

Do you need a trained first aider, or just an "appointed person"?

This is where a lot of small businesses get caught out. For low risk workplaces with fewer than 5 employees, you're not automatically required to have a trained first aider. You can instead have an "appointed person", someone responsible for taking charge of first aid arrangements (calling an ambulance, looking after the first aid kit) without holding a first aid qualification themselves.

Once you've got 5 or more employees, or if your needs assessment identifies a higher risk, the expectation moves towards having someone with a recognised first aid qualification, typically an Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) certificate as a minimum, or First Aid at Work (FAW) for higher risk or larger workplaces. The exact number of qualified first aiders you need scales with headcount and risk level, there's no single fixed number that applies to every business.

The first aid kit itself

There's no legally mandated list of contents for a workplace first aid kit, which surprises a lot of people. The guidance is that it should be appropriate to the circumstances, but as a practical minimum for a low risk workplace it typically includes a leaflet giving general guidance on first aid, individually wrapped sterile plasters, sterile eye pads, triangular bandages, safety pins, sterile dressings in a range of sizes, and disposable gloves. Higher risk workplaces often add items like eye wash where there's no clean running water nearby, and burns dressings where relevant to the work.

The kit needs to be kept stocked, checked regularly, and be easy for staff to find, usually with a green and white first aid sign so it's obvious where it is.

Don't forget the accident book

Recording accidents and first aid treatment given isn't just good practice, it feeds directly into your RIDDOR reporting duties and gives you a record if anything is ever queried later. An accident book doesn't need to be elaborate, but it does need to be kept, and kept in a way that protects the privacy of anyone named in it.

What small businesses commonly get wrong

The most common gaps are having no documented needs assessment at all (arrangements were made once, years ago, and never reviewed), an appointed person or first aider who's left the business without being replaced, and a first aid kit that's been raided for plasters over the years and never restocked. None of these are complicated to fix, but they do get missed when there's no written policy pulling it all together.

If you don't have a written health and safety policy that covers first aid provision alongside your other legal duties, that's usually the underlying gap. A proper policy sets out exactly what you have in place, who's responsible for it, and when it gets reviewed, so it doesn't quietly go out of date.

I write health and safety policies for UK small businesses that cover first aid provision along with the rest of your legal duties, in plain English rather than generic legal boilerplate. You can see the health and safety policy writing service here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Got a question about your own situation? Ask below and I will get back to you. Comments are checked before they go live so there may be a short delay.

Popular posts from this blog

HMO Fire Safety Requirements, Room by Room

 Short answer: what counts as compliant changes depending on which room you're standing in. HMOs get treated differently to a normal let because more unrelated people are sharing escape routes, so the requirements are more detailed room by room rather than one blanket rule for the whole property. BEDROOMS Doors opening onto an escape route generally need to be fire doors, rated FD30, with a self closer, intumescent strips and smoke seals fitted. Distance matters too: a bedroom should be within 18 metres of a way out, or 7.5 metres if there's only one direction of escape available. Smoke detection in bedrooms is normally covered by the property's interlinked alarm system rather than a standalone unit. KITCHENS Kitchens are usually the highest fire risk room in an HMO, and the requirements reflect that. Fire doors here need to be to the same FD30 standard as bedrooms. Detection is different though, shared kitchens should have heat detectors rather than smoke alarms, since coo...
Read more

What Inspectors Actually Look For in an HMO Inspection

 Short answer: they're checking three things, that people can escape a fire safely, that the amenities are adequate for how many people are actually living there, and that you've got the paperwork to prove you've been keeping on top of it. Miss any of the three and it shows immediately. FIRE SAFETY This is usually the first thing checked. Escape routes need to be clear and unobstructed, properly signed, with fire doors in the higher risk areas like kitchens and communal hallways. Fire extinguishers, where required, need to be accessible and show evidence of regular servicing. Smoke alarms on every floor, carbon monoxide detectors in any room with a fuel burning appliance, none of this is optional or something you can catch up on the morning of the visit. ROOM SIZES AND AMENITIES HMOs have legal minimum room sizes, 6.51 square metres for an adult, 4.64 for a child under 10, and inspectors will measure if they're unsure. Shared bathrooms and kitchens have to be genuinely ...
Read more

Fire Risk Assessment Checklist: What Actually Gets Checked

 Short answer: an assessor is checking whether people can get out safely, whether they'd know there's a fire in time to do it, and whether the building itself will hold back the fire long enough for that to happen. Everything on the checklist sits under one of those three questions. DETECTION AND WARNING Smoke alarms need to be properly positioned on each floor, working, and giving proper coverage rather than one unit stuck in a hallway and forgotten. Kitchens usually need heat detectors instead, since smoke alarms near cooking just get switched off eventually. Larger buildings need an interconnected alarm system meeting BS 5839, with battery backup, loud enough to actually wake someone asleep. ESCAPE ROUTES This is where an assessor spends most of their time. Routes need adequate width, generally a minimum of 750mm, completely clear of obstructions, with enough alternative exits and acceptable travel distances to the nearest one. The final exit door has to open from the inside...
Read more