FIRST AID AT WORK LEGAL GUIDELINES

HOW MANY FIRST AIDERS DO I NEED?

There are 3 types of first aid personnel:

1. APPOINTED PERSON

The person in charge of first aid provision who looks after equipment and calls the emergency services.

2. EFAW TRAINED

EFAW stands for Emergency First Aid at Work, this is a one day (6 hour) course.

3. FAW TRAINED

FAW stands for First Aid at Work, this is 3 day (18 hour) course.

From your risk assessment, what degree of hazard is associated with your work activities?

LOW-HAZARD

e.g. offices, shops and libraries with < 25 personnel require at least ONE appointed person
25-50 personnel require at least ONE EFAW trained First Aider
>50 personnel require at least ONE FAW trained First Aider for every 100 people (or part thereof)

HIGHER-HAZARD

e.g. light engineering and assembly work, food processing, warehousing, extensive work with dangerous machinery or sharp instruments, construction, chemical manufacture with <5 personnel require at least ONE appointed person
5-50 personnel require at least ONE EFAW or FAW trained First Aider
>50 personnel require at least ONE FAW trained First Aider for every 50 people (or part thereof)

The above tells you how many first aid personnel you need available at any one time. So using your first aid needs assessment you can calculate how many people you need to be trained in total.

NB: These guidelines refer to FAW and EFAW – but you may choose some other level of training appropriate for your circumstances.

HSE First Aid at Work Guidelines

EXAMPLES

HOW MANY FIRST AIDERS DO I NEED?

COMPANY A

A shop with 30 employees that has 3 shifts

As a low risk workplace with less than 50 employees Company A will need ONE EFAW trained First Aider available at all times
If they have 3 shifts they will need ONE person per shift
They will also want to account for staff absences, assuming staff always work the same shifts they will need TWO staff trained on each shift.

REQUIREMENT - Company A will need:

SIX people trained in

Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW)

COMPANY B

A construction company with 75 employees

As a high risk work place with over 50 people Company B will need ONE FAW trained First Aider for each 50 people or part thereof, so they will need TWO FAW trained First Aiders at all times.
They will also want to account for staff absences, the two first aiders may be away at the same time.

REQUIREMENT - Company B will need:

FOUR people trained in

First Aid at Work (FAW)

COMPANY C

An office with 50 employees spread equally over two buildings.

As a low risk workplace with 50 employees you may think Company C will only need one EFAW trained First Aider at each time. However, as employees are spread over two buildings Company C will need TWO EFAW trained First Aiders at all times.
They will also want to account for staff absences, assuming staff always work in the same building, they will need two staff trained in each building.

REQUIREMENT - Company C will need:

FOUR people trained in

Emergency First at Work (EFAW)

These are your minimum legal requirements, however good first aid provisions can literally save lives. We would always encourage you to go above and beyond the bare minimum to ensure your employees are safe. If you are planning an in-house training may also want to think whether you would still meet your requirements were current staff to leave. This may save you having to train new staff a year down the line.