As a general rule, all first aid qualifications are valid for 3 years, excepting for Automated External Defibrillator (AED) courses and CPR (or BLS if you prefer) for health-care professionals – both of these courses need to be renewed annually.
Browse our legislation resources below
You need to do your due diligence on us when you choose one of our first aid courses that’s not on the RQF framework. We’ve put together a pdf that covers the HSE’s recommended list of Due Diligence questions and our answers to them to make your life easy!
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 states that an employer must conduct a First Aid Needs Assessment and ensure that they provide adequate and appropriate first aid coverage.
Click the button below to view more resources and a useful guide to assist you in assessing the minimum requirement in terms of the number of first aiders necessary.
Under the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations of 1981 (known also as L74) employers are required to provide “adequate and appropriate” equipment, facilities and personnel so that their employees can receive immediate attention if they are injured or taken ill at work. These Regulations apply to all workplaces (including those with less than five employees and to the self-employed).
The latest update to L74 was in February 2024. The most significant change in the First Aid Regulations (third edition which was published in 2013 and reissued with minor amendments in 2015, 2018 and 2024) relates to the emphasis the HSE now places on employers to consider employee’s mental health in their first aid needs assessment.
The HSE state:
It may also be helpful to have people trained to identify and understand mental ill health symptoms who are able to support someone who is experiencing a mental health issue. You may decide that someone with an FAW or EFAW qualification is already able to provide initial support and reassurance to a worker experiencing an acute mental health episode, but you should consider if any further training is required. You should be satisfied that they:
■know how to access professional help if necessary;
■can act promptly, safely and effectively until that help is available.
[L74, note 6]
The guidance also seeks to simplify the process for deciding what level of first aid trained personnel are required and allows for selection of specialist first-aid training for the purposes of work, e.g. in the outdoor industry, so long as you have ensured that the training provider meets the criteria set out in GEIS 3. For more information on this check out a recent blog concerning the updates here.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website contains documentation on the regulations and answers some common questions.
The HSE no longer provides any regulation on the services/training offered by first aid training providers in that they stopped issuing training numbers or vetting the quality of training delivery. Employers are now expected to observe Due Diligence on their training providers, or to use a training provider who is registered with an Ofqual approved awarding organisation – which will undertake this Due Diligence role for employers as part of their quality assurance procedures.
With this in mind, we have created Due Diligence information for anyone who would like to see this and we are also registered as a centre with an Ofqual Awarding Organisation ‘First Aid Awards’ which enables us to offer a range of Ofqual regulated qualifications where the course syllabus is registered on the RQF database. This includes Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW), First Aid at Work (FAW and FAWR), Emergency Paediatric First Aid, Paediatric First Aid and a range of First Aid for Mental Health qualifications. Some specialist courses such as our Outdoor First Aid Course and Aquatic First Aid course we continue to certificate through our own in-house route (we formally held HSE Approval before the changes took place). Underwood Training’s Due Diligence document can be downloaded from our website and/or is available on request from our office for any clients with a need for this.
Underwood Training can help provide advice on what courses are suitable for your workplace. Contact us for more information or for a free assessment of need.
For nurseries and primary school settings – especially those with attached pre-school/nursery units, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) legislation for children from ages birth to 5 years applies. The EYFS statutory guidance was most recently updated in January 2024. This requires a Paediatric First Aid trained member of staff to be present on site at all times that children within this age group are on site. In reality, a minimum of 2 such trained staff are required to cover for absences, and more for covering educational visits and before/after school activities for larger organisations. The statutory framework states that all newly qualified entrants to the early years workforce who have completed a level 2 and/or level 3 qualification on or after 30 June 2016 must also hold either the full Paediatric First Aid or the Emergency Paediatric First Aid certificate within 3 months of starting work in order to be included in the require staff:child ratios in an early years setting. The latest update contained information specifically for group and school-based providers.
On 1st September 2014 statutory guidance about the support that pupils with medical conditions should receive at school came into force – this statutory guidance is for:
The guidance is based on good practice. It is also relevant for:
The legislation relating to Employers above also applies for the staff at a the school/nursery, which means that there may also be a need for staff trained in Emergency First Aid at Work and/or First Aid at Work to cover the needs of staff depending on the size of the workplace and number of staff employed.
To assist schools with the support of Pupils with Medical conditions at school, we are able to deliver short modules covering the relevant medical conditions for the cohort of pupils at the time of the training, or shorter courses for key staff such as Lunchtime Supervisor First Aid to enable additional support for the first aiders within the school setting. The 16-hour Outdoor Incident Management First Aid course is particularly relevant for those staff undertaking Duke Of Edinburgh activities within secondary schools, for field-trips and for forest-school settings. Underwood Training is able to assist schools with a free needs analysis in terms of their first aid requirements. We are able to offer the core courses as open-courses for individuals to attend, or can come and deliver a course on site for a group of staff.
The Early Years Foundations Stage (EYFS) legislation for children from ages birth to 5 years as detailed above applies. Where a child-minder works with another, if children are left with each of the individual staff, then both of the staff must hold the full 12-hour Paediatric First Aid qualification. This qualification is valid for 3 years and must be kept in date if a registered child-minder.
Most sports coaching qualifications issued by a national governing body require a current first aid certificate otherwise the coaching qualification is not valid. The two main courses that are appropriate are our Aquatic First Aid (8-hours contact time) and Outdoor Incident Management First Aid (16-hours contact time), although for some coaching qualifications the EFAW or FAW courses are sufficient.
For ML, BELA, SPA, CWA and mountain biking amongst other qualifications – the 16-hour Outdoor course is the one for you.
For BCU coaches – either the 8 or 16-hour course dependent on the level of coaching qualification held – see this guidance from the BCU. Note: as first aid certificates are valid for 3 years, if you are looking to increase the level of your coaching qualification, it may be prudent to go for the 16-hour first aid course over the 8-hour course.
For RYA coaches, a dual certificate that includes the 6-hour Ofqual EFAW qualification and either the 8-hour or 16-hour outdoor first aid qualification is required due to their current requirements – please ensure that you let us know at the point of booking if you hold an RYA coaching qualification.
Please check with us to see if our courses cover the requirements for your qualification if you are unsure of which course to book onto.
