NEW FORMAT FOR HSE FIRST AID COURSES

The familiar 24 hour (4-day) HSE First Aid at Work course has been replaced. A new 18 hours (3-day) course has been introduced. The change, which took place on October 1st 2009, also sees the introduction of a 6 hour (1-day) Emergency First Aid at Work course which, despite what many think, has never before been regulated by the HSE.

This is the first major change to HSE first aid since 1974 and reflects the changes to our work environment during that time. With an increasingly office based workforce, there is less need for training to deal with industrial types of accidents and this has led to a simplification of the training requirements for the HSE First Aid at Work approved course.

One consequence of this change is that the new FAW course can be completed in 18 hours, typically over 3 days, and this will be welcomed by employers who have been struggling to release an employee for 4 days of training with the former format.

It is also hoped that the changes will lead to more lives being saved and suffering prevented as a result of the requirement for individuals to refresh their first aid knowledge each year instead of trying to remember skills that they learnt up to 3 years previously. If a refresher is taken in each intervening year it will only be necessary to take a 12 hour re-validation in year 3.

However, certificates will still be valid for 3 years if a person fails to attend the refresher but in these cases they will have to re-attend the 18 hour/3-day course after 3 years instead of a 2-day re-validation.

For more information on this and other changes to First Aid provision for employers and employees, please contact us.

Click here to download the HSE leaflet on first aid at work (pdf).