All Schools and Nurseries need to be prepared should someone fall ill, or injure themselves.

Your School or Nursery has a duty of care over anyone that visits, from staff to pupils to parents and other visitors. Because Schools and Nurseries will have adults and children, and sometimes babies on site they need to meet not only HSE requirements, but also Ofsted or EYFS requirements, too. There is great overlap between the different types of courses, however there is not one single course that covers both requirements.

As your School / Nursery has employees then you must also comply with the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations. For instance you may need to:

• Provide adequate and appropriate first aid equipment and facilities
• Provide a suitable number of qualified first aiders
• Appoint a person to take charge where first aiders are temporarily absent or the provision of first aiders is not necessary (due to the nature of the activities; the number of employees; and location)
• Inform employees and volunteers of the first aid provisions made – including the location of any equipment or facilities and the identity of the first aider(s) or appointed person(s).

Generally speaking, to determine what is required in your School or Nursery must carry out a Risk Assessment and draw up an appropriate plan to provide this cover. There is some useful information on the Health and Safety Executive website:

https://www.hse.gov.uk/firstaid/

and the EYFS website

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework–2

(both open in new tabs)

Which course to choose?

The main courses that you can choose for a typical School or Nursery are:

Emergency First Aid at Work, which covers the Workplace requirements, but doesn’t deal with looking after babies, nor does it cover medical events such as strokes (it does cover heart attacks).

First Aid at Work, which builds on Emergency First Aid at Work to include medical emergencies, bone and muscle injuries amongst other problems.

Emergency Paediatric First Aid which deals with children and infants (infant First Aid requirements are not usually needed for a Hospitality venue as they will be supervised by parents) but not workplace requirements. If you do consider this useful (say you have a play area), then some Training Providers can combine this course with one of the above.

Paediatric First Aid, which builds on the Emergency Paediatric First Aid course to include medical emergencies amongst other topics. This course is the one that meets Ofsted / EYFS requirements.

Forest School / Outdoor First Aid are courses that meet the requirements for Forest School practitioners. The Forest School First aid course was developed from the Outdoor First Aid course. Whilst both meet the requirements, the Forest School First Aid course is more tailored to the School environment.

School Staff First Aid is a course aimed at School staff where legal requirements are already met. Additional staff can be trained up in First Aid so that teaching staff can have their breaks without interruption, for instance. It doesn’t meet Workplace or Ofsted First Aider requirements, but it does train the staff up in relevant skills.

Mental Health First Aid. Working in Schools and Nurseries is demanding and issues can arise from time to time. Hours are long, and the work can be very intense. By providing Workplace Mental Health First Aiders they can provide support when required.

Contact us if you believe that you need any of these courses.

When considering how many staff need training you must allow for not only staff / pupil ratios, but staff leave and sickness – as well as the First Aider falling sick or injuring themselves. Also consider the size of the venue, whether it is spread out and consider spreading first aid skills across departments – kitchens, Front of House, Housekeeping for example.

Nursery and School First Aid Kits

Are your First Aid kits up to date and complete? If not, look at our School First Aid kits for sale.