Changes to First Aid at Work Syllabus

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has revised its emergency first aid and first aid at work syllabuses.

Changes to Resuscitation Council UK guidelines on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in October 2015 mean that HSE will now be revising the Emergency First Aid and First Aid at Work syllabuses.The revision will require all workplace first aiders to be trained in the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) from the 31 December 2016, as the Resuscitation Council UK guidelines now state that the management of a casualty requiring CPR is to request an AED.

This does not mean organisations have to purchase a defibrillator for the workplace as the requirement for a defibrillator is still dependent on your needs assessment. You also do not need to retrain all your existing first aiders as they will be updated in this skill when they requalify.