CalmComplianceRisk Assessment template
School First-Aid Needs and Arrangements Risk Assessment
- Version
- v1
- Updated
- 1 October 2026
- Audience
- Maintained and academy schools in England acting as employers, including responsible managers and persons reviewing first-aid arrangements. Consider pupils, visitors and other non-employees only where the school's actual arrangements and assessment findings make this relevant.
- Jurisdiction
- england
Activity assessed
Assessment and review of first-aid needs and arrangements for school workplaces, staff, activities, premises, mobile or off-site work and foreseeable attendance.
Assess each hazard and its controls against your site before use. Template ratings require local review.
Hazards and controls
First-aid needs have not been assessed against the school's actual workplace, workforce, premises, activities, attendance and working arrangements, resulting in unsuitable or insufficient arrangements.
- Existing controls
- No site-specific assessment, arrangements or evidence were supplied. Confirm and record any existing assessment, review process and evidence separately.
- Proposed controls
- Complete and document a first-aid needs assessment based on the school's actual circumstances. Consider workplace and workforce issues, organisation size, staffing patterns, premises, activities, foreseeable attendance, non-employees where relevant, mobile or off-site work, and significant health and safety risks. Review the assessment when circumstances change and record the basis for each arrangement decision.
Local assessment and additional controls
No person is available to take charge of first-aid arrangements, or the selected arrangement is unsuitable for the findings of the needs assessment.
- Existing controls
- No appointed person, first-aider provision or availability arrangements were supplied. Verify actual appointments, competence, availability and cover.
- Proposed controls
- Where the needs assessment identifies that a first-aider is not necessary, appoint a person to take charge of first-aid arrangements. Define responsibility for first-aid equipment and facilities and for calling emergency services when required. Consider emergency cover within the appointed person's role and competence where a first-aider is absent unexpectedly; do not treat annual leave as unforeseen absence. Where the assessment identifies a need, provide appropriate numbers of suitably trained first-aiders instead.
Local assessment and additional controls
Staffing levels, shift patterns, absence, premises layout or operating hours leave insufficient appropriately trained first-aiders available when needed.
- Existing controls
- No staffing, rota, absence-cover or trained-first-aider information was supplied. Confirm actual coverage and availability across relevant times and areas.
- Proposed controls
- Where the needs assessment identifies relevant workplace or workforce issues, or more significant health and safety risks, determine and provide sufficient appropriately trained first-aiders. Check coverage during normal hours, extended hours, breaks, activities, events, split sites and other periods identified by the assessment. Record conditional requirements without assuming a particular number until the school's findings support it.
Local assessment and additional controls
First-aid boxes, facilities or their locations are unsuitable, inaccessible, inadequately stocked or not maintained for the school's identified activities and hazards.
- Existing controls
- No information was supplied about first-aid boxes, facilities, locations, inspection or replenishment arrangements. Verify actual provision and maintenance records.
- Proposed controls
- Provide adequate facilities and suitable stocked first-aid boxes based on the needs assessment. For low-hazard work, consider the source's suggested minimum stock, including general first-aid guidance, sterile plasters, sterile eye pads, triangular bandages, safety pins, sterile unmedicated wound dressings and disposable gloves, while recognising that this is only a suggested list. Position, identify, inspect and replenish equipment according to the school's assessed needs and arrangements.
Local assessment and additional controls
Standard first-aid contents do not address particular hazards or foreseeable injury scenarios identified by the school's assessment.
- Existing controls
- No site-specific equipment assessment or inventory was supplied. Confirm whether additional materials or equipment are currently available and suitable.
- Proposed controls
- Where the needs assessment indicates that a standard kit is insufficient, provide additional first-aid materials or equipment appropriate to the identified circumstances. Consider items such as foil blankets, cleansing wipes or cutting shears where justified by the assessment. Store additional items in the first-aid kit or separately, ensuring they are accessible, identified and maintained.
Local assessment and additional controls
Employees who travel regularly, work remotely or work away from the main school site may not have suitable first-aid provision or a means of obtaining assistance.
- Existing controls
- No information was supplied about travelling staff, remote work, off-site work, personal first-aid boxes or communication arrangements. Verify actual work patterns and provision.
- Proposed controls
- Where employees travel, work remotely or work elsewhere, assess their first-aid needs separately or as part of the main assessment. Determine whether continuously mobile or long-distance travelling employees should carry a personal first-aid box and whether personal communicators or mobile phones should be issued. Consider off-site activities, lone working and communication arrangements only where applicable to the school's actual work.
Local assessment and additional controls
A foreseeable emergency requiring Schedule 19 prescription-only medication may not be supported by suitable training or arrangements.
- Existing controls
- No information was supplied about emergency medication, pupils or staff with relevant needs, existing protocols or training. Confirm applicability from the school's actual assessment and arrangements.
- Proposed controls
- Keep this issue conditional on the first-aid needs assessment identifying a possible need to administer Schedule 19 prescription-only medication to save life in an emergency, such as adrenaline for anaphylaxis. Where applicable, consider providing workplace first-aiders with additional training in its use and coordinate the arrangement with relevant medication, emergency, safeguarding and individual healthcare procedures. Do not assume that this medication is required or that it is held on site.
Local assessment and additional controls
Machinery, hazardous materials, practical activities, sports, laboratories, workshops or other significant risks may require additional first-aid personnel, equipment or facilities that have not been identified.
- Existing controls
- No site observations, activity inventory or existing control information was supplied. Verify which activities and materials are present and what controls are already in place.
- Proposed controls
- Where the assessment identifies machinery, hazardous materials or other significant risks, determine whether additional appropriately trained first-aiders, equipment or facilities are required. Link the decision to the school's actual activities and foreseeable injuries. Consider additional materials or equipment where the standard provision is insufficient, without presuming that any particular activity or hazard exists.
Local assessment and additional controls
Employees do not know how first-aid arrangements operate or how to obtain assistance in an emergency.
- Existing controls
- No information, induction content, notices or communication records were supplied. Verify how arrangements are currently communicated.
- Proposed controls
- Provide employees with information about the school's first-aid arrangements. Communicate the identity or role of responsible persons where applicable, how to summon assistance, the locations of facilities and equipment, and arrangements relevant to work away from the main site. Tailor the information to the school's actual arrangements and update it when they change.
Local assessment and additional controls
Arrangements may not account for pupils, visitors, contractors or other non-employees who are present or affected by school activities.
- Existing controls
- No information was supplied about attendance, visitor arrangements or provision for non-employees. Confirm the school's actual population, activities and responsibilities.
- Proposed controls
- Consider pupils, visitors, contractors and other non-employees where they are present or affected by the school's activities and where the assessment indicates that this is relevant. Record any additional facilities, equipment, trained personnel, information or coordination required. Keep decisions conditional on actual attendance patterns and arrangements rather than assuming a particular population or level of provision.
Local assessment and additional controls
First-aid arrangements may not remain suitable when staffing, premises, activities, attendance, equipment or operating arrangements change.
- Existing controls
- No review schedule, change-management process or monitoring evidence was supplied. Confirm how changes to first-aid needs are currently identified and reviewed.
- Proposed controls
- Establish a documented review process for the first-aid needs assessment and arrangements when relevant circumstances change, including staffing or absence patterns, premises, activities, equipment, attendance, off-site work or identified incidents. Reconsider first-aider, appointed-person, facility, equipment, training and information needs whenever the assessment outcome may have changed.
Local assessment and additional controls