First Aid Policy

2026-2027

1. Aims

• Provide timely, competent and proportionate first aid to pupils, employees and visitors.
• Ensure suitable first-aid personnel, equipment, facilities and information are available.
• Clarify responsibilities for emergencies, parent communication, recording, investigation and statutory reporting.
• Meet the needs of pupils in the Early Years Foundation Stage and those with individual medical needs.
• Use incident information to reduce risk and improve practice.

2. Scope

This policy applies throughout the academy day, breakfast and after-school provision, clubs, performances, educational visits, residentials and other academy-organised activities. External hirers remain responsible for first-aid arrangements under the academy’s Lettings Policy and their agreement.

3. Legislation and guidance

The policy has regard to current government and Health and Safety Executive guidance and includes the following legal framework:

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR).

School Premises (England) Regulations 2012.

Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014.

Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage for group and school-based providers, effective from September 2025.

Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979.

This policy should be read with the academy’s Health and Safety, Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions, Educational Visits, Safeguarding and Child Protection, Positive Handling, Infection Prevention and Risk Assessment arrangements.

4. Roles and responsibilities

4.1 Trust and Academy Community Council

The Trust is the employer and holds overall responsibility for health and safety. The Academy Community Council provides local scrutiny and assurance that suitable arrangements are implemented.

4.2 Headteacher

Ensure an appropriate first-aid needs assessment is completed and reviewed.

Ensure sufficient trained personnel are available during academy activities and foreseeable absences.

Ensure staff understand emergency, recording and reporting procedures.

Ensure suitable first-aid accommodation, equipment and access to emergency services.

Ensure significant incidents are reviewed and required referrals or notifications are made.

Delegate operational tasks while retaining oversight and accountability.

4.3 School Operations Manager

Maintain training, qualification and expiry records.

Coordinate replenishment, checks and audits of first-aid supplies.

Ensure applicable employee accidents, pupil incidents, dangerous occurrences and near misses are recorded through the correct system.

Obtain advice and submit RIDDOR reports where the legal threshold is met.

Liaise with the Trust, insurers, HSE and other agencies where required.

4.4 Appointed persons and first aiders

Take charge when a person is injured or becomes ill.

Assess the situation, provide treatment within their competence and summon further help.

Remain with the casualty until care is transferred or it is safe to leave.

Protect dignity, reassure the casualty and manage bystanders.

Complete accurate records promptly and support parent communication.

Report low stock, damaged equipment or concerns about provision.

4.5 All staff

Know how to summon a first aider and emergency assistance.

Follow this policy and any individual healthcare or emergency plan.

Provide immediate help within their competence; a lack of first-aid qualification does not prevent calling 999 or taking simple life-saving action.

Ensure accidents they witness or manage are recorded before the end of the working day wherever practicable.

Inform their manager of any condition or limitation relevant to their own safety or emergency role.

Never administer medication unless authorised and trained under the academy’s medical-needs arrangements.

5. First-aid provision

Provision is based on the academy’s first-aid needs assessment, taking account of pupil age, SEND and medical needs, staffing, site layout, activities, previous incidents, off-site work and access to emergency medical services.

A current list of trained first aiders and locations is displayed in the office and key staff areas.

First-aid cover is planned for the full academy day and approved activities.

At least one person with a current full paediatric first-aid certificate is on the premises and available whenever EYFS children are present, and accompanies EYFS children on outings.

First-aid needs are considered in educational-visit risk assessments and staffing decisions.

The medical room or designated space provides privacy, access to washing facilities and proximity to a toilet, in line with premises requirements.

6. Responding to illness or injury on site

Make the area safe and assess for immediate danger.

Request a qualified first aider and bring the appropriate kit and any emergency medication.

Call 999 immediately for a life-threatening or serious condition. Give the academy address, exact location, casualty details and known hazards.

Send an adult to meet and direct the ambulance. Keep access routes clear.

Do not move the casualty unless leaving them creates greater danger or movement is essential for life-saving treatment.

Contact SLT and the pupil’s parent or carer as soon as possible. Emergency treatment must not be delayed while contact is attempted.

Maintain supervision, dignity and confidentiality, and record the incident and actions taken.

6.1 Examples requiring urgent emergency consideration

Unconsciousness, altered consciousness or seizure lasting longer than the pupil’s plan specifies.

Severe breathing difficulty, suspected anaphylaxis or asthma not responding to the pupil’s emergency plan.

Suspected cardiac arrest, stroke, meningitis, sepsis or serious poisoning.

Severe bleeding, major burns, suspected spinal injury or significant trauma.

A serious head injury, deterioration after a head injury or repeated vomiting.

Any situation where the first aider considers emergency help necessary.

6.2 Sending a pupil home

A first aider or appropriate senior employee will determine whether a pupil is well enough to remain. The parent or authorised adult must collect and sign the pupil out. Pupils will not be sent home alone. Staff will provide factual information about observed symptoms, treatment and recommended monitoring, without offering a medical diagnosis.

6.3 Head injuries

All head injuries must be assessed and recorded, however minor they initially appear.

Parents must be informed on the same day and given written or electronic head-injury advice.

The pupil must be monitored for deterioration and referred for urgent medical help where red-flag symptoms are present.

A significant or unexplained injury must also be considered under safeguarding procedures.

7. Off-site activities and educational visits

The Visit Leader must ensure suitable first-aid provision is identified through the risk assessment.

Every visit must include an appropriately stocked portable kit, a charged school mobile phone, relevant emergency contacts, medical information and required medication.

Medication must be accessible to the nominated competent adult and not left unattended or inaccessible in a vehicle.

At least one appropriately qualified first aider must accompany visits. EYFS outings require a current full paediatric first aider.

Incidents must be managed, communicated and recorded to the same standard as those on site.

The Visit Leader must follow the Educational Visits Policy and emergency action arrangements.

8. First-aid equipment and facilities

First-aid boxes are located in every classroom, the main office and staffroom. Portable kits for the MUGA, PE, playtimes and off-site visits are available from the School Office. Locations must be clearly identified and accessible to adults while protected from inappropriate pupil access.

Contents are determined by the needs assessment and may include sterile dressings, plasters, eye pads, triangular bandages, rolled bandages, disposable gloves, alcohol-free cleansing wipes and microporous tape. Thermometers and cold packs are available from the office. No medication, creams or tablets are stored in general first-aid kits.

The Lead First Aider or delegated employee checks central and portable kits at least termly and after significant use.

Class staff report depleted, expired, damaged or contaminated supplies promptly.

Single-use items are not reused.

Automated external defibrillator arrangements, where available, are included in staff information and checks.

Emergency medication is managed separately under individual healthcare plans and the Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions Policy.

9. Infection prevention and bodily-fluid exposure

Wash hands before and after treatment and use alcohol hand rub only where appropriate.

Cover cuts with a waterproof dressing and wear disposable gloves where contact with blood or bodily fluids is possible.

Use eye/face protection and a disposable apron where splashing is reasonably foreseeable.

Use an approved resuscitation barrier where available; do not delay necessary CPR if one is unavailable.

Dispose of contaminated waste and sharps through approved routes.

Isolate the area and contact the Facilities team for safe cleaning of blood, vomit or other bodily fluids.

After exposure, wash skin with soap and running water; irrigate eyes or mucous membranes with water; do not suck a wound; report immediately to the Headteacher or manager; record the incident and obtain urgent clinical or occupational-health advice as appropriate.

10. Recording and parent communication

10.1 Parago and workplace reporting

Where an incident results in additional medical treatment, attendance at a GP or hospital, involves an employee, constitutes a violent incident, creates a significant near miss or may require Trust/HSE reporting, it must also be entered on Parago using the academy’s accident-reporting process. A CPOMS entry does not replace required health-and-safety reporting.

10.2 Informing parents

Parents or carers will be informed of any accident, injury or first-aid treatment on the same day or as soon as reasonably practicable. Significant incidents require direct telephone contact. Routine minor treatment may be communicated through the academy’s agreed written or electronic process. All attempts and successful contacts must be recorded.

10.3 Record quality and retention

Use clear, objective and professional language.

Record what was seen and said, not assumptions or diagnoses.

Do not photograph injuries unless expressly authorised under a separate lawful procedure.

Records are retained securely in line with Trust retention and data-protection arrangements.

Information is shared only with those who need it for care, safeguarding, investigation, insurance or legal compliance.

11. RIDDOR and other external notifications

The School Business Manager, Headteacher or Trust health-and-safety lead will determine whether an incident is reportable under RIDDOR and will submit or coordinate the report. Not every accident, hospital visit or pupil injury is RIDDOR-reportable.

11.1 Employees and people at work

Work-related deaths and specified injuries are reportable without delay through the prescribed process.

An employee injury causing more than seven consecutive days’ incapacity for normal work is reportable within 15 days of the accident; the day of the accident is excluded when counting.

Over-three-day injuries must be recorded even where they are not reportable.

Diagnosed occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences are reported where the legal criteria are met.

11.2 Pupils and other non-workers

An injury to a pupil or other non-worker is generally reportable where it arises from or in connection with a work activity, results in death, or results in the person being taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment. A precautionary hospital visit without treatment is not, by itself, reportable. Advice must be obtained where the threshold is uncertain.

11.3 Ofsted and safeguarding notifications

For EYFS provision, the registered provider must notify Ofsted of a serious accident, illness or injury to, or the death of, a child while in its care, and the action taken, as soon as reasonably practicable and within 14 days. The Headteacher or DSL will also notify the relevant local safeguarding partners where required and act on their advice. Police, insurers, the Trust or other regulators will be informed where applicable.

12. Training and competence

First aiders must hold a valid certificate appropriate to their role and level of risk.

Paediatric first-aid training must meet current EYFS requirements and be renewed at least every three years.

Training expiry dates are monitored and renewal arranged early enough to maintain continuous cover.

Staff receive induction information on first-aid personnel, equipment, emergency communication, medical plans and reporting systems.

Additional training is arranged where the needs assessment identifies specific risks, such as anaphylaxis, asthma, epilepsy, diabetes or defibrillator awareness.

Competence is maintained through updates, practice and review of incidents; a certificate alone does not remove the need to work within training.

13. Pupils with medical needs

Pupils with significant or long-term conditions will have an individual healthcare plan where required. Plans identify symptoms, routine and emergency medication, actions, contacts, training and arrangements for lessons, clubs and visits. Relevant employees must read and understand the plan. Emergency medication must be readily accessible and administered only by authorised, trained staff, except where a pupil is assessed as able to self-manage.

14. Defibrillation and resuscitation

Call 999 immediately for suspected cardiac arrest.

Begin CPR and send for the automated external defibrillator (AED), where available.

Follow the AED’s spoken instructions; an AED may be used by any person willing and able to follow the prompts.

Continue until the casualty shows signs of life, emergency professionals take over or the responder cannot continue.

The AED and consumables are checked in accordance with manufacturer and academy arrangements.

15. Monitoring and review

The first-aid needs assessment, provision and policy are reviewed at least annually and after significant change.

Leaders monitor incident patterns, locations, causes, repeat injuries, equipment use and response quality.

Serious incidents and near misses are investigated proportionately and actions tracked to completion.

Appendix 1 - First-aid personnel register

The School operations manager maintains the definitive live register, including qualification type and expiry. The names below are drawn from the current policy draft and must be verified before approval.

Appendix 2 - Accident record

Use only if the electronic system is unavailable. Transfer the completed information to the appropriate system as soon as possible and store or destroy the paper copy securely in accordance with academy procedures.

Co-op Academy Brownhill | 2026-27 | Page

CO-OP ACADEMY BROWNHILL | FIRST AID POLICY

Appendix 3 - First-aid training log

Appendix 4 - First-aid kit check