First Aid Liability Clarification from the RPA

Handsam Ltd recently worked with a multi-academy trust client to establish what the insurance position would be for an employee who discovered an incident and undertook some immediate first aid in order to help an injured person, despite not being a formally trained first-aider with a recognised qualification.

The response the RPA gave was:

As long as the employee has been suitably trained and risk assessments are in place, RPA cover will apply to any member of staff who undertakes immediate first aid whilst awaiting the arrival of a fully-trained first-aider. The RPA will provide indemnity to the school, or the employee acting on behalf of the school, to the extent that the school is legally liable to pay compensation or damages following/injury/death following the undertaking of first aid [in this scenario].

Key Points:

This clarifies that non-first aid trained staff can assist to help an injured person whilst awaiting the arrival of a trained first-aider (and, by extension, in assisting a first-aider under their direction).

However, the key phrases are 'suitably trained' and with 'risk assessments in place'.

What would constitute 'suitably trained'?

The RPA will not confirm what the definition of 'suitably trained' is as this may depend upon the specific circumstances of each incident. As a minimum, if your trust or academy are considering supporting staff who are not first aid trained to give initial assistance, Handsam recommends that staff are given a briefing at least once a year to remind them that they are able to assist an injured person if they feel it is appropriate in the circumstances and are covered by the school's insurance if they do so. But that their first duty on discovering an injured person is to alert a qualified first-aider and get trained assistance to the injured person as swiftly as possible. Keep records of this training - the Handsam Training Log can be for this purpose and a simple document can be distributed via it which staff can be asked to click to confirm they gave read and understood. Please contact our client support team if you would like some assistance in the administration of getting this set up via info@handsam.co.uk.

Trusts/schools may wish to go further and consider asking staff to watch St Johns/Red Cross videos on what to do when finding an injured person. See: https://www.redcross.org.uk/first-aid/learn-first-aid/videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqXqwSV3bo

https://www.sja.org.uk/first-aid-advice/primary-survey/

These could also be allocated via the Handsam Training Log.

Suitable Risk Assessments

As all schools are required by the HSE and DfE to have a first aid risk assessment in place, this document can be simply updated to include the above information and training, clarifying exactly what action a non-trained first-aider should take and how they should request assistance from a qualified first-aider. If you would like assistance with updating your first aid risk assessment, contact our client support team via info@handsam.co.uk

Do staff have to do this?

No, simply put, non-first aid trained staff are not required to intervene. It would be up to them to make their own decision. What they must do, though, is call for assistance from a trained first-aider immediately.

Aren’t staff covered by the law anyway?

Staff are covered by the SARAH Act (the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015). Please note, this is not the same thing as 'Sarah's Law' regarding sex offender data access.

The Impact Assessment of the Bill stated that its aim was to ‘provide reassurance that if something goes wrong when people are acting for the benefit of society or to help someone in an emergency, the court will take into account the context of their actions in the event they are sued’. In other words, that if someone who delivered first aid that wasn't fully trained was then sued, the court would have to take their intentions into account - that they were 'trying to help, save someone's life and something was better than nothing'.

It should be noted, however, that although this act has been in existence for 10 years it has never been tested in a court of law, so there are no examples of how it would be practically applied.

The legislation itself can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/3/contents