At the end of last month, the UK government released the much anticipated Lofstedt report 'Reclaiming Health and Safety for all' which promises to change the way Workplace First Aid courses are regulated. Prof. Lofstedt has been tasked with reviewing the H&S Regulations (which include workplace First Aid qualifications)and identifying any opportunities to simplify things.
In what has been anticipated by the industry for some time, Prof. Lofstedt recommends that "The Health and Safety (First Aid)Regulations 1981 should be amended to remove the requirement for HSE to approve the training and qualifications or appointed first-aid personnel." He goes on to say, "The regulations do currently stipulate that the training and qualifications for the appointed first-aid person must be approved by the HSE and this appears to both go beyond the Directive and have little justification. So long as the meet a certain standard, allowing businesses to choose training providers should allow them greater flexibility to choose what is right for their workplace, and possibly reduce costs."
This seems to be entirely sensible on the surface although it potentially could allow workplace first aid courses to become unregulated and flood the market with unqualified and poor quality trainers.
So where does that leave you, the consumer? Well, Prof. Lofstedt recommends that changes are initiated by June 2012 and early indications are that the HSE will complete the process by 2015, so there is no need to panic! However you are going to want to know that your First Aid trainers are qualified and regulated in some way if it is not to be through the HSE. This is where our courses, which are delivered through the ITC as the awarding body, and are regulated by the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Ofqual, come into their own.
Choosing from our wide range of courses also lets you take advantage of the recommendations to choose what is right for your workplace, rather than feeling that you are stuck with doing a standard First Aid at Work course when a course tailored to your situation would be more suitable.
So these are interesting times in the First Aid industry and not before time in my humble opinion. A chance to update, refresh and modernise is always a good chance to take and hopefully the government will take the correct course of action and ensure there is some form of quality control in place. What that is remains to be seen however and we'll keep our ears to the ground and you posted over the coming months!
To download the full report: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/lofstedt-report.pdf
And the Gov't response: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/lofstedt-report-response.pdf
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