How I Use the First Aid Arrangements Template with Customers in Pilla
First aid is the policy most businesses think they've got covered. There's a green box on the wall, someone did a course two years ago, and that feels like enough. Then someone burns their hand on a fryer, and the nearest first aid box has three plasters and an expired eye pad. The first aider finished their shift an hour ago. Nobody knows where the burns dressings are because there aren't any.
I've audited first aid arrangements in hundreds of workplaces, and the gap is almost always the same: the provision exists on paper but doesn't reflect how the operation actually runs. Shifts change, staff leave, boxes don't get checked. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require you to provide adequate first aid for your employees, and "adequate" means provision that works at 6pm on a Saturday, not just on the day you set it up. This article walks you through what your first aid arrangements need to cover, gives you a template you can edit for your own operation, and flags the bits that matter most when an HSE inspector looks at your records.
Key Takeaways
- What are first aid arrangements in health and safety? A first aid arrangements policy sets out how your workplace provides first aid coverage: the number and location of first aid boxes, who your trained first aiders are, what the boxes contain, and how you handle workplace-specific risks like burns or chemical exposure
- Why do you need a first aid arrangements policy? The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate first aid equipment, facilities, and personnel. An HSE inspector will check that your provision matches your risk assessment and that first aid boxes are stocked, in date, and accessible
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
First aid arrangements sit under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which places a general duty on employers to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of employees. The specific requirements come from the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981, which say you must provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities, and personnel to give first aid to employees who are injured or become ill at work.
"Adequate and appropriate" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It means your provision has to match the risks in your workplace. A small office with ten people has different needs to a kitchen running hot equipment and sharp knives across twelve-hour shifts. Your first aid risk assessment should drive the number of first aid boxes, their contents, the number of trained first aiders, and any specialist equipment like burns dressings or eye wash stations.
The HSE's approved code of practice (L74) sets out what a standard first aid box should contain: twenty individually wrapped sterile plasters, two sterile eye pads, six safety pins, two triangular bandages, six medium wound dressings, two large wound dressings, at least three pairs of disposable gloves, and a guidance leaflet. That's the minimum. If your risk assessment identifies specific hazards, you need to go beyond it.
An HSE inspector checking your first aid arrangements will look at three things. First, whether your provision matches your risk assessment. Second, whether it's actually maintained: boxes stocked, contents in date, first aiders trained and on shift. Third, whether your employees know where the equipment is and who the first aiders are. I've seen businesses fail on the third point more than any other. The boxes are full, the first aiders are trained, but a new starter on their second week has no idea where anything is.
There's no legal duty to provide first aid for members of the public, but most businesses extend their provision to cover visitors and customers. It's the right thing to do, and it's what the HSE expects to see in practice.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a first aid arrangements template in Pilla covering first aid box contents, workplace-specific provisions, regular checks, trained first aiders, review schedules, and arrangements for employees with medical conditions. It gives you a structured starting point, but you need to edit it to match your operation.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Health and Safety System". Use the same tag across all of your health and safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it says "Company Name", replace it with your business. Where it mentions hospitality services, change it to reflect your actual activities. If you don't prepare hot food, delete the burns provision line and replace it with whatever your risk assessment identified. The point is that your policy reflects your workplace, not a generic document.
1. First Aid Arrangements
Company Name understand that there should be a suitable and sufficient provision of first aid, so in the event of an emergency or an accident, there are persons with the knowledge to deal with the situation and enough equipment to facilitate first aid until paramedics on site or dress injuries whilst at work.
To ensure that first aid provision is suitable Company Name will:
Ensure that there are enough first boxes for the number of employees on shift at any one time. Basic contents of a first aid box to include.
20 individually wrapped sterile plasters (assorted sizes), appropriate to the type of work (dressings should be of a detectable type for food handlers)
A leaflet giving general guidance on first aid (for example HSE leaflet 'Basic advice on first aid at work')
Two sterile eye pads
Six safety pins
Two individually wrapped triangular bandages (sterile)
Six medium sized individually wrapped sterile unmedicated wound dressings
Two large sterile individually wrapped unmedicated wound dressings
At least three pairs of disposable gloves.
Consider all hospitality services and ensure if preparing hot food or drinks, there is first aid provision for burns.
Arrange for the first aid box contents to be checked to ensure suitable provision and contents are in date.
Provide resources for the purchase of further contents to comply with Health & Safety Executive recommended minimum contents for a standard occupational first aid box (as above).
Review our first aid arrangements for suitability to the hospitality sector and employees who have advised of any specific medical condition which may require medication (e.g. Allergies – Using an Epi-Pen), this information will be made available to the first aiders to ensure they can respond in the appropriate manner.
There is no legal requirement for our first aid provision to cater to members of the public, however, we will extend any assistance required in the event of an accident or emergency to facilitate a favourable outcome.
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The first aid box contents list is your baseline. I'd want to see that you've started with the HSE minimum and then added anything your risk assessment calls for. If you run a kitchen, that means detectable blue plasters and burns dressings. If you work with chemicals, it means eye wash. The template lists the standard contents, but the additions you make tell me whether you've actually thought about your specific risks.
The checking arrangement matters more than most people realise. A first aid box that hasn't been opened in six months is a liability, not a resource. I'd want to see a named person responsible for checks, a defined frequency, and evidence that it's happening. The template includes this, but it only works if someone actually does it.
The section on employees with medical conditions is the one most businesses skip or leave vague. If a member of staff has a severe allergy and carries an EpiPen, your first aiders need to know. That information has to be shared confidentially but shared all the same. I've worked with a business where a team member had a serious allergic reaction and the first aider on shift didn't know about the allergy. That's a failure of the policy, not the person.
Common mistakes I see:
The most common mistake is treating first aid box contents as a one-time purchase. Sterile items expire. Plasters get used and don't get replaced. I've opened first aid boxes where half the contents were two years past their expiry date. The template includes a checking commitment for a reason: someone has to own it and do it regularly.
The second mistake is not matching first aider coverage to shift patterns. You might have four trained first aiders, but if they all work days and you operate evenings and weekends, you have no coverage when you arguably need it most. When I review a client's arrangements, I map their first aiders against their rota. The gaps are usually obvious once you look.
Businesses also regularly forget to update their provision when things change. You move premises, add a new work area, hire thirty more staff, but the first aid arrangements stay the same as when you had ten people in one room. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations require your provision to be adequate for your current operation, not the operation you had when you wrote the policy.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.