Accidents and first-aid in churches
02 August 2022
If someone is taken ill or is injured at your church premises, it can be important that immediate assistance is provided to them. This can save lives and may prevent minor injuries becoming major ones.
Accidents and first-aid: health and safety law
If you are an employer and depending on your circumstances you must:
- provide adequate and appropriate first-aid equipment and facilities
- provide a suitable number of qualified first-aiders
- appoint a person to take charge where first-aiders are temporarily absent or the provision of first-aiders is not necessary
- tell staff what first-aid provisions you have made – including the location of any equipment or facilities and the identity of the first-aider(s) or nominated person(s).
Some accidents may need to be reported to the Enforcing Authority, with certain records being kept. You will have to do this where:
- you are an employer – to report any work-related deaths, and certain work-related injuries, cases of disease, and near misses involving your employees wherever they are working
- you are in control of premises – to report any work-related deaths, certain injuries to members of the public and self-employed people on your premises, and dangerous occurrences that occur on your premises.
Precautions you can take
Typical precautions include:
- appointing a person(s) to take charge of first-aid arrangements
- providing a suitably stocked first-aid box
- providing an adequate number of first-aiders
- providing additional training for first-aiders where there are special hazards
- checking that employees and others know the precise location of first-aid equipment and identities of nominated persons or first-aiders
- informing the emergency services of specific hazards etc. in advance (for example, bell tower access)
- issuing personal communicators or mobile phones to employees*.
*Note: this list is not exhaustive
Want to know more?
For more information about accidents and first-aid, why not download our guide.