We’re delighted to announce that we’re now offering a range of online and blended courses to complement our face to face training.

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Good news for schools!

New regulations have just been issued regarding the use of reliever asthma inhalers in schools.

From 1st October 2014 the Human Medicines (Amendment) (No2) Regulations 2014 will allow schools to hold a spare emergency asthma inhaler for use in emergencies.

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But do you know what it means for you?

In the past, you could be assured that your HSE-accredited training provider had gone through rigorous checks to ensure that they were fit to run first aid courses on your behalf.  In a sense, the HSE had already done due diligence on training providers, meaning that you didn’t have to.

As of 1st October, all that has changed.

Training providers can now choose their own path of quality control and accreditation, and you, as the employer, must decide which providers are good enough, and which are not.

Training providers will run courses which are either:

• Voluntary Accreditation Scheme Courses
• Voluntary Aid Society Courses
• Unregulated Courses

Formally Regulated Qualifications

These are operated under rigorous accreditation schemes, recognised by regulators such as Ofqual, the SQA and the Welsh Government.
HTS Training opted to follow this route of accreditation, as we believe that it gives by far the greatest assurance of high standards of training for our customers.

Voluntary Accreditation Scheme Courses

As the name suggests, these are schemes that are operated by a variety of the first aid industry bodies.  These bodies have set up their own monitoring and quality control schemes which members are required to abide by.

Voluntary Aid Society Courses

The Red Cross and St John Ambulance continue to run first aid training courses which are considered to be of suitable quality for employers.

Unregulated Courses

It will be possible for trainers to set up unregulated, and carry out their own quality control.

It will be up to employers to investigate whether their training is of a sufficiently high standard in advance of the training, and to prove this level of due diligence should anything subsequently go wrong.

In all cases, the HSE remains the organisation who sets the syllabus in conjunction with Skills for Health for core first aid at work training courses.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call us on 01234 308 740, or get in touch via our contact page.

The post Important First Aid Regulation Changes appeared first on HTS First Aid Training.

From October 1st 2013 First aid Regulations are to be amended to reflect the fact that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will no longer be responsible for regulating first aid training within the workplace. However the legal requirement for employers to provide adequate first aid training for employees, according to first aid needs, remains unchanged.

What does this mean for employers?

This means that the responsibility of ensuring the quality of first aid training moves to you, the employer.

What are the options?

As an employer, you have the option of obtaining First Aid training from a variety of training providers who offer training through

• Regulated qualifications
• Voluntary accreditation schemes
• The Voluntary Aid societies
• Unregulated training

However, with exception of those offering regulated qualifications, the HSE is not able to verify the quality of courses offered (source: First Aid at Work (Advance Copy)  Health & Safety Executive, 2013. Depending on the source of your first aid courses, some due diligence may be required as described below.

Regulated qualifications

Regulated qualifications are nationally recognised and are obtained from training centres for Awarding Organisations (AOs), recognised by qualification regulators (Ofqual, SQA and the Welsh Government).  They have dedicated quality assurance processes and monitor and approve training centres to ensure training meets a high standard.

If your first aiders undertake Regulated First Aid Qualifications, the guidance is clear that you DO NOT need to undertake any lengthy due diligence process, as this has been carried out as part of the creation and ongoing accreditation of the course.  Regulated Qualifications have the “Ofqual” or “SQA” logo on certificates, so an HSE inspector will accept this for the purposes of the first aid regulations.

HTS Training Ltd has been delivering the new regulated qualifications with very positive feedback from students since the creation of these courses in early 2013.  We are a registered centre with Qualsafe Awards, a leading Ofqual-recognised Awarding Organisation in first aid.

Voluntary Accreditation schemes

Some providers will operate through voluntary industry schemes that will set and maintain standards in line with HSE requirements. It is not mandatory for training providers to part of these schemes and some further due diligence will still be required.

Voluntary Aid Societies

These include St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross and St Andrew’s First Aid.  The HSE accept these organisations as delivering their training to a sufficient standard, so that no further due diligence evidence will be required.

Unregulated training

If you choose a provider who is offering unregulated qualifications then you will need to carry out due diligence to ensure that the training is suitable, meets the content set by the HSE and Skills for Health and that training providers can demonstrate robust quality assurance.

The guidance published by the HSE covers six pages of due diligence (reasonable investigation) that an employer should undertake if they choose unregulated first aid training. This includes checks on the competency of trainers, internal quality assurers and more.
The HSE’s GEIS3 “Selecting a first aid training provider” document gives more details on the exact nature of the due diligence that needs to be carried out, including checking:

• the FAW certificates of trainers/assessors
• the quality assurance methods used
• the course syllabus
• that the syllabus complies with the currently accepted guidelines published by the Resuscitation Council UK and the voluntary societies
• is underpinned by accepted medical practice

For more information, advance copies of “The Health and Safety (First-Aid )Regulations 1981, Regulations and Guidance (L&$) and Selecting a first-aid training provider (GEIS3)’ are now available on the HSE website.

This change has come about in response to ‘Reclaiming Health and Safety for All: An independent review of health and safety legislation’,  by Professor Ragnar E Lõfstedt, which was published in November 2011.

Update – 1st October 2013: Changes to first aid regulation came into force from 1st October.

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1st Feb 2012: 

Asthma UK have launched a new online test designed to help asthma sufferers gauge whether or not they are at risk of having an attack.  The online test is called Triple A: Avoid Asthma Attacks.

[…]

The post Online Asthma Test announced by Asthma UK appeared first on HTS First Aid Training.

Basic CPR is unlikely to restart a heart that has stopped beating, but it does help keep blood flowing to the brain and helps keep that functioning so that when a defibrillator is used hopefully the heart will restart.

The chest compression component of CPR is therefore crucial in generating that blood flow. As such although the changes that have been made are fairly minimal from a first aid point of view, emphasis has been made on ensuring that good quality chest compressions are achieved in order to minimise the time spent without blood flowing around the body.

Resuscitation Changes

Compression plus Rescue Breaths:

This continues to be the best method of CPR for trained lay-people (i.e. first aiders etc) and healthcare professionals.  Adjustments to guidelines are as follows…

Compressions need to be faster and harder than before. Compressions should now be a rate of 100-120 per minute and should be pushed down to a depth of 5-6 cm.

Changes have also focused on the need to ask for an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) if one is available when calling for help (999).

The guidance states :

Those that have been trained i.e. First aiders and those people with a duty of care such as  lifeguards and childminders should continue to do mouth to mouth ventilations as part of the sequence shown below.

Compression-only CPR

• If you are not trained to, or are unwilling to give rescue breaths, give chest
  compressions only.
• If chest compressions only are given, these should be continuous at a rate of
  100 – 120 per minute.
• Stop to recheck the victim only if he starts to show signs of regaining
  consciousness, such as coughing, opening his eyes, speaking, or moving
  purposefully AND starts to breathe normally; otherwise do not interrupt
  resuscitation.
• Continue resuscitation until:
  • qualified help arrives and takes over
  • the victim starts to show signs of regaining consciousness, such as
    coughing, opening his eyes, speaking, or moving purposefully AND starts to
    breathe normally, OR
  • you become exhausted.

For further reading and information please see

www.resus.org.uk

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