First Aid for Churches | Risk Management

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.

Battery charging

Advances in technology, changes in behaviour, convenience, and environmental concerns, have caused an increase in demand for battery powered vehicles, tools, equipment and devices.

Keeping your church open and welcoming

At Ecclesiastical, we want to encourage churches to unlock their visitor potential! We are often asked whether churches should be kept locked at all times. Our answer is no, provided the right precautions have been taken.

Church risk assessments

You need to ensure that reasonable precautions are in place at your church to keep it safe for those who use it. To do this, you need to think about what might cause harm to people.