Dear all

I know that it's not easy to answer this as a blanket question and I do know that all factors have to be taken into account, but would it, in general, be overkill to ask for all lone work cleaning staff, maintenance/grounds staff etc to have some first aid training? (2 hour training to mainly follow the emergency FAW training - a shorter training has been deemed as not worth it by our medical advisor))

They have to work in buildings on their own from 5.30am cleaning regularly or occasionally on call out at night and although they have access to a phone, there is no first aider or security on site - they would have to call an ambulance. My thinking is that even if we have first aid kits with them, they're not a great deal of use if we can't guarantee even a very basic level of knowledge to use them on their own.

What does everyone else do?

Many thanks in advance

Moo

Thanks for your input Stuff4blokes. Not sure with the cleaning staff - probably nothing and they would usually have access to a landline in any case (and mobiles of their own!) Signal around here is dodgy and although the maintenance staff carry radios, these can;t be used on an after hours call out as the office isn;t manned. We can have a system of calling once complete but past that, it's impossible to guarantee a landline. Difficult.

All people require FA training. However what type of training is the question and what type of safe systems of work are needed to go along with that training is the issue. Consider these points and move on from there

In the past I have advised providing movement &/or tilt sensors linked to supervisors mobiles etc. as well having call in/out systems. Its horses for courses noting that a person who really needs first aid may not be able to administer it to themselves!