Operational partnerships - First aid policy (O44)

1. Summary of changes

1.1. The following changes have been made to this policy in February 2024 - no amendments to content made.

2. What this policy is about

2.1. The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to managers and staff as to what level of medical training they should have and where to obtain the relevant legal obligations and contact points within the force.

Compliance with this policy and any linked procedures is mandatory.

3. Statement of policy

3.1. Kent Police is committed to ensuring that all public contact personnel are trained to provide the appropriate standards of first aid, in accordance with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the College of Policing (COP).  

3.2. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to ensure their employees receive immediate attention if they are injured or taken ill at work. Although the act does not legally require ‘the public’ to be included, it is strongly recommended by the HSE that organisations do so. 

3.3. The role of the police officer incorporates the lawful use of force and as such they must be accompanied with the subsequent skills and authority to use initiative and exercise discretion in their care of any injured party. They must establish a ‘reasonable practicable’ standard of care to prevent contravening the laws of negligence from careless conduct.

4. Implications of the policy

4.1. The force's Clinical Governance (CG) framework will be the responsibility of the clinical governance board. The role of the CG Committee is to:

• quality assure, peer review and direct the force's tactical medical practices and practitioners
• to ensure delivery is safe, legal, ethical and since it will be in the best interests of the patient, allows for a smooth handover where applicable, to partner agencies
• provide strategic oversight for the activities of Kent Police tactical medics
• provide advice to staff safety training unit in relation to training delivery of modules one to four of the CoP first aid learning programme, as required

5. Risk assessments

5.1. This policy has been assessed as medium risk.

6. Equality Impact Assessment (EIA)

6.1. An EIA has been carried out and shows the proposals have a high potential for differential/adverse impact on groups or race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, transgender, disability, age, religion or belief or sexual orientation.

7. Consultation

• Staff Safety Training Unit
• Public Order Unit
• Human Resources
• Finance
• IT Security
• Health and Safety
• Legal
• Freedom of Information
• Police Federation
• Unison
• Clinical Governance Board

8. Monitoring and review

8.1. The policy will be monitored by the Staff Safety Training/Public Order Unit and the Clinical Governance Board to ensure compliance with College of Policing guidance for first aid and medics training.

9. Security

9.1 Kent Police have measures in place to protect the security of your data in accordance with our Information Management policy and General Data Protection requirements.

10. Retention and disposal of records

10.1 Kent Police will hold data in accordance with our Records Review, Retention and Disposal policy.