First Aid for Lone Workers and Remote Staff: What Employers Need

The first aid duty follows your people wherever they work. Under the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981, your arrangements must be adequate for lone workers, drivers, engineers, and anyone working away from base, not just the people in the office. In practice that means including them in your needs assessment, giving them a suitable travel kit, deciding whether they should be trained themselves, and having a way to know they are safe.

Who counts

More of your workforce than you might think:

• Field engineers, surveyors and maintenance staff
• Drivers and delivery staff
• Care and support workers visiting clients
• Sales staff visiting customers
• Security, cleaning and caretaking staff on early or late shifts
• Anyone working alone in a building, even at the main site, out of hours

Step 1: include them in your needs assessment

Your first aid needs assessment should ask: what could go wrong for this person, how quickly could help reach them, and who would know? A driver on the M25, a heating engineer in a plant room and a care worker in a client's home face different risks and different response times.

Step 2: equip them

Most lone and travelling workers should carry a travel or personal first aid kit suited to their work, and work vehicles often need one too. Add specific items where the work demands them, such as burn dressings for engineers or a foil blanket for outdoor work. See what a workplace kit should contain.

Step 3: decide whether to train them

Where a lone worker could be seriously hurt with nobody nearby, training them is the strongest control you have: it guarantees someone capable is present. Many employers train field and maintenance teams in Emergency First Aid at Work, and higher-risk roles in First Aid at Work. Trained lone workers can also act when they come across a colleague or member of the public in trouble.

Step 4: make sure someone knows

First aid only helps if someone raises the alarm. Common arrangements:

• Scheduled check-in calls or messages, with a clear escalation if one is missed
• Shared calendars or job systems showing where people are
• Lone worker apps or devices with an emergency button for higher-risk roles
• Clear instructions on calling 999 and giving an exact location

HSE's lone working guidance treats these communication arrangements as part of managing the risk, alongside first aid.

Step 5: write it into your policy

Record your lone worker arrangements in your first aid policy so managers and staff know exactly what applies to them.

Training a mobile team without losing a day to travel

Field teams are hard to get in one place. We come to your base or depot and train up to 12 staff per session, early starts included, for £550 (EFAW) or £1,500 (FAW) per session, with no VAT to add and nothing to pay to book.

This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Request a free quote and we will confirm within 24 hours.