FREE FREIGHT AUSTRALIA WIDE FOR ORDERS OVER $139
First Aid Needs Assessment: A Worked Example and Template for Australian Workplaces
A first aid needs assessment template is only useful if the finished version looks something like your workplace. Safe Work Australia's First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice carries one worked example, at Appendix D: a single office-and-manufacturing operation. Most real workplaces look nothing like it, and a blank form on its own doesn't show you what a finished answer should look like.
This article gives you more to work from. Below is an Australian first aid needs assessment template you can copy, plus three completed examples across different jurisdictions: a low-risk office under Victorian law, a higher-risk warehouse under New South Wales law, and a mobile trade crew with no fixed site. The aim is a first aid needs assessment example close enough to your own workplace to adapt, not another empty form.
One quick note on wording. "Needs assessment" is UK phrasing. Australian regulators call it a first aid assessment, and it is really a targeted risk assessment. The terms point at the same task, so the template uses both.
What should a first aid needs assessment include?
A first aid needs assessment weighs the three factors Safe Work Australia's First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice sets out: the nature of the work and its hazards, the size and location of the workplace, and the number and composition of the workers and other people present. Those three inputs decide your kits, first aiders and facilities.
This first aid assessment template turns each factor into a section you fill in. Nature of work and hazards is where you list what could realistically hurt someone. Size and location covers headcount, floor area, number of storeys and distance from emergency help. Number and composition of workers records shift patterns, contractors, visitors and anyone with specific needs.
If you want the full method for working through those hazards, our guide to how to run a first aid risk assessment covers the process step by step. This article does not re-teach it. It shows you the finished product.
The template, filled in three ways
Treat each of the three completed forms below as a first aid risk assessment example for a workplace like yours. The one thing every version has in common is that it ends in a decision about what to buy, not a shrug. The most common question we get on the phone is a version of the same thing: what sort of kit does my business actually need? A completed assessment answers it in writing.
Here is the template itself. Copy the fields below, fill each section for your own site, and end on the provisioning footer.
Section 1: nature of work and hazards
- Main activities on site
- Foreseeable hazards, listed
- Highest-risk task
- Hazardous substances or plant present
Section 2: size and location
- Number of workers
- Other people typically present (visitors, contractors, public)
- Floor area and number of storeys
- Distance or time to the nearest hospital and likely ambulance response
- Remote or isolated work involved (yes or no)
Section 3: number and composition of workers
- Shift pattern and hours
- Casual, contractor or labour-hire proportion
- Anyone with specific health needs
- First aid training currency
Provisioning and review footer
- Kits required: type, number and location
- First aiders required: number and training
- AED considered: yes or no, and why
- Applicable law and regulator cited
- Review date
- Assessed by and signed off by
Example one: a 12-person professional office in Victoria
A 12-person accounting practice in Bendigo is about as low-risk as a workplace gets. The hazards are slips, the odd paper cut, eye strain, and a burn from the kitchen if someone is careless with the kettle.
Because it sits in Victoria, this assessment follows the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 and WorkSafe Victoria's Compliance Code: First aid in the workplace. Victoria has not adopted the national model WHS laws, so a Victorian business follows the Compliance Code, not Safe Work Australia's model Code. The factors you weigh are broadly the same. The legal instrument you cite is not.
The completed form records one floor, a CBD location, an ambulance minutes away, twelve staff on standard hours, and occasional client visitors. It closes on one well-stocked kit, one nominated and trained first aider and a six-month review date, which is exactly what Table 2 of the Victorian Code sets for a low-risk workplace of 10 to 50 employees: one first aid officer, one kit, no first aid room. For a workplace this size, that points straight to a small business first aid kit mounted in the kitchen where everyone can find it.
Example two: a 45-person warehouse in New South Wales
A 45-person distribution warehouse outside Newcastle is a different animal. New South Wales has adopted the model WHS laws, so this assessment sits under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 and Safe Work Australia's First Aid in the Workplace Code of Practice, administered by SafeWork NSW.
The hazards are real: forklifts, manual handling, racking, and a casual workforce that turns over, so first aid training has to be topped up regularly. Higher risk changes the numbers. The Code's guidance points to around one first aider for every twenty-five workers in higher-risk settings, so two here, spread across the shifts. How many first aid kits your workplace needs is a risk-assessment question rather than a headcount formula, and the answer here is several kits placed so no worker is far from one.
The completed form also flags a defibrillator. The Code says to consider an AED where there is a risk of electrocution, where ambulance response is likely to be delayed, or where large numbers of people are present. A large distribution site where an ambulance can be slow to reach the floor is worth weighing on those grounds. The provisioning line lands on multiple workplace first aid kits positioned across the floor, two trained first aiders, and an AED on the wall.
Example three: a three-vehicle mobile trade crew
A three-vehicle plumbing crew working across regional sites has no fixed workplace at all. The kit travels with them, and the assessment leans on the Code's remote and isolated work provisions: how far the crew is from emergency care, and how they call for help when a job is an hour from the nearest hospital.
Isolation changes the sums. A city office assumes help is not far away. Out here it is not, so the crew carries more trauma capacity, and a charged phone is not a plan where there is no signal.
Because those extra contents matter, our guide to remote and high-risk workplace kit requirements covers what these crews add. The completed form gives each vehicle its own vehicle first aid kit and records how the crew raises the alarm when they are out of range. Whichever state the crew is registered in, the assessment names that jurisdiction's regulator rather than assuming the model laws apply everywhere.
From a completed form to a stocked kit
A first aid assessment is only worth the paper it is on if it changes what is on the wall. The last section of the template turns your decisions into a purchase list, sets a review date, and names who signs it off.
Most workplaces fall down on keeping that trail auditable. The assessment gets done once, the kit gets raided over the following months, and by the next check nobody can show what was decided or when it was last looked at. Whatever system you use, it should keep the assessment, each kit's contents and expiry dates, and the date of the last check in one place you can produce on demand. If you'd rather keep that trail in software, KitCheck is a subscription to our proprietary kit management software that you log in and run yourself.
That record matters more than it used to. A completed first aid needs assessment every workplace can point to is the difference between a defensible decision and a guess. Whichever state you operate in, the assessment sits inside the broader picture of workplace first aid compliance in Australia.
Use the template and provision against it
Copy the template above, adapt whichever example matches your workplace, and provision against it in a single order from our workplace first aid kits range. For businesses in and around Bendigo, our team can audit your kits onsite, checking stock and expiry dates, and restock them: ask about onsite audits and restocks when you call or email. Anywhere else in Australia, first aid kit refills and a trade account keep each kit topped up to the list your assessment sets.
To set up an account or talk through your assessment, call 03 5443 2239 or email info@firstaiddistributions.com.au.