I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding your organisation’s current or recent provision of training in the following areas:
* First Aid
* Fire Marshal
* Mental Health First Aid
* Health & Safety (including Manual Handling, Evacuation Chair, etc.)
For each of these training areas, I would be grateful if you could provide the following information, where available:
Type of Provision
* Is the training delivered on an ongoing basis?
* Delivered on an ad hoc basis?
* Arranged through a formal tendering process?
First Aid: This is procured as an ad hoc provision although there may be some coordination in some Directorates, e.g. Children, Young People & Family Health Services . For corporate First Aid trained staff, we are in the process of starting a procurement exercise for training to be delivered on a regular basis but Devon County Council have not previously had a main provider. Services who require First Aid training as part of their roles will procure this separately
Fire Marshal: Around 6 courses delivered annually through in-house provision, mix of planned dates and bespoke requests
Mental Health First Aid: – There is no corporate offer relating to this currently but our Highways team obtain training on this.
Health & Safety (including Manual Handling, Evacuation Chair, etc.) –
Mandatory ‘Introduction to Health and Safety’ and ‘Health and Safety for managers’ delivered internally through online training includes aspects of manual handling, Display Screen Equipment, risk assessment, accident reporting.
Mandatory ‘Fire Safety training’ delivered internally through online training
Evacuation Chair training, delivered on request by in-house provision
Also virtual in-house provision for:
Accident investigation – 2 course per year
Asbestos duty to manage – 5 courses per year
Asbestos operational awareness – 5 courses per year
Control of contractors and CDM – 3 courses per year
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations – 3 course per year
Fire safety – duty to manage – in development
H&S General Awareness – 2 courses per year
H&S Risk assessment – 3 courses per year
Institution of Occupation Safety (IOSH) Managing Safely – 2 courses per year
IOSH managing Safely Refresher – 1 course per year
IOSH Working Safely – 2 courses per year
Legionella Responsible Person – 5 courses per year
Legionella Operational Awareness – 5 courses per year
Managing work at height – 2 courses per year
School Governors’ Health and Safety Overview – 3 courses per year
Senior Managers Premises Overview – 4 courses per year
These courses will be supplemented by bespoke requests through the year.
Other H&S courses may be procured directly with suppliers or obtained via other online packages by individual Directorates / Services especially if they are part of mandatory training role certain job roles.
Responsible Contact
Name, email, and phone number of the person responsible for organising or overseeing the training.
First Aid: We do not hold this information
Fire Marshal: simon.bates@devon.gov.uk,
Mental Health First Aid: We do not hold this information
Health & Safety (including Manual Handling, Evacuation Chair, etc.): We do not hold this information, given that this is provided by individual Directorates
Training Providers
The current or most recent provider(s) used in the last five years.
The only provider is Mental Health First Aid England
Frequency and Value
* Estimated number of sessions delivered annually.
* Approximate annual cost or value of the training.
Beyond the internal provision referred to above and the bespoke provision obtained by individual Directorates, we can confirm the training provided by Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA):
5 x champion sessions delivered 2024-25 FY, 1 x champion session delivered 2023-24 FY. £2,600 per course
1 x MHFA course delivered 23-24 FY. £3,500
Contract Information (if applicable)
* Start and end dates of any existing agreements.
* Renewal or review dates.
* Current status of the provision or contract.
There is no ongoing contract in place