First Aid
How Long Does a First Aid Certificate Last?
This guide is for general information only and doesn't replace hands-on, accredited first aid training. In a medical emergency, always call 999 (or 112) immediately.
A first aid certificate isn’t a one-and-done qualification. It has an expiry date, and letting it lapse means your workplace is no longer covered, even if the person holding it still remembers everything from the course.
The three-year rule
Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW), First Aid at Work (FAW), and Paediatric First Aid certificates are all valid for three years from the date they’re issued. Requalification has to happen before that three-year certificate expires, so there’s no gap where your workplace or setting is left without a trained first aider.
Requalifying is shorter than the original course: an EFAW requalification is normally completed in a day, and an FAW requalification over two days, rather than the original one-day and three-day courses. It’s worth booking this in good time. Leaving it until the certificate has already expired isn’t just a compliance risk, it means starting again with the longer, full-length course rather than the shorter refresher.
What about the gap in between?
The three-year cycle covers requalification, but the HSE’s own guidance goes further: it “strongly recommends” that employers arrange annual refresher training for their first aiders, even though it isn’t a legal requirement. The idea is straightforward. Three years is a long time to go without practising skills like CPR or using a defibrillator, and a short annual top-up keeps those skills sharp and keeps first aiders aware of any changes to recommended procedure, rather than waiting three years to find out something’s changed.
Not a legal requirement, but worth it. Annual refreshers aren’t mandatory, but they’re the kind of thing that’s cheap insurance against skills fading between the big three-year requalifications.
If you work with children
Paediatric First Aid certificates follow the same three-year validity period, but if you’re a childminder or work in an early years setting, there’s an added layer of regulation worth knowing about, which we cover in detail in our guide to Ofsted’s first aid requirements for childminders.
The practical takeaway
Mark the expiry date somewhere you’ll actually see it, not just in a drawer with the certificate itself. Diarise requalification two to three months ahead of expiry so there’s time to book a course, and if annual refreshers aren’t already part of how your business trains its first aiders, it’s worth considering, even without a legal obligation to do it.
Due a requalification?
We run EFAW, First Aid at Work and Paediatric First Aid requalification courses, in our classroom or on-site at yours.
View our first aid courses