The end of this week promises sunny weather across the country, and summer holidays are on the horizon. For school staff, the final weeks of term can be a blur of sports days, transition events, and leavers' assemblies, all overshadowed by a to-do list that never quite seems to end.
The first aid room, however, is one area that genuinely cannot wait until September. The weeks before the break are the ideal time to carry out a thorough audit – reviewing stock, records, training, and systems – so that when pupils and staff return this autumn, everything is accurate, compliant, and ready to use.
This isn't just good housekeeping. Outdated records and expired supplies are a safeguarding and compliance risk. A child with a new medical diagnosis. A care plan that was never updated. An EpiPen that expired in March. These are things that can cause real harm when they fall through the gaps.
In this week's edition of The First-Aid Room, we walk through the key areas to audit before the end of term and what to put in place so your school starts September on solid ground.
The end of term is the right moment to ensure your first-aid kits are up-to-date. First-aid kits are central to every response your staff provides, so they should be fully stocked, with medications clearly labelled and any expired items removed.
What to check:
🎯 If you use Medical Tracker, you can easily track medication stock and expiry dates throughout the school year. Staff can receive automatic alerts when medication is nearing expiry, helping to prompt repeat prescriptions authorised by parents and ensuring emergency medication is replaced in due time.
Throughout the year, schools can accumulate medication: prescribed items brought in by families, emergency medication such as spare inhalers and adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs), and over-the-counter items that may have been purchased but never logged properly. So it's important to check that everything is correctly stored and to remove anything that is no longer needed or out of date.
What to check:
💡 Good to know:
Under the DfE's statutory guidance Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions (2015), schools must have clear procedures for managing and storing medication safely. Outdated or unauthorised medication being held on site is a risk both to pupils and to the school's compliance position.
The DfE consulted earlier this year on new statutory guidance, Supporting Children and Young People with Medical Conditions and Allergy, which is expected to come into force in September 2026.
From September 2026, Benedict’s Law will also require all schools to stock spare adrenaline auto-injectors, so it's worth familiarising yourself with the guidance now, ahead of its introduction at the start of the autumn term.
What to do with expired or uncollected medication:
➡️ Return it to the family where possible
➡️ Do not dispose of medication in general waste
➡️ If families cannot be reached, contact your local pharmacy: most will accept expired medication and dispose of it safely
Individual healthcare plans (IHCPs) sit at the heart of how schools support pupils who have medical conditions, but they are only useful if they are up-to-date.
By the end of the summer term, it is likely that some plans will be out of date. Pupils' conditions change, medication is adjusted, emergency contacts change and new diagnoses are made, so plans that were accurate last September may no longer reflect the pupil's needs.
Before the end of term:
✅ Review every active IHCP and flag any that have not been reviewed within the past 12 months if needed
✅ Contact parents and carers to confirm information is still accurate, particularly for pupils with complex needs or life-threatening conditions
✅ Archive records for pupils who are leaving the school – these records should be retained securely in line with your school's data retention policy
✅ Where applicable, begin creating or updating plans for any pupils joining in September who have medical conditions
✅ Cross-reference your records with the school's admissions data to ensure no pupil has been missed
🎯 If you use Medical Tracker, you can easily create and update DfE-compliant Individual Care Plans, with automatic review reminders sent four weeks before they are due.
All of your students' and staff records are also securely stored within the platform.
First-aider qualifications: check what's expiring
First aid certificates have a fixed validity period. An Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) certificate is valid for three years. A full First Aid at Work (FAW) certificate is also valid for three years, with a refresher recommended at the one-year mark.
If a first aider's certificate lapses, even by a short period, they are no longer a qualified first aider and cannot be counted in your school's ratio.
Before the end of term:
🎯 We partner with St John Ambulance, England's leading first aid charity, to help schools combine strong digital record-keeping with high-quality staff training. They offer a full range of courses for school settings, including EFAW, FAW, Paediatric First Aid, and more.
The end of term is also the time to make sure your incident records are complete and your reporting obligations have been met.
What to review:
👉 Click here for a reminder of RIDDOR thresholds for schools.
🎯 If you use Medical Tracker, incidents that may be reportable under RIDDOR can be clearly flagged at the point of recording. Staff can simply tick the box to indicate that an incident is RIDDOR reportable, helping schools identify serious incidents quickly, maintain accurate records, and ensure the appropriate follow-up actions are taken.
Parent and carer contact details change throughout the year, so it's a good idea to check if they are still correct before the end of the school year.
Before the end of term:
👉 Send a reminder to all families to update their emergency contact details if needed
👉 Ensure that every pupil has at least two named emergency contacts with working phone numbers
👉 Check that contact details for any pupils with life-threatening conditions (anaphylaxis, severe asthma, epilepsy) are current and held by the first aider, the form tutor, and the office👉 Review consent records for medication administration: these should be re-signed if there has been any change, or if the previous consent is more than a year old
It is also worth confirming arrangements for the summer period itself: if pupils attend summer school, holiday clubs, or wraparound care on the school site, make sure that relevant medical information is shared with those responsible for the sessions.
🎯 If your school uses Medical Tracker, you can control user permissions and what information is visible, so details and contact information are shared with the right users, helping you stay GDPR compliant.
Prepare a handover for September
Finally, document what needs to happen at the start of the autumn term. A clear, written handover means nothing gets forgotten over the summer, however long the to-do list feels right now.
Your handover document could include:
✅ A list of IHCPs due for renewal in September
✅ New pupils with medical conditions whose plans need to be created
✅ Medication that needs to be brought in or updated on return
✅ First aider training renewals due in the first half of term
✅ Any outstanding actions from the end-of-year audit
✅ Any concerns or patterns noted across the year that should inform next year's risk assessments
Sharing this with the relevant members of the senior leadership team before the end of term means that health and safety priorities are visible from the first day back, not something that only gets picked up once the routine sets in.
Conducting a first aid room audit may not be the most high-profile end-of-term task, but it is certainly one of the most important. Investing a few hours now helps ensure your school remains safe, compliant, and fully prepared for the new term – so that when a pupil requires support in September, everything is already in place and ready to use.
👉 End-of-Year First Aid Room Audit Checklist (PDF)