Charity Registration Number: 1152694

Welcome to Newark Community First Aid, we are a local charity (CIO) which began operation on 1st August 2013. Our objective is to provide first aid training to the local community and first aid cover at local events. Our aim is to provide a high quality, reliable and professional service. The organisation was set up by a group of dedicated individuals including, doctors, paramedics, health care professionals and experienced lay first aiders.

To ensure our services can be accessed by all, our Community Training and Community Event Services will be free of charge though donations are much appreciated. as this will allow us to sustain and develop. We do have to levy a charge for some services, but our aim is to make these charges as inexpensive as possible to again encourage the saving of lives and reduce suffering. We charge for our Workplace Training and for Large Commercial Event Cover. Our operational area is mainly Newark and a 15-mile radius around the town. All our members providing event services and community training are volunteers, our only paid staff are the training team involved in Workplace training.

Volunteers needed as demand continues to surge

Our trading year ending June 30th 2022 saw our busiest year on record with the return of many local events after the pandemic, also our busiest year with regards our workplace training. In May 2022 we also opened our new First Aid Centre at Newark Showground a project that had seen us raise over £125,000 in less than a year. The efforts of all of our volunteers in that year had been tremendous.

Now we have just completed another year and this too has seen our volunteers extremely busy on all fronts. Events have come in thick and fast during the year with many established events such as the County Show now drawing crowds to its one day format, the 6 large 2 day International Antique and Collectors Fairs seeing a return of traders in the wake of the pandemic and Newark Normous Autojumble drawing crowds to its 10 shows. We also saw the return of the Newark Kit Car Show, Koi Carp Show and Carole Nash Motor Bike Show and the new 6 day Focus Religious Festival brought 10,000 people to Newark Showground. We were delighted to be chosen to provide first aid cover at several National Events – British Ploughing Championships, National Shire Horse Show and National Schools Cross Country. We also were kept busy with local events around the Queens Platinum Jubilee, her Majesty the Queens funeral and the Kings Coronation. A new favourite event for youngsters was ‘Newark on Sea’ with two weeks of sand and fun in Newark Market Place.

Our workplace training has seen another huge jump with an 18% increase in the number of candidates attending our courses. This is on top of a 74% increase last year with our training team busier than ever. We have also seen a big jump in the numbers of people attending our FREE Community Courses with a 59% increase in candidates – taking us back towards levels prior to the Covid Pandemic. We have also introduced Mental Health First Aid Training during the year.

All of these increases in our front line services leads to much more work behind the scenes. Like nearly every charity we have found it more difficult to recruit new volunteers since the pandemic. The national statistics show volunteering at its lowest level since records began. Yet everyone agrees volunteering is great. it helps your physical and mental wellbeing, it is extremely rewarding and our volunteers also gain skills to save lives. Our aim this next 6 months leading into 2024 is to recruit more volunteers so that we can continue to serve our community.

If you are interested in volunteering please email us: newarkcommunityfirstaiders@hotmail.com

For more details on our services please select one of the links at the very top of this page.

First Aid at Work Course Brochure 2023

2023 Course Booklet

Event First Aid

In between the end of the first lockdown and the imposition of the December 2020 lockdown we saw a return of some events. Our volunteers provided first aid cover whilst implementing COVID security measures to reduce risks to our patients and staff. The Government Roadmap out of lockdown led to certain events restarting after 17th May 2021 and we are now providing event cover again in a covid secure manner. At present the return of events is being controlled by agreements between Government and event industry bodies – with a slow and steady rollout. We would advise event organisers to book as usual and as soon as you know your dates – bookings from mid-August 2021 are building up with very heavy bookings in autumn.

Workplace First Aid Courses

We resumed Workplace First Aid training on July 6th 2020, after guidance from the Government. All our courses have been changed to reduce to a minimum risk to candidates and staff. We are using blended training where possible with candidates using e-learning for part of the course. We have reduced class sizes and changes mean social distancing can be maintained throughout training. We plan to continue to run all courses in 2022 to the same format as 2021 to minimise the infection risks. In 2021 we increased the number of courses to meet what was exceptional demand – our plan will be to do the same again if required – we have set out initial dates in our 2022 Course Brochure. The Course Brochure can be downloaded from our Home Page. For a booking form please email: events.courses.ncfa@outlook.com

Community First Aid Training (FREE Courses)

From January 2022 we are re-introducing this training – initially at low level and dependant on government restrictions. We will start by providing the training to groups on request and hopefully as the present surge in cases reduces, we will return to our normal operations.

We appreciate your support and understanding at this time – we will work with the authorities to help our community through this difficult time.