Providers declare they understand and adhere to the guidelines.Buyers demonstrate due diligence when selecting a competent training provider.
IVOSA is an independent, not-for-profit trade body running a free, voluntary registration scheme for first-aid training providers. Each provider works through the HSE, Ofsted and EYFS guidelines that apply to their courses, and publicly declares that they understand and comply with them. Buyers can see each provider's declaration and policies, keep a written record of their due diligence, and ask for an independent audit.
I am a first aid training provider
"I understand the guidelines and I comply with them. I've declared it publicly, with my name on it, through a voluntary registration scheme run by an independent trade body. My customers can book me and show they've done their due diligence."Join the register, free →
I buy first-aid training
"It's my job to choose a competent training provider and do my due diligence. A provider on the IVOSA register has worked through every guideline for their courses and publicly declared they comply with them. IVOSA gives me a written record of that for my file, which is what HSE suggests I keep. It doesn't guarantee quality. Nothing can."Find a provider → Regulated or not? What's actually different →
What the register is
- A voluntary registration scheme, run by an independent, not-for-profit trade body.
- Each provider works through every guideline that applies to their courses, and declares publicly that they understand and comply with each one.
- A named person signs the declaration. It's renewed every year.
- Each provider's policies are on show: their own, or our model policies if they adopt them.
- A written record buyers can keep on file as evidence of their due diligence.
- Backed by a yearly audit of the facts on paper, paid for by buyers (planned).
"All training providers should be able and prepared to demonstrate how they satisfy these criteria."HSE, GEIS3, paragraph 8
The register is where they do it, in public.
What it isn't
- Not an inspection. Unless a provider has been audited, nobody has checked the provider, their courses or their instructors.
- Not a judgement of teaching quality. No register or audit can give you that.
For providers
What you get
- A public declaration, with your name on it, that you understand the guidelines and comply with them.
- A place on a voluntary registration scheme, run by an independent, not-for-profit trade body. Free to join.
- A public window onto your policies: your own, or ours if you adopt them.
- A record your customers can keep on file, to show the due diligence HSE and EYFS expect of them.
- Free model policies, if you don't have your own.
You don't have to choose
If a customer wants a regulated qualification, keep your awarding-body membership and run that course through it. For everything else, deliver under IVOSA. You keep the same syllabus and instructors, pay no awarding-body fee, and have a public record your customer can check.
What joining involves
- Tell us which courses you run.
- Work through the HSE, Ofsted and EYFS guidelines that apply to them, in plain words.
- Declare, guideline by guideline, that you understand and follow each one.
- Where a guideline needs a policy, upload your own or adopt ours.
- A named person signs the declaration. You renew it every year, and re-confirm straight away if a guideline changes.
The audit
- By joining, you agree to one audit a year if a buyer pays for one. Any further audit in that year is only by your agreement, and you're told which buyer asked.
- We audit a number of courses you delivered in the previous year, and check every criterion that can be checked objectively, on paper. See exactly what we check →
- Pass, and you show AUDITED for 12 months. Small gaps get an amber "Needs improvement" mark until you fix them, within 8 weeks at most. Serious failures mean removal from the register.
- Any fee you pay us covers our costs only.
Registration opens soon.
For buyers
"It's my job to choose a competent training provider and do my due diligence. A provider on the IVOSA register has worked through every guideline for their courses and publicly declared they comply with them. IVOSA gives me a written record of that for my file, which is what HSE suggests I keep. It doesn't guarantee quality. Nothing can."
Your responsibility
HSE says your choice of provider must be "based on a needs assessment and appropriate due diligence (reasonable investigation)". You don't have to write your checks down, but HSE says a written record lets you show "how you selected a training provider." The EYFS framework (September 2026) says the same for early years: "Providers are responsible for identifying and selecting a competent training provider to deliver their PFA training." The IVOSA register gives you that record.
Not an invented category
HSE guidance explicitly identifies what HSE calls “voluntary accreditation schemes”, including trade and industry bodies, as one route available to first-aid training providers — and explains that such schemes can help employers select providers and meet their own legal responsibilities.
IVOSA is one of these routes: a voluntary registration scheme, run by an independent, not-for-profit trade body.
These extracts describe such schemes generally. They do not constitute HSE approval or endorsement of IVOSA.
Named in the EYFS framework
The EYFS framework in force from September 2026 makes early years providers responsible for "selecting a competent training provider". It lists the options they may want to consider: a member of a trade body with an approval and monitoring scheme, the Voluntary Aid Societies, and training centres of Ofqual-regulated awarding organisations.
IVOSA is a trade body. Its monitoring is the yearly audit, paid for by buyers (planned). Registration itself is the provider's declaration, not an approval by us.
These extracts describe such options generally. They do not constitute Department for Education or Ofsted approval or endorsement of IVOSA.
Regulated or not: what's actually different?
- The syllabus is the same. HSE and EYFS set the course content. Ofqual doesn't.
- Instructors need the same qualifications. The same first-aid and teaching qualifications apply on every route.
- Every instructor's skills are assessed at least once a year, on every route. HSE requires it.
- Neither HSE nor EYFS ranks one route above another. HSE says it "does not advocate, promote or support any particular option", and EYFS lists the options side by side.
- Regulated courses go through an awarding body, which adds cost to every course.
So what's the difference? The syllabus is the same. Instructors need the same qualifications. Every instructor's skills are assessed at least once a year, whichever route the provider takes. HSE backs no route, and EYFS lists them side by side. We have found no published research showing that regulated courses produce better first aiders or better teaching. What a regulated course adds is an awarding body, and somewhere in the price, someone pays for it. There's no evidence a regulated course is a better course. It is a more expensive one.
What we can and can't promise
The register
- Every provider has worked through the guidelines for their courses and declared that they understand and comply with them.
- A named person signs that declaration. It's renewed every year, and re-confirmed straight away when a guideline changes.
- If a complaint suggests a declaration is false, we look into it at our cost. Providers shown to have made a false declaration are removed.
- Registration is not a check. Unless a provider has been audited, nobody has inspected the provider, their courses or their instructors. Registration is the provider's own public declaration that they understand the guidelines and comply with them.
The audit (planned, not yet running)
- Any buyer can pay for an independent audit. Every provider on the register agrees to one a year.
- We audit a number of courses delivered in the previous year.
- We audit every criterion that can be checked objectively, by the facts on paper. Of the 34 criteria a provider declares against, these 13 can be, and we check all of them:
- Every instructor held a current first-aid certificate, or registration as a doctor, nurse or paramedic, on the day. Certificate or register.
- Every instructor held a training or assessing qualification for the role they played. Certificate.
- Every instructor's skills were assessed in the 12 months before the course. Signed record.
- There is a documented quality assurance plan. The document.
- A named person is responsible for quality assurance. Named in the plan.
- That person holds a current first-aid certificate or registration. Certificate or register.
- That person holds assessing and verifying qualifications, or is working towards them within two years. Certificates.
- That person is independent of the training they quality-assure. Not the trainer on the audited courses.
- Learner feedback was collected. Feedback for each course.
- There is a documented complaints procedure. The document.
- Learner assessment records are kept for three years. Records for each course.
- No more than 12 learners per trainer, unless extra trainers were used or a reason is recorded. Attendance register.
- Certificates carry the details HSE lists. Sample certificates.
- A provider that passes shows AUDITED for 12 months. There's no score or grade.
- Small gaps get an amber "Needs improvement" mark until they're fixed, within 8 weeks at most. Serious failures mean removal from the register.
What an audit can't do
- It can't judge how well a course was taught, or confirm how long it ran.
- It doesn't review teaching materials.
- It confirms that records exist and agree. It can't prove a course happened exactly as recorded.
What stays with you
- Choosing a provider that suits your people and your risks. The register helps you show you checked. It doesn't make the choice for you.
Independence
Why who pays matters
- When an organisation that approves training providers is paid by those same providers, through membership, centre or certificate fees, its income depends on keeping them approved.
- When that organisation is owned by shareholders, its profit does too.
- That is a direct conflict of interest, however well it is managed.
- IVOSA is built without it. Providers join free. Buyers pay for audits, at cost. We have no shareholders and take no profit.
- Keeping a provider on the register earns us nothing. Removing one costs us nothing.
The only fees a provider pays
The only fees a provider ever pays us are for a recheck after a failed audit, or to be reassessed after removal. These cover costs only. The checks are run by the system and signed off by a person, and removals are decided by our board.
More about who founded IVOSA, and how our board makes its decisions, will be added here.