Wellbeing | St John Ambulance declares 2025 'the year of workplace health'

England’s leading first aid charity St John Ambulance has declared 2025 the year of holistic workplace health, warning that organisations must proactively address outdated approaches to first aid in the workplace to best protect their employees.

As businesses reopen for the first full working week of the year, employers are being urged to recognise that the traditional concept of workplace first aid is dangerously outdated.

First aid is no longer solely about treating physical illness or injury, or maintaining emergency first aid kits, but integrating both physical and mental health first aid to holistically keep workers safe.

Between 2023 and 2024, across the UK there were 33.7 million working days lost due to workplace injury or illness. Sick leave due to stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 16.4 million (about half) of those lost workdays.