Today’s question is a follow up to the post Student paramedic as team first aider (August 27, 2026).  My correspondent says:

I would be interested in your view on, particularly in relation to sports trainers in Victoria.

We regularly see sporting clubs advertise and pay people to work as “sports trainers”. Increasingly, we also see commercial organisations supplying sports trainers to clubs, including allied health students such as physiotherapy and paramedicine students.

While these roles may include traditional sports trainer functions such as strapping, massage and injury prevention, in practice a significant part of the role during a game is often to respond to players who become sick or injured on the field or court, assess them and provide first aid.

That raises a question for me following your discussion of the Non-Emergency Patient Transport and First Aid Services Act 2003 (Vic):

Does describing and engaging someone as a “sports trainer” change the position if, in substance, part of the service they are being paid to provide is first aid?

For example, I would be interested in your view on two scenarios:

1. The club directly provides a payment to a sports trainer

If a football or sporting club employs a sports trainer whose duties include responding to injured or ill players, does the employee exemption you discussed apply? I note the wording you quoted refers to an individual employed to provide first aid to persons “employed or engaged” by that organisation. Would players participating for the club or an opposing team generally fall within “engaged by that organisation”?

2. A commercial business supplies the sports trainer

What happens where a physiotherapy business, sports medicine company or other commercial organisation contracts with the sporting club and supplies a paid sports trainer — perhaps a physiotherapy or paramedicine student — whose duties include providing first aid to injured players?

In that situation, it would seem harder to characterise the individual as simply the sporting club’s employee providing workplace first aid. If the commercial organisation is effectively offering or providing first aid in exchange for payment, would that organisation require a Victorian First Aid Service licence, notwithstanding that the personnel are described as “sports trainers”?

I suppose the broader question is whether the legislation looks at the title of the role or the substance of the service actually being provided.

There appears to be a potentially significant grey area here for Victorian sport, given how commonly paid sports trainers are used at community sporting events.

To the best of my knowledge no-one has been prosecuted under the Non-Emergency Patient Transport and First Aid Services Act 2003 (Vic) or, if they have, they have not taken the matter to a superior court for any definitive legal rulings on its provisions.  So all I, or anyone, can offer is an interpretation – a guess if you like – on how it might be interpreted.  

It is worth recalling why the licensing of first aiders was introduced. In his second reading speech, the Minister said (Parliament of Victoria, Hansard, Legislative Assembly, Non-Emergency Patient Transport Amendment Bill 2021, 17 March 2021, p. 1073-1074 (Mr Foley, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality)):

First Aid

The first aid sector is currently unregulated. …

While it is a big step to regulate an unregulated sector, given the range of services provided to the community by commercial first aid providers, setting a minimum level of safeguards is critical.

Pre COVID it was estimated there were about 90 organisations operating commercial first aid services, which include bandaging of minor injuries and low-level pain relief, to major trauma stabilisation prior to ambulance transport, to provision of general anaesthesia and intravenous sedation for drug overdoses. These services are often provided at festivals and sporting events. They are an important part of our health service system.

There have also been reports of a small number of unsafe operators which mean this sector requires oversight…

These examples alone, and the range of services provided, justifies the need to introduce safeguards to require sub-standard and possibly unsafe operators to meet the required standards or leave the industry, and to make sure the first aid sector is clear about what services they can and can’t provide. It will also give confidence to the community that organisations providing commercial first aid services have met safety and quality standards…

We also heard that sporting clubs, who often rely on these services, welcome these new safeguards. One peak sporting organisation’s submission supports “an outcome where clearer definition of authorized medical services provided to a common standard. In addition, a system where staff of medical providers are clearly defined and categorized to their level skills and qualification. Providing a scope of practice which can be easily understood by sporting bodies and sporting clubs.”

Those accessing these services, like councils, sporting groups and event organisers will also be able to check whether the organisation they are hiring meets these minimum standards by the establishment of a public register.

The requirement for licensing will apply to commercial first aid providers only…

Direct employees are exempt as they are not providing a commercial service to potentially vulnerable clients who cannot assess their capacity.  If an organisation like a sporting body wants to employ someone to provide first aid and sports training services they can do their due diligence to ensure that the person they intend to employ is sufficiently skilled and qualified for the task they are being employed to do.  

  1. Employee

What follows is that ‘If a football or sporting club employs a sports trainer whose duties include responding to injured or ill players …  the employee exemption’ does apply. That person is not providing ‘first aid services’ within the meaning of the Act and so does not need a licence.  The provision does refer to a person ‘employed by an organisation to provide first aid to persons employed or engaged by that organisation’ but if that is the person’s job, one would also expect them to provide first aid to others who might need it. A person employed as Team A’s sports trainer would of course step up to assist if a person in Team B had a sudden collapse.   An issue would arise under the Act if Team A said to Team B – we’ll provide necessary first aid services for your team and charge you for that service. In that case Team A may be providing a ‘first aid service’ but that is not the scenario described. 

If a team employs a sports trainer to provide services including first aid to team members that is not a first aid service under the Act (s 42H) and a licence is not required.

2. Commercial provider

Where ‘a physiotherapy business, sports medicine company or other commercial organisation contracts with the sporting club and supplies a paid sports trainer’ then axiomatically that person is the employee of the supplying business, not the team, the question becomes does that business need a first aid license? 

It seems also axiomatic that a sports trainer’s ‘duties include providing first aid to injured players’ so the issue is more complex. I would suggest the proper approach will be  to look at whether first aid is a core task, or incidental to their core role.  A physiotherapist is not a first aider but no doubt would provide first aid if a player needed it. But just because they have first aid training and would, of course, help if a player had a fit, a cardiac arrest, an anaphylactic reaction or any one of other things that are not physiotherapy, you could not say they are being employed to provide ‘first aid services’. The first aid that they would provide is incidental to their care.

It is worth noting too that General Health Services must ‘ensure that appropriate first aid is available to deal with any adverse event’ (‘General code of conduct in respect of general health services’, Health Complaints Act 2016 (Vic) sch, cl 5(2)(a)).  The mere fact that first aid may be provided does not make the service a first aid service.

Training to be a sports trainer covers many subjects including:

  • Preventing Sports Injuries 
  • Nutrition and Hydration in Sport 
  • Drugs in Sport 
  • Management of the Injured Athlete 
  • Concussion Management
  • Sports Taping (ankle, thumb and finger) 
  • Transporting the Injured Athlete 
  • Common Sporting Illness and Injuries

A trainee must also be qualified in first aid and CPR (https://sma.org.au/safer-sport-courses/level-1-sports-trainer-allied-health/).

Whilst there is clearly an overlap a company offering, and company engaging a sports trainer service is able to determine if practitioners are qualified and look to see if they are members of a professional body such as Sports Medine Australia, so the risk of engaging a ‘fly by night’ or non-competent operator is reduced.

But if it’s a fudge- someone trying to get past the licensing requirements then that may be obvious. The First Aid licensing scheme has three different levels – basic, intermediate and advanced (Non-Emergency Patient Transport and First Aid Services (First Aid Services) Regulations 2021 (Vic) rr 5, 6 and 7)

A basic first aid service is a service that is equipped and has staff trained to provide first aid services that adequately cater for—

(a) minor injuries or illnesses that do not usually require referral to another health care provider or transportation to a hospital; and

(b) minor illnesses that can be treated with over‑the‑counter medications, rest, hydration or similar non‑invasive treatment; and

(c) anaphylaxis, including its treatment with epinephrine; and

(d) injuries or illnesses requiring emergency stabilisation treatment before referral to another health care provider or transportation to a hospital.

An intermediate first aid service is a service that is equipped and has staff trained to provide the first aid services referred to in regulation 5 and first aid services that adequately cater for—

(a) significant injuries or illnesses that may require intervention and referral to another health care provider or transportation to a hospital, such as injuries involving broken bones; and

(b) significant injuries or illnesses that may be managed with Schedule 2 poison, Schedule 3 poison, Schedule 4 poison, observation or similar non‑invasive treatment.

An advanced first aid service is a service that is equipped and has staff trained to provide the first aid services referred to in regulations 5 and 6 and first aid services that adequately cater for—

(a) serious injuries or illnesses that often require intervention and referral to another health care provider or transportation to a hospital; and

 (b) serious injuries or illnesses that may be managed with Schedule 8 poison (in addition to the poisons referred to in regulation 6), intravenous therapies, invasive monitoring or similar invasive treatment; and

(c) injuries or illnesses that may be life‑threatening.

Note

An advanced first aid service is usually staffed by registered health practitioners.

An organiser, and a sports trainer or other organisation needs to ask ‘what are they being asked to do?’ If it is only ‘basic first aid’ and not the other skills that a sports trainer would bring then what is required is a licensed first aider.  If the organiser wants an organisation that can offer first aid to all the competitors in the event, not just their own team, and the audience then than sounds like what they want is a first aid service, not a sports trainer service even if sports trainers are indeed trained in first aid. 

Where they can courts always prefer to look at the ‘substance of the service actually being provided’ rather than allowing parties to determine what is happening by what they chose to call it.  A sports trainer service is not a first aid service even if the practitioner will provide first aid if required. A sports trainer service is a first aid service, regardless of what they call themselves, if they are in reality providing the sort of service that the Non-Emergency Patient Transport and First Aid Services Act intended to cover. 

A person engaged to bring all the professional skills of a sports trainer, or physiotherapist to members of the team that engaged them is, I suggest, not providing a first aid service even if they will provide the ‘first’ aid to an injured player and even if, should the need arise, they may give first aid for injuries or illness that are outside the scope of their normal work eg CPR for the player in cardiac arrest, putting the unconscious player on their side, administering the player’s epi-pen etc.  

If, on the other hand, you can see that they’re really being engaged to provide a first aid service as defined above, then they need a licence. To determine that I suggest you would look at what skills they are being asked to bring, what are the ‘anticipated health risks of the event’ and whether they fall within the normal scope of practice of their profession, whether they are engaged by an event organiser to provide health services to everyone at the event including spectators or by a team to provide services to their team (even if, should they need arise, they would of course provide first aid to anyone who needed it)). 

This blog is a general discussion of legal principles only.  It is not legal advice. Do not rely on the information here to make decisions regarding your legal position or to make decisions that affect your legal rights or responsibilities. For advice on your particular circumstances always consult an admitted legal practitioner in your state or territory.