Children in England to be taught First Aid and CPR

For every minute without life-saving treatment the chance of surviving a cardiac arrest drops by about 10%, this means that each second before an ambulance arrives is vital. The British Red Cross recently found that 95% of adults would not be able, confident or prepared to help in various examples of life-threatening first aid emergencies.

In addition, this winter NHS England has reported a spike in cardiac arrests and survival rates are lower than usual.

Earlier this month Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, confirmed that CPR will be added to the school curriculum in England.  This means that from September 2020 it will be compulsory for the 2.8 million students of secondary age to learn lifesaving skills. Government support will be available for schools that want to sign up earlier.

The new proposals will see all students taught CPR, use of defibrillators and basic first aid for a range of common injuries.

In countries, such as Norway, that already teach CPR in schools, cardiac arrest survival rates are more than double those of the UK. According to the British Heart Foundation there are 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests every year and these new plans are a positive move to ensure that our young people have the skills and confidence to help people if required and maybe even save a life.