Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making first-aid training a compulsory part of secondary education.

The Department wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe, and to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society.

The new curriculum for Relationships, Sex and Health Education became mandatory from September 2020 and, as part of Health Education, schools must have regard for the new statutory guidance that includes teaching first aid at primary and secondary school. The content at secondary school includes how to administer CPR and the purpose of defibrillators.

Schools will have the flexibility to determine how the content is taught, including options to work with expert organisations such as the British Heart Foundation, St John Ambulance, and the British Red Cross, who offer a range of specialist lesson plans, some of which may result in a recognised qualification.

As part of a wider support package for schools, a new training module covering first aid is available for schools: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-training-basic-first-aid. This can be used alongside the statutory guidance on teaching first aid: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. Schools can adapt this training module and tailor it to meet the needs of their pupils.