Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether there are plans to make first aid training a mandatory component of the national curriculum.

All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the health education set out in the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) statutory guidance. Independent schools are required to cover health education as part of their responsibility to provide personal, social, health and economic education.

The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries. Pupils in secondary schools are taught further first aid, for example how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.

Schools have autonomy to work with external providers, including the British Heart Foundation, and to use teaching resources from Oak National Academy, to deliver specific first aid teaching, if they think it is topical or there is particular local relevance.