Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance and support are provided to schools to meet basic first aid requirements in the curriculum, including CPR and defibrillator awareness.

All state funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the statutory 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 (PSHE) education and it is good practice to follow the statutory Health Education curriculum.

The statutory RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, for example dealing with common injuries, such as head injuries and pupils. In secondary schools, pupils are taught additional first aid such as how to administer CPR, or the purpose of defibrillators and how to use them.

The guidance sets out that it is for schools to decide how they teach RSHE topics, including first aid, including how to draw on expertise available to them locally.

The government has commissioned Oak Academy to make lesson materials freely available.