Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to improve awareness of CPR procedures within secondary schools.

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

The RSHE guidance includes basic first aid for primary school children, such as dealing with common injuries, including head injuries. At secondary school, pupils are taught additional life-saving skills, including how to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as well as the purpose of defibrillators and when they might be needed.

The guidance sets out that schools have flexibility over how they teach RSHE topics, including first aid, and may draw on locally available expertise.

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