The Coalition Government has today announced its new national curriculum for England – and has, as the (BHF) describe it, "inexplicably" left out life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Resuscitation Council UK have been campaigning for emergency life support skills, including CPR, to become a mandatory part of England’s secondary school curriculum so every child leaves school knowing how to save a life.
However, Education Secretary Michael Gove has left out these vital skills in his national curriculum framework, which includes all subjects except key stage 4 English, maths and science. Mr Gove says a consultation on those subjects will be launched in the autumn.
Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation, said: “In one breath Mr Gove talks about essential knowledge and yet in another he tells us he hasn’t found room for CPR – the most essential skill you can learn. If he had listened to overwhelming evidence, we could be creating hundreds of thousands of young lifesavers every single year. Instead we’re left facing stubbornly dreadful cardiac arrest survival rates. After the consultation in the autumn, our politicians will have one final opportunity to leave a life-saving legacy by including CPR in the science curriculum. I hope they take it.”
Currently, only one in five people survive a witnessed cardiac arrest that happens outside of hospital in England. In Seattle and some parts of Norway, where young people are taught life-saving skills, survival rates are 50 per cent.
