A joint campaign by the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the British Heart Foundation March 2011  
 
The Resuscitation Council (UK) is working in partnership with the British Heart Foundation, supported by numerous organisations, to lobby Parliament to include ELS as a mandatory part of the national school curriculum.

You can read about the background for the campaign below or visit www.resus.org.uk. 

What is Emergency Life Support? 
 
Emergency Life Support (ELS) is the set of actions needed to keep someone alive until professional help arrives. It includes performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), dealing with choking, serious bleeding and helping someone who may be having a heart attack.
 

What are we calling for? 
 
We are calling for ELS, including vital CPR, to be a mandatory part of the National Curriculum in England. Secondary school students should be taught it from year 7, and their skills should be refreshed every year until they leave school.

ELS is simple, and easy to teach and learn. It can be performed without any special medical knowledge. It takes as little as two hours to teach, just 0.2% of a school year. Teachers can include ELS in a range of different subjects including Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE), and Science, Physical Education, and Citizenship.

Children of 10 years and above can learn the full range of ELS including vital CPR, and younger children are also able to learn many of the skills. Teachers at primary school should be encouraged to teach their children many of the skills including dialling 999, calling for help and checking for danger.

We would like you to help us achieve this important objective. The Government is currently reviewing the content of the national curriculum and so we have a unique opportunity to effect change. The more people that participate, the more likely we are to succeed.

Survival-linX Solutions supports this campaign.