Group 2: Life-saving Skills and First Aid (Amendments 1, 3)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:01 pm on 2 March 2021.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 5:01, 2 March 2021

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, and I move amendment 1. Members, I'm bringing these amendments back as this is the last chance that I, or, indeed, the Minister, will be able to ensure that pupils in Wales acquire that most valuable of skills, which is knowing how to save the life of another human being. Some young people, of course, have been lucky and learnt some of these skills in school already, or as members of St John's Cymru or the Red Cross or the Brownies or the Cubs or the Urdd or our cadets' groups even, just like Aneurin Metcalfe did. Just 22 years old, last week he saved the life of Bobby Gamlin after stepping in and administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which he'd learnt with Torfaen sea cadets. And every one of us will be grateful to Calon Cymru for tracking him down, this modest young man, to thank him, but, of course, no-one will be more grateful than Mr Gamlin and his family. 

Aneurin stepped in without having to think about it, and it's that instinct to step in that's behind these amendments. Some schools already offer a lesson in CPR especially, maybe once or twice in a pupil's school life, and the skill couldn't be easier to learn, as indeed would be the case with other basic life-saving and first aid skills, but the optional intermittent lessons don't grow that instinct, and there are too many sad stories of adults who know how to do CPR but don't step in because they are too shocked, too scared or forget in the moment what to do, whereas years of mandatory practice means that stepping in is as instinctive as reciting your 10 times table without thinking about it.

So, yes, Welsh Government has its out-of-hospital cardiac plan, and I thank the paramedics and the charities who have helped to design that, but your chances of surviving cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting remain stubbornly high at around just one in 10, and those same paramedics and those same charities still support mandatory teaching of these skills in schools, as do members of our own Youth Parliament, families, pupils and teachers across Wales, who have seen their peers in Scotland and England persuaded by the evidence from other countries, where this population-level CPR training means that there are fewer deaths from cardiac arrest. So, there are no party political ideologies here, just a desire for a way forward to prevent unnecessary deaths.  

So, there are two amendments here, Minister, for you to consider, but there are many ways to skin a cat. And I know that you want to keep this Bill clean of additional obligations about curriculum content, but I also remember you supporting the policy objective in the past. Scotland and England have come to the same result by different routes and, for me, it's the end that matters, rather than the means. Now, we've discussed how this might be achieved, and I would be really grateful if you would share with Members how you think we might have cracked this in a different way to see what kind of response we get. Diolch.