“We need all our kids in schools across Plymouth and the whole of the UK to be taught first aid.

First aid saves lives. There is no reason that first aid should not be valued the same in our educational curriculum as English, maths and art in schools. I want to see reading, writing and resuscitation on the curriculum for all school children in Plymouth.

With the recent increase in young carers in our city, there is all the more need to ensure that our young people are equipped with the skills to keep people safe and to save lives.

The ability of save a life through first aid should not be an optional extra to learn when you want. It should be front and centre of our children’s learning at schools. That’s why we don’t just need Ministers to back first aid being taught in schools we need schools to have the skills and resources to implement that policy. That means funding for first aid training in all our city’s schools.

St John’s Ambulance shows that getting young people volunteering and learning first aid saves lives. Expanding that approach so that every young person in our city not only knows the basics to stop choking or help in the event of a heart attack could literally be life saving.”