As part of its continuous work to prepare young people for all situations in life, Barking and Dagenham Council has been providing knife wound and CPR training to its sixth form students.
The training is delivered by Street Doctors and is made up of two mini-sessions:
- What to do if someone is stabbed and bleeding and how to give emergency first aid. It also covers the medical impacts of violence such as blood loss.
- What to do if someone is knocked out, how to call an ambulance and give emergency first aid by using the recovery position or doing CPR. It also covers the dangers of being knocked out.
So far over 60 Year 12 pupils have taken part in the training from two schools and there are further sessions planned in three other schools.
Frontline staff from Barking and Dagenham Council including Community Safety Enforcement Officers, Antisocial Behaviour staff, Environmental Enforcement officers and others have also been trained.
Councillor Syed Ghani, Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety said: “We try to prepare our young people for all walks of life and give them as many life skills as possible.
“Across London there are serious concerns about the issue of knife crime, so having people trained in first aid to deal with such situations will hopefully save a person’s life.”
This training links into the council’s Lost Hours campaign which encourages parents to take more responsibility and be aware of the whereabouts of their children between the hours of 3pm and 7pm when these is a rise in youth violence.
Several local businesses have also signed up to the council’s Responsible Retailer Scheme for knives where they agree to responsibly sell bladed items and ask for an ID for anyone who doesn’t look like they are aged up to 25 years old.
https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/news/2024/east-london-youngsters-trained-emergency-first-aid
