Written evidence submitted by the British Red Cross

Executive Summary

• The British Red Cross believes that the purpose of education is to support children of all ages to develop into capable and confident citizens who play positive roles in society.

• Enabling children and young people to engage with humanitarian values and learn life skills, such as first aid, at school supports the development of character, resilience and ability to cope with adversity and crises throughout their lives.

• We advocate for first aid and humanitarian education to be taught to children of all ages in all schools. These can be easily embedded within various parts of the existing curriculum.

• The benefits of first aid and humanitarian education are as follows:

• Benefit for individual’s development – learning skills and values, gaining confidence and character that supports academic and other achievements throughout life. Resilience gained gives the ability to cope with and recover from minor setbacks and more serious crises. 

• Benefit for wider community – resilience to flooding and other emergencies with individuals able to collectively cope, support each other and respond during an emergency.

• Benefit on systems and institutions – for example first aid can play a role in reducing the number of people needing to go to A&E with issues they could deal with effectively at home.

• Benefit to lives – lives may be saved and harm reduced through the actions of a generation educated in first aid and disaster preparedness; stigma may be combated towards refugees; and understanding the humanitarian impact of conflict and protections available may limit its impact.

• While some schools and teachers understand these benefits and are engaged with first aid and humanitarian education, as evidenced through the positive reception of our educational resources and sessions, the current formal education system has an academic focus in terms of measuring progress and grades. These measures concentrate on specific subject areas leaving little room for students to be developed in a more holistic way.

• Almost 60% of children have no first aid training whatsoever[i] and only 24% of secondary schools currently teach first aid.[ii] This is despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of teachers, parents and young people themselves believe they should learn first aid in school.

• The siloed approach to subject learning and applying skills can mean that children and young people are not exposed to the transferability of skills and confidence from one situation to another, or the connection between their learning in one subject and another, or between school and the wider world.

Introduction

1. The British Red Cross welcomes the opportunity to submit to this consultation. The Red Cross is a national society that is part of the International Red Cross and Crescent Movement, which is the world’s largest provider of first aid education and training.  The organisation directly contributes to the provision of formal education in the UK through its humanitarian education programmes, which include first aid and also explore topics such as: refugees, migration and stigmatisation; disasters and emergencies; and conflict including the Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law. 

2. We advocate for first aid and humanitarian learning to be taught in all schools; we believe every child should have the opportunity to learn first aid and engage with humanitarian principles. While first aid can be seen as the ultimate humanitarian act and is also a form of humanitarian education, for clarity this response will refer to first aid education and humanitarian education as separate entities.

3. Our aim is that children, young people and adults develop their understanding and are more confident, able and willing to help themselves and others in a crisis. The crises we might help them cope with can range from treating minor injuries, to local emergencies like flooding or understanding the impact of major international disasters such as conflicts.

4. We offer a variety of first aid learning and resources, from high-quality face-to-face education, online resources for young people and teachers at secondary level (see http://firstaidlearningforyoungpeople.redcross.org.uk/) and for primary teachers (see www.redcross.org.uk/lifeliveit), as well as putting life-saving tools into people’s pockets through our free first aid phone apps (redcross.org.uk/app)

5. Alongside our first aid resources we offer a range of humanitarian resources online designed for teachers to deliver to 6-19 year olds. In 2015 we reached 49,737 young people through face to face sessions and 63,277 of our online teaching resources were downloaded for use in classrooms.

6. At a local level Red Cross staff and volunteers across the country work with schools and communities identified as being at greater risk of harm or stigma to teach focused first aid and humanitarian education. For example, this could include first aid emergencies that come about through drug and alcohol misuse, anti-stigma towards refugees and asylum seekers, and exploring the consequences of conflict.

What the purpose of education for children of all ages in England should be

Development of character and resilience

7. The purpose of education is to support children of all ages to develop into capable and confident citizens who play positive roles in society.

8. The British Red Cross believes that enabling children and young people to engage with humanitarian values and basic life skills, such as first aid, supports the development of character, resilience and ability to cope with adversity.

9. More specifically the Red Cross believes education should aim to enable children and young people to understand, cope with and respond to crisis; contributing to building humane and resilient communities in which they can play meaningful roles.

10. Moreover, the holistic development of children and young people’s character and non-cognitive skills can support attainment. These soft skills are essential to life and the development of the child as a whole. We believe first aid and humanitarian education are integral to delivering the Government’s whole-school approach to character education, as announced by the Secretary of State for Education in December 2014.[iii]

Benefit for child’s development

11. Humanitarian education supports the development of skills such as critical thinking, analysis, problem solving and collaboration, key to achieving success in a complex and shifting society.  Developing the confidence to step forward in an emergency can also affect confidence in academic and other areas of life. Education should support our children and young people to develop their own opinions and understanding based on a varied range of perspectives, and to be able to question and enquire into these perspectives to form a reasoned view or course of action.  Humanitarian education supports the development of enquiry-based learning alongside softer skills and values such as empathy, compassion and character. 

Benefit on wider community, systems and institutions

12. While we intend to focus our response on formal education, the impact of education on the wider community and systems should also be considered. The ability to put oneself in the position of another is essential to building humane and resilient communities, of which the development of character plays a vital role. Resilient individuals with the necessary skills and confidence are better able to respond to emergencies ranging from cuts and burns to flooding or other major incidences.[iv] Indeed in the context of the public health system and A&E pressures, first aid can play a vital role in reducing the number of people needing to go to A&E with issues they could deal with effectively at home. But recent research carried out by Sheffield University showed that approved first aid was given in just 37% of those attending A&E with a condition or injury treatable with basic first aid[v].

Benefit to lives

13. Teaching first aid at primary and secondary level can help to build a generation of lifesavers. Less than one in ten people survive an out of hospital cardiac arrest, but in places where CPR is taught at school, survival rates more than double those in the UK have been recorded.[vi] Our research, ‘Right Place, Right Time’ gives evidence that children as young as five years old can learn basic life-saving skills, including how to keep themselves safe, showing that children of all ages can be taught humanitarian education.[vii] More recent research carried out by the Belgian Red Cross identifies an evidence-based pathway of first aid skills that children of different ages can learn[viii]. 

Testimonials – first aid education

14. The evidence that follows is a series of testimonials from young people who believe first aid is a vital part of their education:

• Chloe, 18, from Surrey

I think first aid should be taught in school because as young people take on more responsiblilties they need to become aware that things can go wrong at times and they need to know how to react to help

I think first aid is an important life skill because it can save a life and is so easy to learn and can make a huge difference in those vital seconds

My story:

I have had someone who can consumed too much alcohol who needed to be put in to the recovery position.

• Willow, 15, from Milton Keynes

I think first aid should be taught in school so people know what to do in a crisis. I think first aid is an important life skill because it’s a skill for the rest of your life.  You will stand out from the crowd and help others, even if you don’t want to be a doctor.

Do you think you could use first aid in a real emergency?

Yes.  At first I guess I’d be freaked out and scared, but after a few deep breaths I could help.

• Steph, 18, from Hampshire

I think first aid should DEFINITELY be taught in school!

I think first aid is an important life skill, not necessarily the techniques,  more just the confidence to do SOMETHING in an emergency.

My story:

One time leaving college there was a lady having an epileptic seizure, called an ambulance and reasured the lady and kept her warm until they arrived :)

Testimonials – humanitarian education

15. The Red Cross Pillowcase Project is an emergency preparedness education programme to help children understand, cope with and respond to an emergency. It has been piloted in 2015 with 4000 children aged 9-11 in primary schools across the UK. The session plan includes practical and small-group learning activities culminating in the creation of an emergency ‘grab bag’ pillowcase with the items they would need to have with them.

16. The Pillowcase Project has received very positive feedback from educators and children:

17. Over 90% of educators said that children were engaged during the session
18. 89% of children increased their confidence to be able to prepare for an emergency

19. Teacher at Bushmead Primary School, Bedfordshire.

“Fitted in well with our 'natural disaster' topic. Children really enjoyed the project and learning more about how children cope in emergencies.”

20. Teacher at Sea View Primary School, Tyne and Wear.

“They loved 'demonstrating' their learning with the pillowcase activity! Very novel and unforgettable - which is exactly what they need learning to be!”

21. Pupil at ICENI partnership, Norfolk.

“I thought it was very important to learn about floods because some of my friends and family live at the seaside.”

22. Pupil at Townhill Junior School, Hampshire.

“My favourite thing about the Pillowcase Project is drawing on it and learning what you need in an emergency and how to prepare.”

23. Pupil at Bushmead Primary School, Bedfordshire.

“My favourite part of the Pillowcase Project is when we learnt about how we can calm down in an emergency.”

How to embed first aid and humanitarian education

24. We believe that first aid and humanitarian education programmes should be a priority for schools. First aid can be easily incorporated into subjects such as PSHE (Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education) and whole school programmes including SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development), assembly and tutor times. First aid resources, including those which look at the impact of the bystander, can be shown to support SMSC development; understanding the ethical and moral dimensions, such as what might prevent people from intervening has been shown to decrease the likelihood of a person not stepping in to help. 

25. Giving young people the opportunity to learn simple first aid skills, for example, doesn’t need to be a burden on the school day. These skills are quick and easy to teach and learn. We have numerous free resources for teachers to use in various parts of the curriculum and they need not have any extra training. 

26. Humanitarian education can also be embedded into the curriculum through subjects such as English, Citizenship, Geography, History and Art and Design. By integrating humanitarian issues which are relevant today such as refugees and migration into, for example, a history lesson that explores the impact of migration throughout history can make school subjects more relevant to the lives of young people helping them to develop important skills, attitudes and values. 

27. Literacy is a core element of our education approach, with activities in resources supporting children and young people to develop speaking, reading, writing and listening skills. 

First aid in schools – the current picture

28. Almost 60% of children have no first aid training whatsoever[ix] and only 24% of secondary schools currently teach first aid.[x] This is despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of teachers, parents and young people believe they should learn first aid in school:

• 97% of teachers think it’s vital for young people to learn essential first aid skills in school.[xi]

• 95% of parents agree that first aid should be taught at secondary school.[xii]

• 97% of 11-16 year olds agree they should be taught first aid, saying it either definitely or probably should be taught at secondary school.[xiii]

29. In Europe, first aid is mandatory in Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Norway and France for secondary school students. In Spain and France is also compulsory for primary schools children.[xiv] The Red Cross has supported efforts over the years to ensure that first aid features as part of the curriculum in England (and the devolved nations), given that the number of schools and students learning first aid is not high enough. First aid does feature within the recommended PSHE curriculum, but this is not a statutory subject. We have supported calls for PSHE with a first aid element to be made mandatory as recommended by the Education Select Committee.

30. Last year we also supported Teresa Pearce MP’s Private Members Bill, along with St John Ambulance and British Heart Foundation, to make first aid mandatory in all state-funded secondary schools in England which did not proceed past its second reading.

31. Given the increasing devolvement of decision making with academies not required to follow the national curriculum, we would urge schools to integrate first aid and humanitarian education within existing subjects and whole schools programmes as mentioned above.

What measures should be used to evaluate the quality of education against this purpose

32. As explained in answer to question one, education should prepare children and young people for modern life through holistic development of character, resilience, confidence and life skills. To achieve this everyone should have the opportunity to learn humanitarian values and skills, including first aid, before they leave formal education.

33. This educational approach is not about over burdening schools and teachers with measures or targets, but it is important that interactions are effective so trialling programmes and gaining feedback, as with the ‘Pillowcase Project’ mentioned above, helps ensure a high quality approach before further roll out.

34. SMSC and soft skills are notoriously difficult to evidence and measure; such is the nature of the development of values based and character education.  To measure the quality of education against this purpose children and young people need to be involved in tracking their own progress and development. For example students can measure their own confidence or knowledge before and after educational interventions. The Red Cross uses learning objectives and quizzes to measure outcomes for children and young people through online resources, and for our direct delivery we use before and after measures on a scale of 0-10 that track development of understanding, attitudes and confidence.

35. Measures that support whole school initiatives are also key to evidencing outcomes. For example, young people have a set of core skills and values that they can develop across their subjects and a school passport could track their progress. This longitudinal measure can show progress over time. Learning diaries are also important tools for self-reflection and self-evaluation, empowering young people to measure their own progress, giving autonomy to learning which can in turn contribute to building confidence and resilience.

36. While most measures for soft skills tent to be qualitative, if possible, measures that demonstrate the connection between learning soft skills and academic attainment, and by extension skills for employment and adulthood, should be utilised. Meta-analyses by Dignath & Buttner (2008) and Higgins, Hall, Baumfield, and Moseley (2005) found causal evidence that training in metacognitive strategies had large positive effects on numeracy and medium positive effects on literacy.[xv][xvi] And a recent study by the Department for Education introduced quantitative methodology to demonstrate the impact of social action on young people’s life prospects.[xvii]

How well the current education system performs against these measures

37. The current formal education system has an academic focus in terms of measuring progress and grades, and these measures concentrate on specific subject areas and do not tend to take on a holistic view of development.

38. This siloed approach to subject learning and applying skills can mean that children and young people are not exposed to the transferability of skills from one situation to another, or the connection between their learning in one subject and another, or between school and the wider world. Currently the education system does not offer much in the way of learning that enables young people to consider how and when to apply skills to a range of contexts through a breadth of subjects.

39. The transferability of hard and soft skills is essential to building resilience, as young people can draw on past learning and experiences and apply them to their current context.  Having opportunities to practice and apply skills and consider values, and how they impact our role in the world and society can build confidence and understanding, enabling use of independent judgement and reason to decide how to act. 
40. It is, however, positive to see the Government’s focus on character and resilience through the £3.5 million fund (announced in December 2014) for programmes designed to place character education on a par with academic learning for pupils across the country, and we are interested to see the results from this initiative.[xviii]

January 2016