A campaign by parents to make sure all nursery staff are qualified in pediatric first aid is being debated by MPs in parliament
The e-petition was started by Dan and Joanna Thompson because their daughter died in nursery after choking. More than 100,000 people signed.
Millie’s Trust was set up in memory of the little girl, and her parents aim was to inform people about that dangers of nursery staff not being trained. After having the trust set up for two years they hoped the e-petition would cause a debate in parliament to make sure it is compulsory for nursery staff to be first aid trained.
Liberal Democrat MP for Cheadle, Mark Hunter is leading the debate. He is calling for a change in the law to ensure that every nursery worker is trained in paediatric first aid, to improve the chances of all children if they are in danger.
He says that ‘Most parents when they get their child into a nursery would probably expect that all the nursery staff would be adequately trained in things like paediatric first aid care’. However, a lot of the time this is not the case.
The National Day Nurseries Association said, ‘Through its campaigning, Millie’s Trust has been successful in gaining backing for the importance of paediatric first aid. As an organisation NDNA supports the call for many, if not all, staff to be qualified’.
Not only do they plan to have early years nursery staff trained but early years apprentices will also have mandatory training.
The EYFS strongly believes that there must be a paediatric first aider available at all times. The first aider also needs to be able to get around quickly.
It is good practice to have a sufficient amount of Paediatric first aiders on site all times just in case more than one accident happens at the same time and to also support one another during an accident.