St John Ambulance mini-manifesto

St John Ambulance has launched a mini-manifesto for the general election. The document identifies four areas where the charity is looking for support from a future government.

The four areas

Specifically, St John Ambulance is calling for government support to ensure that:

• Workplaces are suitably prepared to provide first aid
• Schools offer first aid training to pupils
• Communities and businesses support volunteers
• Young people are inspired to take an active role in their community.

'We want national decision makers to understand how their choices can make the difference between lives lost and lives saved,' says Scott Jacobson, Director of Marketing, Communications and Fundraising.

The mini-manifesto

We believe that anyone who needs first aid should get it. But the fact is that’s not happening. St John Ambulance is determined to be the difference between lives lost and lives saved. And we need your help.

St John Ambulance can be the difference when:

Workplaces are suitably prepared to provide first aid

Health and Safety regulations get a bad press. But they’re vital to ensure effective first aid provision, by ensuring all businesses above a certain size have first aid equipment and trained first aiders in place.

Schools offer first aid training to pupils

Learning first aid should be as important a part of childhood as learning to tie your shoelaces. But currently, the decision to teach first aid or not is up to individual schools. We believe that the government should take the lead, by insisting that first aid is part of the PSHE curriculum.

Communities and businesses support volunteers

Organisations such as St John Ambulance are providing new, more flexible volunteering opportunities, which enable citizens to support their community. The government can encourage volunteering opportunities and in so doing support the development of high-quality volunteer managers, and help foster support-in-kind from businesses and communities.

Young people are inspired to take an active role in their community

The lack of premises and leaders for young people is the biggest barrier to providing a next generation of citizens with important life skills such as first aid. The government can help the voluntary sector tackle perceived barriers that stop people becoming youth leaders.

St John Ambulance

St John Ambulance teaches people first aid so that they can be the difference between a life lost and a life saved.

We teach young people in schools and through our youth programmes.

We teach employees for their workplace, and we teach people in the community.

Some become St John Ambulance volunteers, providing first aid at events, acting as first responders in the community, or supporting their local ambulance service.

As the nation’s leading first aid charity, we teach more people first aid than any other organisation: each year, more than 800,000 complete a St John Ambulance training course.

Even so, fewer than one in 10 people have been trained in first aid.