Mini first aid sessions preparing children for emergencies
"We think about whether we'd know what to do if our children were suddenly ill, but what happens if a child's home alone with an ill parent?"
Teaching children the basics of first aid could save a life one day, one practitioner said.
Kate Oates runs Mini First Aid for Wolverhampton, South Staffordshire and Lichfield, teaching adults and children how to perform first aid.
The sessions primarily focus on how to perform first aid on children, but the roles can easily be reversed.
Kate said: "In the pandemic, so many children were alone with their parents. People rarely think about what would happen if a child's forced into that situation."
Kate's first aid business is one of roughly 70 franchises of Mini First Aid which operates across the UK and Ireland.
The Leeds-based company was set up in 2014 by mum-of-six, Kate Ball, who wanted to make first aid more accessible for parents and carers.
The launch was so successful, Kate and her husband Matt started franchising the business just one year later, and they took Mini First Aid on Dragons' Den in 2021, leading Sara Davies to invest.
"I feel very proud teaching these classes and feel a big sense of responsibility," Kate said.
While Kate delivers first aid classes for adults in the form of a two hour Baby and Child First Aid class, she also teaches children how to perform first aid.
Children aged from three to six can take part in a 30 minute workshop - Mini First Aid Early Years, while seven to 11-year-olds have Mini First Aid Kids classes.
Kate said: "It gives children an understanding of what happens in an emergency, and our class teaches younger children how to ring 999.
"I'm a mom of two boys aged three and seven and they know what to do. The other day my eldest bumped his head and my three-year-old went straight to the fridge to get a compress for him."
Mini First Aid classes cover a range of topics, from dealing with a bumped head and how to report an emergency, to choking, bleeding, burns, fractures, and CPR for adults.
Kate, who is based in Codsall, is active in many schools and also gives public and private lessons.
For more information go to wolverhampton.minifirstaid.co.uk.
