Basic Life Support: Adults and Children
The most important skills most people never practice, until the moment they need them.
Cardiac arrest can happen anywhere: at a desk, on a sports field, in a community hall, or at home. In the UK, survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remain under 10%, largely because too few bystanders perform CPR. The difference between someone who acts and someone who freezes is almost always training, not courage or physical ability. It comes down to the muscle memory built by practising these skills.
This half-day practical course covers CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator) use for both adults and children. It suits anyone who wants the core life-saving skills without a broader workplace first aid qualification, including appointed persons, community volunteers, parents, sports coaches, HR teams, and anyone whose first aid certificate has lapsed but who wants to stay prepared.
For employers: this course also meets HSE guidance for the Appointed Person role, where a first aider is not required but basic emergency cover is needed.
What You Will Learn
- The chain of survival, and why early CPR is critical
- How to assess an unresponsive person
- Adult CPR, including compression depth, rate and rescue breathing
- Paediatric CPR, and how technique differs for children and infants
- Using an AED: how they work, how to use them safely, and why the fear of doing something wrong is almost always unfounded
- Choking response for adults and children
- The recovery position
- When to stop CPR, and when not to
Course Details
| Duration | Half day (typically 3 to 4 hours, depending on group size) |
| Format | Face to face, hands-on practical |
| Group size | Minimum 4, maximum 12 per instructor |
| Certificate | Issued by Chris Garland Training, PDF as standard |
| Venue | Knutsford training centre, or at your premises nationwide |
| Age | Suitable from 14+ |
Certificate:
There are two options available for this course. Ultimately there is no difference in the validity of either, but some people prefer to choose one other the other. You will see the same presentation, be assessed on the same practical skills & to the same degree, but sit different multiple choice exam papers at the end of the course.
- Certified by Chris Garland Training:
- This is the default option.
- PDF format certificates are issued as standard, but paper certificates can be requested as well.
- Your certificate is valid for 1 year.
- Certified by the Ofqual Regulated Awarding Organisation:
- If you’d prefer this option, please select this option when making your booking.
- Paper certificate & credit card sized plastic certificates are issued.
- Your certificate is valid for 1 year.
Course duration:
- 3 guided learning hours.
- Generally we run these courses from 9.30am-12.30pm & 1.30pm-4.30pm.
Test:
- Whether certified by Chris Garland Training or the Ofqual Regulated Awarding Organisation that we use, the assessments are the basically the same. Each candidate undertakes a multiple-choice question paper & practical assessment.
- Multiple-Choice Question paper:
- You need to score a minimum of 70% correct answers to achieve a pass.
- Practical observation:
- You’ll need to demonstrate giving first aid as you would in an emergency situation, such as providing CPR on the floor. You need to score 100% to achieve a pass.
Pre-requisites:
- You’ll need to be physically capable of providing CPR to a mannequin on the floor.
- We recommend that all candidates have a minimum of Level 2 literacy and numeracy or equivalent.
- You need to be over 14 years old to undertake the course. (Employers: 14-16 year olds who hold this qualification shouldn’t be relied upon to be your sole first aider).
Candidates:
- All classroom courses have a minimum and maximum number of candidates that we can take on a course.
- Minimum: We need a minimum of 6 candidates on an open/scheduled course for the course to run. Click here for more details.
- Maximum: We are limited by the Health & Safety Executive, and (where applicable) by the Awarding Organisation, to a maximum of 12 candidates per instructor.
- Should you have more than 12 candidates to be trained, please contact us to discuss your training needs.
Geographical coverage:
- This basic life support course is available to candidates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- The course can be delivered in other countries however candidates should be aware that the content was developed in accordance with current UK practice, protocols & guidance.
Venue:
- Scheduled courses run at our training centre in Knutsford, Cheshire. Visit our Joining Instructions page to read about what you will need to bring/wear, etc.
- Why not arrange to have a private face to face course run at your workplace? Simply fill in our quote builder tool to request a quotation.
Joining instructions:
Private courses:
- To arrange a private course for yourself or your colleagues, please fill in our Quote Builder tool.
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Book a scheduled place | Request a private quote | Call us: 01565 746555
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Recent comments:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – “Worth It!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – “Recommended.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – “Very Good. Recommended.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – “Good basic first aid course.”