Ligature Response Training | Annual Refresher Course
This two-hour refresher is for staff who already hold a current ligature response certificate and need to keep the skill live.
Ligature response is a practical skill. If you do not use it often, it fades. This session puts the tools back in your hands and checks you can still run the sequence under time pressure.
It is not theory only; you practise approach, cutting tools, airway care and what to do after the event. We use drawings and X-rays during the course, not graphic photographs. We do however describe what a rescuer may face in the time of need.
We dust off your existing first aid knowledge and update it for a casualty who may have a spinal injury. This includes the “jaw thrust” manoeuvre as well as reviewing the basic “head tilt, chin lift” technique, and a spinal variant of the recovery position.
Skills that must be kept, not just gained.
If your certificate has expired, book the half-day Ligature Response Training. If you also need first aid, book Ligature Response and Basic Life Support.
What the Refresher Covers
- Your setting: ligature hazards in wards, bathrooms, bedrooms and communal areas.
- Definitions recap: fully suspended, part suspended and unsuspended casualties.
- Approach: scene safety and a controlled start to the rescue.
- Tools: safe use of the cutters and hooks your service issues.
- Casualty care: positioning, airway support and when CPR is needed.
- Spinal BLS update: jaw thrust, head tilt / chin lift, and the spinal variant of the recovery position.
- Common errors: what goes wrong in practice and how to correct it.
- Guidance updates: any change in national or local protocol since you last trained, including RCUK 2025.
- Timed drill: one short scenario to put the sequence together.
Course Details and Assessment
This course is face to face only. Tool handling and rescue practice need an instructor in the room.
- Duration: 2 hours.
- Open course times: sessions start at 9:00am.
- Group size: maximum 12 learners per instructor.
- Assessment: continuous practical observation. Practical pass mark 100%.
- Physical demand: you must be able to work on the floor and demonstrate CPR if the scenario requires it.
- Certificate: Chris Garland Training PDF certificate on a pass.
Tools You Will Practise With
You handle the cutters and rescue hooks commonly issued in health and care, including:
- Medical shears and emergency safety scissors
- Shark and Big Fish style hooked rescue knives
- Res-Q-Hook tools and cable cutters
- Barrington LC1 and LC-UZI hooks
- MAC Coltellerie TS01, TS05 and 697 Rescue
- StatGear SuperVizor XT
- EN388 Cut Level 5 gloves
Who Can Attend
- Minimum age 18.
- You must hold a current ligature response certificate. This is not the first course.
- Typical learners: mental health and psychiatric staff, prison and probation teams, children’s residential staff, refuge workers and other care staff where ligature risk is foreseeable.
- You need to be able to work on the floor for the practical.
- Teaching and assessment are in English. Contact us before booking if you need a reasonable adjustment.
If you also close wounds after an incident, see the half-day Wound Closure course.
Venues and Private Bookings
Open courses run from time to time at our training centre in Knutsford, Cheshire. Read the joining instructions for times, parking and what to wear.
A private course on your site is usually the better option. We can set the drill around your rooms and the tools your staff actually carry.
Every course plants a tree. See our Social Value and Sustainability page. Request a private quote on the Corporate and Bespoke Training Quotations page.
Related Training and Guides
- Full half-day course: Ligature Response Training
- With first aid: Ligature Response and Basic Life Support
- First aid skills update: First Aid Annual Skills Update (face to face)
- Wound care: Wound Closure Course | Half Day
- Warning signs: How to identify and respond to warning signs
- Concussion guidance: UK Concussion Guidelines for Non-Elite (Grassroots) Sport
- Joining notes: Joining instructions
- Social value: Social Value and Sustainability
- FAQs: FAQ page
