Swindon Advertiser Column: We Were Literally Campaigning To Save Lives

I was 12 when my dad suffered a fatal cardiac arrest. I was the only person with him and despite being in shock, I fumbled around and attempted to administer CPR – based on what I had seen on casualty.

I had never been taught how to give CPR and had I been, my dad might still be here today.

After his death, I vowed to make a difference. Since my election to Parliament in 2010, I have worked with the British Heart Foundation and pushed hard and consistently to campaign for Emergency Lifesaving Skills to be taught in schools.

It has been a long process, but I and my fellow campaigners were determined not to give up. With fewer than 1 in 10 people surviving a cardiac arrest outside of hospital, we knew that we were literally campaigning to save lives.

It takes a long time to bring about changes to the National Curriculum, as I first discovered with my campaign to include Financial Education.

This isn’t because the Government isn’t interested or isn’t listening.

It’s because Ministers rightly have to consult with experts, teachers, and the public to make sure that any changes fit into the curriculum in the right place.

Time in the curriculum is limited (and therefore precious) and ministers have to ensure that those subjects which will have the most practical benefit are prioritised, especially when you consider that there are over a hundred subjects which campaigners are pushing to add to the curriculum.

But we never gave up, and with the support of fantastic organisations including the BHF and St John Ambulance, were able to continue lobbying Government on the importance of this.

I also had several meetings with ministers and the Secretary of State for Education to continue this push.

Therefore I was delighted last week when Damien Hinds brought forward draft legislation to teach primary and secondary school children first aid. This is a huge step forward in our fight to create a nation of life-savers.

Whilst I wasn’t able to save my dad all those years ago, I am so pleased that the next generation of young people will be equipped with the skills that I didn’t learn.

Elsewhere this week we welcomed news that a million public sector workers are to receive their biggest pay rise in nearly a decade.

In 2010, many European countries had to lay off thousands of public sector workers, as they had no money to pay them.

In the UK, we made sure that this didn’t happen.

A pay cap was necessary to ensure that we could continue to pay all of the public sector workers, without having to make large numbers redundant as happened in Greece, France, Spain and other countries.

Now we have rebuilt the economy and protected jobs, we are in a position to deliver our public sector workers a much-deserved pay rise.

This includes 2.9 per cent extra this year for the armed forces, 2.75 per cent for prison officers and up to 3.5 per cent for teachers.

This comes on top of the increases to NHS pay which was announced earlier in the year.

Our dedicated public sector workers deserve to be fairly rewarded for the vital work they do.

This is fair to public sector workers, affordable for taxpayers, and will help make sure we have the workforce we need to deliver world class public services.