During a December 2013 inquest into the death of nine-month-old Millie Thompson, who died in October 2012 after choking on her nursery lunch, a coroner recommended that all nursery nurses be trained in PFA.
A Millie’s Trust petition – launched by Millie’s parents in response to the coroner's recommendation – calling for all nursery staff to be trained in PFA has received more than 103,000 signatures but, during a Westminster Hall debate on the campaign, Gyimah told MPs that he believes existing requirements in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) to be sufficient, although he did commit to holding a review some time in the future.
He told them that the EYFS was amended in September to include a new clause requiring childcare providers to ensure that they “always have staff available” who are trained in PFA.
“Beyond that, nurseries should take into account the number of children, staff and layout of premises to ensure that PFA is available at all times,” Gyimah added.
Rather than requiring all staff to be trained in PFA – in what Gyimah said would create a “tick-box culture” – he told MPs he would prefer those who are qualified to be “confident and capable” in an emergency.
“Nurseries should make sure that their first-aiders have the confidence and reliability to cope with an emergency, and I believe the EYFS achieves that,” he said.
“At this stage, personally, I do not think we need to amend those requirements further.”
Instead, Gyimah said that the Department for Education is to work with the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) to develop guidance advising settings on how to meet the requirements.
“I’m pleased that the DfE will be publishing, in February, new guidance for nurseries setting out clearly that the expectations are and how nurseries can deliver on them effectively,” he said.
“NDNA will be identifying a number of nurseries delivering exemplary PFA practices, including methods used to ensure sufficiency of first aid qualified staff, and providing case studies to ensure that nurseries are absolutely clear what the PFA requirements mean.”
After being pressed by MPs, Gyimah said the DfE would launch a national review of PFA in “due course” to consider whether the law should be introduced.
Despite this, Anne Coffey, Labour’s MP for Stockport, was disappointed with Gyimah’s response and said that all nursery staff must be required to undergo PFA training.
“Otherwise, at a time in the future, we’re going to have another inquest in which a nursery will have exercised its professional judgment but, sadly for the child that might die, it’s not enough,” she said.
“You can’t just leave this to professional judgments of individual nurseries.”
An inquest jury ruled that no one was to blame for Millie's death but coroner John Pollard said he would write to the government about first aid training as a "matter of national importance" after it was reported during the inquest that Millie was initially treated by a nursery supervisor whose basic first aid certificate had expired, before a PFA qualified colleague took over.
