A SWINDON MP has secured ministerial backing for a campaign to see life-saving skills taught in all secondary schools.

The Department for Education (DfE) has vowed to write to all secondary schools, urging them to support a British Heart Foundation campaign to see the introduction of the skills in class.

North Swindon MP, Justin Tomlinson, who is also the vice chairman of the all-party parliamentary heart group, secured the guarantee from the DfE that it would call on schools to support the BHF's Call, Push, Rescue emergency life-saving skills campaign.

Research has shown that each year in the UK, just one in nine people survive if they have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital. However in countries like Denmark, where teaching CPR in schools is compulsory, the survival rate improves to one in four.

The BHF campaign, which teaches students how to help save lives by performing CPR, has been a huge success in the schools that have trialled it.

Mr Tomlinson, who has actively campaigned on the issue since his election in May 2010 and is the patron of the BHF’s Swindon Branch, organised the meeting with the minister for school reform, Nick Gibb, following a concerted campaign which culminated recently in a series of parliamentary questions to the DfE.

During the meeting the minister, who recently visited Swindon to launch the town’s two new free schools, committed to writing to the headteachers of every secondary school in England to promote the campaign.

Mr Tomlinson said: “I am exceptionally proud to have helped secure the support of the minister, for teaching emergency life-saving skills in schools.

"Since becoming the MP for North Swindon, I have worked tirelessly with the British Heart Foundation who have produced an excellent and active resource which teaches students CPR in just 30 minutes.

“The minister will now write to every secondary school in England, promoting the excellent Call, Push, Rescue campaign and I hope schools across Swindon will take advantage of this vital, and life-saving, opportunity."

At no cost to schools joining the campaign, the British Heart Foundation provides 35 training bodies, a DVD and a simple guide on how to administer how to check if a person is breathing and how to perform basic CPR.

For more details, visit www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/nation-of-lifesavers/call-push-rescue.