How to get paediatric first aid?

Getting paediatric first aid is less complicated than most managers expect: pick the right route, tell a provider your numbers and dates, and the training comes to your setting.

Aim2Aid Ltd is run by Rebecca Sullivan, who leads an in-house training team with over 50 years of combined experience, and our courses are never outsourced. Whether you need a paediatric first aid course or paediatric first aid course services Milton Keynes, we cover Berkshire and surrounding areas. You can read what settings say about us through the reviews widget on our site.

Call 07771 680794 with your delegate numbers and preferred dates and we will confirm a trainer.

How to get paediatric first aid?

You get paediatric first aid by booking an accredited course with a training provider who comes to your setting and delivers it to your team, then issues certificates valid for three years. Tell the provider your delegate numbers, your Ofsted or ratio requirements and your available dates, and the course is arranged around your rota.

The qualification you need depends on the role you hold

Paediatric first aid exists in two recognised forms. The full qualification runs over two days, roughly twelve hours of contact time, and is the one early years staff are normally required to hold under the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. The emergency version runs over one day, about six hours, and suits assistants, volunteers, activity leaders and support staff who work alongside a fully qualified colleague rather than counting towards the statutory ratio on their own.

Both carry a three-year certificate and both cap the group at up to 12 delegates, which keeps the practical work genuinely practical: every person handles an infant manikin, every person works through a choking sequence, every person practises the recovery position on a child rather than watching someone else do it. Twelve is a working number, not an arbitrary one.

Our first aid courses are accredited by FAIB, so the certificate is one an inspector, an insurer or a local authority commissioning officer will recognise without a second conversation. Whether you need a paediatric first aid course or a paediatric first aid course in Reading, we cover the whole area, and the content is identical wherever the training happens.

Booking is a short conversation about numbers, dates and space

The practical route to getting trained is straightforward. Ring or email with three pieces of information: how many people need the qualification, whether they need the two-day or the one-day route, and which dates your setting can release them. From there we confirm a trainer, a start time and what the room needs to look like.

Training is delivered at your own premises. That is deliberate. Your staff learn resuscitation on the floor they actually work on, they practise with the layout they know, and nobody loses half a day to travel. A nursery playroom after hours, a school hall, a village hall your holiday club already hires, a staff room with the tables pushed back: all of these work. We need clear floor space for manikins, somewhere to sit for the theory, and a plug socket. Weekends, evenings and inset days are all workable, because the alternative is closing a room during operating hours.

We do not run open sessions for individual delegates, so the group you book is your group. Whether you need a paediatric first aid course or a paediatric first aid course in Windsor, we cover the whole area and the arrangement is the same: our trainer travels to you.

Blended delivery splits the theory from the practical

Blended delivery is available as an option if releasing staff for two consecutive days is difficult. The theory is completed online, in advance, at each delegate's own pace, and the practical assessment happens at your premises with a trainer present. For the emergency paediatric route that means one practical day of about six hours, still capped at up to 12 delegates, still leading to the same three-year certificate.

Blended is not a shortcut. The assessed practical elements, CPR on infant and child manikins, choking management, primary survey, recovery position, use of a defibrillator, all still happen face to face with a trainer watching and correcting. What changes is where the classroom hours sit. Settings with shift patterns, agency cover or small teams tend to prefer it; settings that want everyone learning together in one room usually stay with the classroom route. Both are compliant.

Who delivers the training, and what that means for the certificate

Every trainer on an Aim2Aid course is in-house. We do not outsource to a freelance pool or subcontract a name we have never met, which is why the standard of delivery is consistent from one booking to the next. Rebecca Sullivan owns the business and leads the training team, and between them our trainers hold over 50 years of combined experience across first aid, emergency response and early years settings.

That team also delivers workplace first aid, and there is a detail worth knowing if you run a mixed setting. Our Emergency First Aid at Work course includes paediatric content at no extra cost. If your workplace has adults and children in it, a leisure site, a school office, a community venue, a holiday scheme, you may find that a single one-day EFAW course, about six hours, up to 12 delegates, three-year certificate, covers more of your risk assessment than you expected. For statutory early years ratios you still need the paediatric qualification itself, but for everyone else on site the inclusion saves a separate booking.

Mental health first aid courses are accredited by FAA rather than FAIB, and they run separately, which matters if you are building a wider staff training plan for the year rather than a single course.

Certificates, renewals and keeping skills current

Certificates last three years from the date of assessment. Diarise the renewal at the point the certificate is issued, not the month it expires, because settings routinely discover a lapsed certificate during an inspection window rather than before it. If you are staggering renewals across a large team, tell us and we will build the dates so you never drop below your required ratio.

The Health and Safety Executive recommends annual refresher training to keep first aid skills sharp between full requalification, and short annual refreshers are a sensible habit for anyone whose skills sit unused for months at a time. Practical confidence fades faster than knowledge does.

Keep a simple record: name, qualification held, date awarded, date due. Add the trainer's name and the accrediting body. That single sheet answers most questions an inspector will ask about first aid provision, and it makes rebooking a five minute job instead of an audit.

Five things worth remembering

• Two routes exist: the two-day full qualification for statutory early years roles, and the one-day emergency version for supporting staff.
• Groups are capped at up to 12 delegates, so every person gets hands-on time with the manikins.
• We come to you. Training happens at your own premises, in the space your staff already work in.
• Blended delivery is an option: online theory plus a practical day at your venue, with the same certificate.
• Certificates run for three years, with annual refreshers a sensible way to keep skills current.