1st response: guidance for trainers

How can you become a 1st response trainer?

To deliver 1st response you must: 

1. Meet the teaching requirements (see below). 
2. Meet the first aid requirements (see below). 
3. Forward your first aid certificate to [email protected] who can add your 16-hour qualification to GO. 

Once all 3 steps are complete, your local team can add your 1st response trainer role to GO. 

If you’re already a qualified Scouts 1st response trainer, you are also qualified to deliver it to Girlguiding members. 

If you're unable to find enough 1st response trainers, don't forget that there may be volunteers who fit the criteria in your area - so always ask your local team. 

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What are the teaching requirements?

You will need 1 of the following: 

• Completed trainer development programme with specialism in 1st response. 
• Completed trainer qualification with module 4 in 1st response. 
• Another adult teaching or training qualification.

To complete the trainer development programme, go to Welcome to Training on the learning platform where you can sign up and specify that you want to specialise in 1st response. 

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What are the first aid requirements? 

Volunteers who are not healthcare professionals must: 

• Have 16+ hours of first aid training from a recognised provider that covers the 1st response syllabus (PDF, 84KB)* and which reflects current best practice as informed by: 
  • Resuscitation Council. 
  • First Aid Manual. 
  • First Aid Quality Partnership. 
• Be a Girlguiding first aider – in other words, they must have a valid First Aid on GO. In practice this means completing the 1st response elearning alongside your first aid training. 

* Note that a First Aid at Work certificate is not sufficient because it doesn’t cover paediatric first aid. You would also need Emergency Paediatric First Aid and fill any other gaps by working 1-to-1 with an experienced 1st response trainer. 

Volunteers who are healthcare professionals must: 

• Have a valid registration number with the relevant professional council (for example, BMC, NMC, HCPC). 
• Hold a current life support certificate (BLS, ILS or ALS). 
• Have filled any gaps between their knowledge and the 1st response syllabus by working 1-to-1 with an experienced 1st response trainer. 

All 1st response trainers must have their first aid qualifications verified through the same verification process used by other Girlguiding first aiders. See External first aid qualifications for details. 

Your 1st response trainer role can only be added once verification has been completed and your 16-hour qualification has been added to GO. 

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About these requirements

We have these requirements so 1st response trainers are equipped to deliver safe, consistent, and high-quality delivery of 1st response training across Girlguiding. 

The requirements based on current best practice. They were developed by Girlguiding’s specialist volunteers in first aid: Georgette Eaton (Dphil Oxon), a consultant paramedic and volunteer in Anglia, and Dr Liz Lennox-Bloomfield, an emergency medicine doctor and volunteer in North East England.

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Renewal

1st response trainers need to keep their first aid qualifications up to date by renewing them before they expire. Renewal is the same process as the original submission – submit for verification as outlined in our guidance on External first aid qualifications. Once approved, forward your certificate to [email protected]. 

A qualification that originally involved 16+ hours of training is acceptable even if the renewal process takes less than 16 hours.

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How to deliver 1st response training

1st response is divided into 4 sessions: 

• Session 1 is the practical part that must be delivered in person. 
• Sessions 2 to 4 can be delivered in person or as online webinars. 

The course can be delivered in any of the following formats: 

• 1 full, 6-hour day of in-person training. 
• 4 lots of in-person training adding up to 6 hours in total. 

Session 1 delivered in-person, and sessions 2, 3 and 4 delivered as online webinars, with the total time adding up to 6 hours. 

1st response webinars are organised by countries and regions and typically use a platform such as Zoom. Each webinar must be delivered by 2 trainers, at least 1 of whom must be a 1st response trainer. 

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Training resources

All 1st response training resources are available on the  learning platform. The training plans and PowerPoints are designed so you can follow any of the formats listed above.  

Please always download and follow the most recent standard course plans, rather than deliver your own version of the training. 

Find out more about 1st response training. 

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