Urban First Aid for Kensington children and young people (Liverpool)

I was invited onto City Talk Radio tonight to talk about the ground-breaking project in my ward to teach children and young people about urban first aid.

Seven nurses from the Liverpool Royal Hospital have teamed up with the British Red Cross Society to offer what they are calling urban first aid to our kids.

They will learn how to tackle knife wounds and gun shot wounds, and also how to help their mates who are very drunk and have collapsed, so that they can do their bit befor paramedics arrive.

Obviously this scheme has its critics, there are those people out there who want to deny that such things happen and dont want our kids to learn what to do because this will damage their innocence. And because it should not be necessary.

On the other hand, supporters like me would say that while we hope our kids never need to apply those skills, it can only be to their benefit to be pre-warned and prepared should they find themselves in the situation of having to help friends or neighbours or indeed strangers that are injured in this way or have had far too much to drink.

Rhys Jones was with his pals when he was shot, Joseph Lappin was with his pals when he was stabbed and Anthony Walker was with his pals when he was violently attacked. Michael Causer, according to the ongoing court case, was with his friends when he was attacked, and he was taken outside and left on the pavement.

I have no idea whether any it would have made any difference in any of these cases if the pals had known what to do, but it might have, or if not, then it might have on other occasions with other young people.

What is obvious to me is that our kids can only benefit from knowing how to manage wounds - whether deliberate or accidental - you could fall on a fence post or railing for instance and need urgent care before the ambulance arrives.

And they all need to know what to do if a mate becomes insensible with drink, we all know that happens!

I also said on the radio that this is not a slur on Kensington, it is simply that the nurses live in Kensington and want to offer their skills to their own community first. If it is successful then they want to roll that out across the city.

I know that Richard and Ibrahim, whom I have met and talked to about this project, are very genuine in their desire to help young people and I think this is a ground-breaking, innovative project, typical of the way that we as a community tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in Kensington.

I took soundings from members of the As One steering group (tackling anti-social behaviour and finding youth diversionary activities in Kensington) this afternoon at our meeting before I went on to the radio and they were all very supportive. Residents, Police, LASBU, C7 wardens Kensington Regeneration Community Officers, LCC staff, RSLs, Business Crime Direct, Youth workers and all the other partners and agencies thought it was a great idea and are really behind it.

Sergeant Simon Joyce particularly asked me to stress that Kensington has seen a 28% reduction in crime over the last 3 years and that it is now the safest place to live in North Liverpool.

What do you think about this project?