Millie’s Mark is named after Millie Thompson, who tragically died as a result of choking on food at a nursery in Stockport in 2012. Her parents, Dan and Joanne Thompson, set up Millie’s Trust in her name to raise awareness of safety in children.
NDNA (National Day Nurseries Association) has been working with the Department for Education and with support from Millie’s parents in an advisory capacity, to develop and pilot a scheme for all nurseries to have 100% first aid trained staff.
Following on from their campaign, as of September this year all newly qualified staff with a childcare level 2 and 3 qualification must have an emergency paediatric first aid or full paediatric first aid certificate.
Mr Sam Gyimah, Childcare and Education Minister announced at a recent NDNA conference that nurseries where 100% of staff hold paediatric first aid qualifications and have well-deployed first aid processes should receive a special endorsement, Millie’s Mark.
Under current rules, early years providers must have at least one paediatric first aider available on the premises at all times. The new requirement would mean that a nursery recruiting a level 2 or 3 member of staff who had newly completed their early years/childcare qualification must have an emergency paediatric first aid or a full paediatric first aid certificate, if they are to count towards the staff/qualification ratios under the early years’ foundation stage.
At Tops Day Nurseries, we aim to have 100% of staff to hold first aid certificates, with the exception of new starters and apprentices, who will be enrolled onto the next available course. Nurseries will be able to apply for Millie’s Mark later on this summer and the mark will help to provide parents with the assurance that their child is being cared for by safe and knowledgeable staff.
As part of Hadland Care Group, Tops employees benefit from having Aspire Training Team also under our suite of businesses. Aspire Training Team is an Ofsted Outstanding training provider providing many training courses including first aid to businesses across the South, and will be training all Tops employees in line with this launch.
To find out more about first aid courses provided by Aspire Training Team, please click here.
To find your local Tops Day Nursery, please click here.
