'Bleed kits should be mandatory in all senior schools'

Bleed kits should be made mandatory in secondary schools, according to a campaigner who has secured funding to get them installed across two counties.

The kits, which cost £80, are designed to be used to stem the flow of significant bleeding following a stabbing or other injury, until paramedics arrive.

Peter Dutch, founder of community interest company Colchester Anti Loo Roll Brigade, said he had provided kits and training for schools across the city and was set to get them installed across every senior school in Essex and Suffolk.

"It shouldn't be down to a local charity stepping in as to whether or not your child, in the event of an awful incident, has the best chance of survival," he said.

"In an ideal world we wouldn't have to be having these discussions, but unfortunately burying your head in the sand doesn't fix the problem," Dutch added.

The kits contain a tourniquet, specially-coated gauze and bandages, scissors for cutting off clothing and other equipment specifically designed to buy time for ambulance crews to arrive and take over treatment.

Dutch's team have been delivering training to first-aiders from schools across Colchester in how to use the kits, which he said would be sent out more widely "as soon as possible".

Martin Ford, a first aid trainer, said the equipment was "massively important".

"In one or two minutes, you could bleed out with an arterial bleed, whereas if you can get the haemostatic dressings in there, and tourniquets and stuff like that, that's going to massively increase the person's chance of survival," he told the BBC.

Those attending the training spoke of how valuable the experience was.

"Working in a school, there's always accidents, most of them luckily not catastrophic bleeding - but we want to be prepared for that situation," said Nicola Clarke, an admin assistant at Trinity School in Colchester.

Maddie Blackwell, pastoral leader at North East Essex Co-operative Academy, added: "It's good to share practices as well, and to have all different schools here today, all learning the same training."

Dutch said his MP, Labour's Pam Cox, had raised the issue of making bleed kits mandatory in schools in the House of Commons, and he understood it would be considered for a debate.

"Should that happen, I'm failing to see that anyone's got a reasonable argument against it," he said.

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