A first-aid expert is launching a course for parents so they can act when the stretched emergency services can’t.

Mike Payne, of Alma Avenue Hornchurch, has been training people for 10 years and is now managing director at Canary Wharf company TCS Training Ltd.

He has seen the resources of emergency services grow increasingly stretched and believes it is time for all parents to learn the fundamentals of first aid in case they are called into action.

“I’ve done some research with my company and not many people have an across-the-board understanding of what to do when their child needs first aid,” explained Mike, 36. “Most people don’t know how to look after them.”

The course will feature an online module as well as a practical three-hour session. The real-life elemtn will enable people to put into practice the techniques they learn on their computer.

That practical element will involve CPR, bandaging and how to treat cuts and bruises.

Mike’s daughter attends Branfil Primary School, Cedar Avenue, Upminster, where the course will be piloted in January.

“I’ve spoken to the headmaster and agreed to trial the training through the Parent Teach Association,” he said.

“I would encourge parents to sign up because the emergency services are stretched and there needs to be a fundamental understanding of what is an emergency and what is not, and if there is an emergency, how to act. We don’t want to clog up A+E.”

The course will be £20 per person and, following the trial, is expected to be rolled out in Hornchurch and Gidea Park before expanding to cover the whole of the borough.

On completion of the course, parents will receive a certificate.

The course will be run through the TCS website, tcstrainingcentre.co.uk.

Last month, a proposed bill backed by St John Ambulance, the British Red Cross, and the British Heart Foundation to teach first aid to schoolchildren was blocked by Conservative MPs.