First Aid for Foster Carers: What to Do If a Child Is Hurt or Unwell

Most people thinking about fostering have a version of the same worry, and it is rarely the paperwork. It is the two o’clock in the morning version. A child you have known for a fortnight is burning up, or has come off a scooter outside the flats, or has swallowed something you cannot identify, and you are the only adult in the room. If that thought has quietly stopped you picking up the phone, it is worth knowing how little of it you carry on your own, and how much of what matters can be learned in an afternoon.

Please note: this is general information, not medical advice, and no substitute for hands-on first aid training. The clinical guidance here is correct at October 2026 and follows the Resuscitation Council UK 2025 paediatric basic life support guidelines (published 27 October 2025) and NHS advice. In an emergency, call 999. Always follow the 999 call handler and the child’s own care plan.

You are expected to know the basics, and you will be taught them

Nobody will hand you a child and hope for the best. The Training, Support and Development Standards that every new foster carer in England works through include a specific outcome on this. Standard 3 asks that you “have an understanding of first aid and know how to access emergency medical treatment”, and you have your first year after approval to complete it. Paediatric first aid is one of the courses GLF arranges and pays for, then refreshes rather than ticking off once. It also comes up during the Skills to Foster course you do before fostering panel, which is where most people find the gap between what they imagine they need to know and what they really need to know is smaller than they feared. The standard is not paramedic. The standard is a calm adult who knows when to phone and what to do in the four minutes before someone arrives. For a sense of how that learning is pitched, read about the training you do before and after approval.

Child CPR is not adult CPR, and the difference is five breaths

Read this part twice. The version most adults half-remember from a workplace course is the adult version, and it is the wrong one for a seven-year-old. The Resuscitation Council UK updated its guidelines on 27 October 2025, and the paediatric sequence runs like this. If a child does not respond, call an ambulance straight away and put your phone on speaker. Look for signs of life for no longer than ten seconds. Then give five rescue breaths before you start any chest compressions at all, because a child’s heart usually stops as a consequence of a breathing problem rather than the other way round, and those five breaths do the most important work in the sequence. After that, thirty compressions to two breaths if you have not had specific paediatric training, or fifteen to two if you have.

Numbers worth carrying in your head:

• Compressions go at a rate of 100 to 120 a minute, which is faster than people expect.
• Press down at least one third of the way through the chest, and never deeper than six centimetres at any age.
• Two fingertips for a baby under one, one hand for a small child, two hands for an older one.
• The 999 call handler will count with you. Let them.

Choking, and the one thing that changes under the age of one

If a child is coughing and can still make noise, let them cough. A working cough shifts more obstructions than anything you can do, so stay close and watch. When the cough stops working, or they cannot make a sound, move to five sharp back blows between the shoulder blades, then five thrusts, alternating until it clears. Here is the bit that catches people out: for a child over one those thrusts are abdominal, but for a baby under one they are chest thrusts and abdominal thrusts must never be used. If you can see the object and can reach it easily, take it out, but do not poke blindly or repeatedly with your fingers, which pushes things further in. Call 999 if a cycle of blows and thrusts has not cleared it.

Burns and bumps, which is most of what actually happens

This tier is most of what you will actually deal with, and the guidance has changed more than people realise. For a burn or a scald, hold it under cool running water for a full twenty minutes, which is longer than instinct suggests and worth timing on your phone. Start within three hours if you can. Take off clothing or jewellery near the burn but leave anything that has stuck to it, then lay cling film loosely over the top rather than wrapping it round. Nothing else goes on it: no butter, no antiseptic cream. Leave blisters alone and skip the plasters. Go to A&E or call 999 if the burn is large or deep, or if a chemical or electricity caused it. Burns on the face need A&E too, as do burns to the genitals or bottom. For any burn on a child under five, call 111.

Head bumps are the other common one, and a cold compress is usually the whole treatment. The NHS list of reasons to call 999 after a knock to the head is worth reading before you need it, though, because several items are not obvious:

• Clear fluid coming from the ears or nose, or bleeding from the ears.
• A black eye with no blow to the eye itself.
• New numbness or weakness anywhere in the body.
• A fall from more than a metre, or down five stairs.
• A change in behaviour: more irritable, more distracted, losing interest in what is around them.
• In a baby under one, any bruise, swelling or large cut on the head.

Nosebleeds are simpler. Lean them forward, breathe through the mouth, pinch the soft part of the nose for ten minutes without letting go.

When it is an illness rather than an accident

Two of these are worth knowing by heart. For an asthma attack, sit the child up and do not let them lie down, then give one puff of the blue reliever inhaler every thirty to sixty seconds, up to ten puffs, using a spacer if there is one. Call 999 if there is no reliever to hand, if ten puffs have not helped, or at any point you are worried. The old advice to wait twenty minutes and see is out, and Asthma and Lung UK are blunt about it.

For meningitis, the single most useful sentence is this one: do not wait for a rash. The glass test still has its place, and a fever with a rash that will not fade under pressure is an emergency on its own, but a non-fading rash is a late sign and plenty of seriously ill children never develop one. Fever with cold hands and feet, severe headache, neck stiffness, dislike of bright light, or a child who is very sleepy and hard to rouse all warrant a call with no rash at all. Trust the picture of a child who is getting worse.

On medicines, including something as ordinary as Calpol, the rule is delegated authority. Your placement plan sets out what you can give without ringing anyone, and if it is not written down, you ask. Pharmacists are free and they are good at this. Promoting a child’s health day to day sits alongside this, and most of it is appointments and routines rather than emergencies.

You won’t have to do this alone

What prospective carers underestimate is how much health information arrives with the child. You get the history, the allergies, the inhaler and the name of the GP, and a looked-after child has a statutory health assessment arranged, so you are not reconstructing anyone’s medical past from guesswork. Much of this lands in the days when you are preparing to welcome a child. Your supervising social worker is on the end of a phone during the day, and GLF runs an out-of-hours line for the evenings and weekends, which is when children spike a temperature. We were inspected by Ofsted in July 2025 and rated Outstanding in all three judgements, and the part we are proudest of is the support you get as a GLF carer, because knowing someone will answer is what lets a carer stay calm in front of a frightened child. You will also find, after the first winter, that you have become the person other people in your family ask.

Nobody becomes a foster carer because they are confident about first aid. They become confident about first aid because they became a foster carer. If you are weighing up becoming a foster carer and this was the worry holding you back, it is a smaller obstacle than it feels from the outside.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a first aid qualification before I can apply to foster?

No. You do not need any qualification to enquire or apply, and we arrange paediatric first aid as part of your training after approval. The Training, Support and Development Standards give you your first year after approval to work through, and first aid sits inside them. If you already hold a certificate from work, bring it, because it counts towards your record.

What is the difference between calling 999 and calling 111?

Call 999 when something is immediately life-threatening: a child who is unresponsive, not breathing normally, choking that will not clear, bleeding you cannot stop, a severe allergic reaction, or a seizure. Call 111 when you need advice and it is not an emergency, including any burn on a child under five, and for out-of-hours questions about a child who is unwell but stable. If you are unsure, phone 999 and let them redirect you.

Can I give a child I foster paracetamol or ibuprofen?

Only if you have delegated authority to do so, which is recorded in the child’s placement plan. For most children in a long-term placement, routine over-the-counter medicine is delegated to the carer, but it is never a safe assumption. Check the plan first. If it is unclear your supervising social worker will tell you, and a pharmacist will tell you the right dose for a child of that age and weight. Never give a child medicine prescribed for someone else.