Published: 27th November 2025.
Last updated: 27th November 2025.
Author: Cara Sherratt.

 

 

As we start our exit from 2025, a busy but exciting year, we’re proud to reflect on a year that has shown progress and positive life-saving impacts through first aid awareness and education. From initiatives that support local communities to large-scale national campaigns, this year has seen remarkable strides in empowering people with the skills and confidence to respond in emergencies. In this blog, we’ll take a quick look back at some of the key achievements from 2025.

Join us as we highlight just some of the campaigns, collaborations, and innovations that made a real difference in saving lives and strengthening community resilience.

Our achievements at St John Ambulance are only possible because of you, our supporters, delegates, workplace representatives and partners. We ask that you continue your amazing work in keeping up to date with training, adding us to donation lists or considering us for your next fundraiser. It is because of you that we can continue to save lives across the country.

 

We Set Out to Make the Biggest Difference

We kicked off the year with an ambitious goal. We wanted to make the biggest difference when it comes to the way workplaces view personal health and wellbeing. Workplace health is about so much more than just a first aid kit in the corner and a certificate in a filing cabinet. It calls for a whole-of-body approach to looking after the wellbeing of your employees. And crucially, it is also about empowerment, readiness, and protecting the people who matter most.

Therefore, we began to encourage workplaces and businesses to develop a complete, well-rounded and holistic view on healthcare for their colleagues and loved ones by completing our suite of first aid and mental health training options. Putting the power of first aid into as many hands as possible is ultimately the most effective way to increase an individual’s chances of receiving essential immediate care in a life-threatening emergency.

 

We Uncovered Hidden Signs of Mental Health

With the support of key stats from both our own research with our training delegates and through research consultants Censuswide, we demonstrated how Mental Health First Aid training is a core part of employers’ first aid needs. We highlighted that while physical injuries might be easier to spot in the workplace, the signs of mental ill health are often hidden. The costs of missing these signs are high. Each year, 18 million workdays are lost to absenteeism due to poor mental health¹. While presenteeism (being at work but not being well) costs UK businesses even more – around £24 bn² a year.

With goals to improve absenteeism and increase productivity through the proper recognition of the effects of mental health, we used these statistics to power the expansion of our mental health training suite, to ensure that decent coverage of mental health awareness, advocacy and responsive training could be delivered in any workplace environment.

 

We Tackled Mental Health in The Construction Industry

Driven by the insight that construction workers are four times more likely to die by suicide than the national average, launched an awareness campaign. This campaign featured research findings, case studies, and a limited-edition ‘Hi Vis Stress Vest’ to try to raise awareness of the impact that mental health is having in the construction industry.

 

We Asked: Are You Ready in an Emergency?

Built on the implementation of Martyn’s Law we wanted to highlight how St John Ambulance can help ensure that everyone, regardless of their direct connection to Martyn’s Law, feels confident in having the right measures in place to respond effectively and efficiently in an emergency. Watch the LinkedIn live here.

We continued to promote a holistic first aid training approach and highlighted the Mental Health impact of responding to emergencies. We shared courses that help you stay compliant including First Aid at Work, Emergency First Aid at Work, specialised FREC3 and FROS courses as well as creating a free Martyn’s Law checklist. We also shared blogs and resources that highlight the new law, the implementation requirements and timings, so that everyone can stay up to date and play their part in protecting communities, nationwide.

But we don’t just stop at compliance – we make sure your team can handle any emergency with confidence. We also offer Mental Health First Aid training to meet your duty of care requirements too.

 

We Launched an Expanded Mental Health Suite

We asked our delegates for their opinions on mental health in the workplace and found that nearly 9 out of 10 people believe trained mental health first aiders should be available in all workplaces* with almost 75% of people feeling that having trained staff would improve their workplace culture 3. Additionally, 7 out of 10 people shared that they have had a colleague confide in them about their mental health. This indicates that people are starting conversations about mental health and therefore creating opportunities where having the right skills and training could really make a difference.

Mental Health First Aiders play a vital role in creating supportive workplaces and communities. They are trained to recognise signs of mental ill health, provide initial support, and maintain confidentiality. With this in mind, we redeveloped our 2-day mental health first aid course to be more flexible with optional qualifications to allow more people to gain a deeper understanding of mental health and develop the skills to support their own and others' wellbeing in the workplace.

Additionally, we developed two more courses to sit along-side your mental health first aiders to ensure that you have a good mix of skill-sets in your workplace in addition to qualified first aiders. By combining our Mental Health Awareness and Mental Health Advocacy courses with your existing mental health suite you can create a space where mental health is not only being responded to but is being supported and cared for simultaneously – whilst fitting into tighter training budgets and without the need for multi-day training.

NEW: Mental Health First Aid 2-day

Our new two-day course equips you with the know-how to offer vital support, signpost colleagues to professional help – and create a culture of openness around wellbeing.

NEW: Mental Health Advocate Course

Our new 1-day Mental Health Advocate course empowers individuals to become visible, confident, and proactive champions for mental health in the workplace. It’s designed to complement our Mental Health First Aid training — helping organisations build cultures of early intervention, peer support and reduced stigma.

Mental Health Awareness Course

Our three-hour Mental Health Awareness course is designed to give learners a greater understanding of what mental health is and how to be more empathetic and supportive of people experiencing mental ill-health in the workplace.

 

We Gave Communities Free Training During Save a Life September

After research* showed that a third (32%) of the workforce surveyed have never had any first aid training and wouldn’t be able to support their colleagues in a crisis; further, only 61% (Q9) feel confident they could actually administer first aid in a crisis, we saw a huge gap between good intentions and practical ability. Therefore, in Save a Life September 2025 St John Ambulance aimed to teach 300,000 people how to treat choking, cardiac arrest and severe bleeding. We encouraged parents, grandparents, partners, siblings and colleagues to learn first aid, and make sure the people they care about are safe and protected.

 

We Launched an Own-Brand Defibrillator

Statistics show that when a defibrillator is used within the first 3–5 minutes of collapse, survival rates can jump to as high as 70%, compared to less than 10% without early intervention. By delivering a shock that can restart the heart’s rhythm and buying time for paramedics to arrive, defibrillators are a vital part of lifesaving first aid.

At St John Ambulance, we are proud to announce that we released our own-brand defibrillator to help save lives across the country in 2025. Offering two Automated External Defibrillators in our lineup: the HEART One and HEART Two. These devices are cutting-edge AEDs that combine compactness, robustness, reliability and affordability. They were developed in partnership with an innovative manufacturer with a clear mission – to make AEDs more accessible to everyone by improving technology and reducing cost.

 

We Developed New E-Learning Courses

This year, we expanded our learning options to include a wider range of flexible, blended learning options to suit more individuals and businesses with varying resources, budgets and time constraints. Blended Online First Aid Training offers the perfect balance of online learning and practical classroom sessions, designed to save time without compromising quality. Ideal for:

• Businesses who want legally compliant, high-quality training with less time in the classroom

• Ideal for experienced first aiders looking to requalify their certificates

• Staff members who need first aid qualifications that meet the right standards but want the flexibility of learning in their own time.
  
  

Selecting the right first aid training depends on workplace needs and this year we have done our best to provide a range of options that ensure valuable life-saving training remains accessible to as many people as possible. Our First Aid at Work course offers comprehensive skills for higher-risk environments, while Emergency First Aid at Work is ideal for low-risk workplaces such as offices, shops, and hospitality.

Whichever course you choose, our blended learning option makes training more convenient than ever. Your team completes interactive theory online, at their own pace and from any location, before attending an expert-led practical session to build real hands-on confidence.

This year was without a doubt a wonderfully busy year. We covered a range of topics and provided countless resources that we hope make a real difference in communities. We remain dedicated to ensuring that we are continuing to put the power of first aid into as many hands as possible, while supporting workplace mental and physical health.

The work we do here at St John Ambulance could not be possible without the support of our delegates, partners, volunteers, trainers, donors and every single person that interacts with us.

To support us in 2026 to continue the life-saving work that we strive to complete, please consider making a donation, purchasing your supplies with us, representing us in your next fundraiser, booking further training or even by leaving a lasting legacy by nominating us in your will.  

We hope you have a great end of year and onwards into 2026. Once again, thank you to everyone who continues to support us and engage with the work we do, so that we can continue saving lives far into the future.

See what impact you have, here:

 

 

* The research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 2002 UK Employees (16+). The data was collected between 11.07.2025 - 17.07.2025. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.

† Conducted by St John Ambulance in February 2025 with 4,300 training course delegates.

* Commissioned by St John Ambulance and conducted by Censuswide in February 2025 with 505 UK HR Directors.

 

Sources

1 https://www.britsafe.org/safety-management/2024/18-million-work-days-lost-each-year-to-poor-mental-health
2 http://deloitte.com/uk/en/about/press-room/poor-mental-health-costs-uk-employers-51-billion-a-year-for-employees.html
3 Commissioned by St John Ambulance and conducted by Censuswide in February 2025 with 1,001 actively employed UK respondents.