For a close protection operator, the gap between an injury and an ambulance is the job. A penetrating trauma to a principal or a bystander, a knife wound, a gunshot, a serious vehicle injury, is won or lost in the minutes before professional care arrives. Two changes in the last year have moved that window to the front of every CP medic's mind.
The Resuscitation Council UK published new first aid guidelines on 27 October 2025, its first full refresh of that guidance in several years. The headline for anyone carrying an IFAK is a change of order: life-threatening bleeding now sits alongside scene safety and casualty responsiveness at the very top of the primary assessment. In the Council's own words, you "pay immediate attention to safety, the responsiveness of the victim, and life-threatening bleeding." For penetrating trauma, stopping the bleed is the first job, not a step you reach after a full scene survey.
The escalation sequence is worth committing to memory. Direct manual pressure comes first, hard and immediate. If that does not control it, pack the wound with a haemostatic dressing and hold firm pressure. Apply a pressure dressing once the bleeding is controlled. For extremity bleeding that direct pressure cannot hold, reach for a tourniquet.
The tourniquet discipline is specific. The guidance is to "place the tourniquet around the traumatised limb 5-7cm above the injury, but not over a joint," and to "tighten the tourniquet until the bleeding slows and stops." Write the time of application down. If bleeding continues, a second tourniquet can go above the first. And once it is on, it stays on: a first aider does not release a tourniquet, that is a clinical decision for a healthcare professional, so hand the application time over clearly.
This lands alongside a higher licensing bar. The SIA's refresher training for close protection operatives has been available since 1 October 2025 and has been mandatory for licence renewal since 1 April 2026, with renewal now requiring a valid first aid qualification (training providers report a Level 3 ticket such as FAW, FPOS or FREC). If your renewal is due, get the first aid qualification in date well ahead, because providers check it at registration.
None of this replaces hands-on training. It is a prompt to check three things this week: that your IFAK carries a real haemostatic dressing and pressure bandage rather than a plaster kit, that you can place a tourniquet high, tight and off the joint under pressure, and that your first aid certificate is current against the renewal rules.
