Stroke Awareness

Stroke awareness training delivered at your workplace or online. Half a day. The recognition and response skills care and support staff need in the minutes that decide how well someone recovers.

Course Overview

During a Prima Cura session delivered in a Personal Health Budget holder’s own home, the trainer recognised the signs of a TIA in the holder’s wife while the session was still running. The response happened immediately: emergency services were called, and the situation was managed correctly, in the room, before the course had even finished. It is also a regular feature of these sessions that learners bring their own experience to the table, a parent who had a stroke, a moment they noticed something was wrong, but were not sure what to do about it. That shared experience sits at the centre of how this course is delivered.

By the time a stroke looks obvious, time has already been lost. The early signs are often subtle: a face that will not quite smile right, an arm that feels strange, a sentence that comes out wrong, and in a busy care setting, those things can be easy to miss, explain away, or wait on. This course gives care and support workers the knowledge to spot the signs quickly, respond without hesitation, and follow the right escalation steps. It is not a clinical course and does not teach diagnosis or treatment. What it does is prepare the people most likely to be first on the scene to do exactly what needs to be done in those critical first minutes.

It reflects current NHS guidance and the Stroke Association’s recommendations, and is built around the Act FAST approach from the NHS England Act FAST campaign, relaunched in November 2024. It supports the duty under CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment, which requires providers to have arrangements in place to respond appropriately to clinical and medical emergencies.

Course Details

  • Duration: Half day (2 to 3 hours)
  • Delivery: Face-to-face in-house, or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams
  • Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Stroke Awareness
  • Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
  • Validity: Refresher recommended every 1 to 2 years, or sooner where guidance updates or a stroke incident occurs within your service
  • Group size: Maximum 12 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is right for care and support staff who work directly with adults.

  • Care assistants and support workers
  • Healthcare assistants
  • Domiciliary and residential care staff
  • Supported living staff
  • Personal Assistants working under Personal Health Budgets or Direct Payments
  • Community and voluntary sector staff

Stroke does not only affect older people. One in four strokes happens to people of working age, so staff need to be ready to recognise the signs in anyone they support, not just the people who already fit the expected profile. Not sure whether this course covers what your team needs? Get in touch, and we’ll help you work it out before you commit.

Why This Training Matters

Around 100,000 people have a stroke each year in the UK, and it remains the fourth single leading cause of death, with 38,000 stroke-related deaths every year. Stroke strikes every five minutes in the UK, and the Stroke Association reports 1.4 million stroke survivors currently living with its effects, making stroke the leading cause of complex adult disability in this country. Many of those strokes happen in the presence of care workers: in residential homes, during a domiciliary visit, in supported living settings.

The NHS England Act FAST campaign, relaunched in November 2024, is built on one principle: any sign of stroke is reason enough to call 999 immediately. Face, arms, speech, time, any single sign is enough, and waiting to see whether a second sign appears wastes time that directly affects outcomes. A transient ischaemic attack produces the same signs as a full stroke and must be treated with exactly the same urgency, even where symptoms resolve within minutes. Brain cells die rapidly once the blood supply is cut off, and the sooner emergency treatment begins, the better the chance of survival and meaningful recovery.

Under CQC Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, providers must have arrangements in place to respond to clinical and medical emergencies, and staff must have the competence, skills, and experience to respond safely. Inspectors do not just check that training has happened; they assess whether staff can actually apply that knowledge when it matters. Stroke awareness is a core part of demonstrating that your team can recognise deterioration and act without delay.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects current NHS guidance and Stroke Association recommendations throughout. Topics covered include:

  • What a stroke is, how it affects the brain, and why time is the critical factor
  • Types of stroke: ischaemic and haemorrhagic
  • Transient ischaemic attack: what it is and why it is always a medical emergency
  • Causes and risk factors, including age, ethnicity, and underlying health conditions
  • Recognising signs and symptoms of stroke, including less obvious presentations
  • The Act FAST approach in practice: Face, Arms, Speech, Time
  • Responding to a suspected stroke: what to do and what not to do
  • Emergency escalation: calling 999, what to tell the operator, and recording the time of onset
  • What happens after emergency services arrive
  • Supporting individuals and families during recovery
  • Recording, reporting, and documentation following a medical emergency

Every course is also built to include your industry-specific common risks and your organisation’s incident reporting systems as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

This course is available face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue, or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Both formats are fully interactive and cover the same content.

Groups are capped at 12 to ensure every learner gets sufficient time for discussion. Every session is built around your working environment, your sector’s risks, and your internal reporting procedures. We also design each course to incorporate your specific escalation and emergency response procedures, your organisation’s documentation, and the health profiles most common in your service. If you haven’t reviewed your emergency response arrangements recently, we can guide you through what that might involve during the enquiry process.

Delivery includes:

  • Recognition-based scenarios drawn from domiciliary, residential, and supported living settings
  • Decision-making exercises around emergency response and escalation
  • Application of Act FAST in practical, realistic situations
  • Discussion of what the NHS and emergency services do next, so staff understand the full picture

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Stroke Awareness.

A refresher is recommended every 1 to 2 years, or sooner where a stroke or suspected stroke has occurred in your service, NHS or Stroke Association guidance is updated, or staff roles change and bring new responsibility for higher-risk client groups. Our Basic Life Support and AED course is a strong companion for teams who want broader emergency response skills alongside stroke recognition.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, and the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

  • 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
  • All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
  • We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 12 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

What should someone do if they suspect someone is having a stroke?

Call 999 immediately. Do not wait to see whether symptoms improve or resolve. Note the time symptoms were first observed and pass that to the 999 operator, since it directly affects which treatments are available. Stay with the person, keep them calm, do not give them anything to eat or drink, and do not leave them alone. For care-workers, follow your organisation’s emergency escalation procedures and document everything once the immediate situation is managed. This course covers all of it in detail.

What if only one or two FAST signs are present?

Call 999 anyway. The NHS Act FAST campaign is clear that any single sign of stroke is reason enough to call 999, even if it does not seem like much. The signs can be subtle in the early stages, and waiting to see whether a second or third sign appears wastes time that directly affects the outcome.

What is a TIA, and is it treated differently from a stroke?

No. A transient ischaemic attack produces the same signs as a stroke, but symptoms may resolve within minutes or hours, which is why it is sometimes called a mini-stroke. It must be treated with exactly the same urgency. A TIA is a serious warning that the brain’s blood supply has been temporarily disrupted, and the risk of a full stroke in the days that follow is significantly elevated. The Stroke Association is clear on this: do not wait to see whether the person seems fine. Act FAST, all the same.

Can stroke awareness training replace first aid training?

No. This is an awareness course focused specifically on stroke recognition and emergency response. It works alongside our Emergency First Aid at Work and First Aid at Work courses, but does not replace either of them. Organisations supporting individuals with elevated health risks will want both in place.

Related Courses

Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

If your staff may ever be the first person to notice that something is wrong with someone they support, this course is for them. Tell us your team size and your sector, and we’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

This course is reviewed against updates from NHS England, the Stroke Association, the Care Quality Commission, and current UK legislation, including the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This course provides awareness of stroke recognition and response for non-clinical care and support staff. It does not replace clinical assessment, diagnosis, or treatment. In all suspected cases of stroke or TIA, 999 emergency services must be contacted immediately. This page is for general guidance only and reflects current NHS England guidance and Stroke Association recommendations as of the date of review. It does not constitute clinical or legal advice.

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